Michael Kunze
Michael Kunze | |
---|---|
Librettist, songwriter, author | |
Years active | 1965–present |
Website | http://michaelkunze.info/ |
Michael Rolf Kunze (born 9 November 1943, in Prague) is a foremost German
He is best known for the hit musicals (2006).
He has also written the lyrics for a number of hit songs (under the pseudonym Stephan Prager), including the number one
Early life
Born in
Early career
Kunze started writing music and lyrics during his high school years in the early sixties. The Hamburg folklore group, City Preachers, recorded an LP with some of those early songs. The record was anything but a commercial success, but it made the music business aware of Michael Kunze. The first song Kunze produced with Peter Maffay, a 20-year-old newcomer, was called "Du" (English Translation: "You"). It topped the German charts in the summer of 1970 and went gold.
His recordings dominated the 1970s music charts in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. When he produced his first international act, he hit both the top of the Billboard and Cashbox charts in the U.S. with the song, "Fly, Robin, Fly".[2]
His group, Silver Convention, represented by composer Sylvester Levay and Michael Kunze himself, influenced disco music and was the first German aggregation ever to win the coveted
In 1981, Kunze stopped working as a producer but continued to write lyrics for top artists. Taking a temporary hiatus from show business, he wrote the book Highroad to the Stake: A Tale of Witchcraft (German Title: Strasse ins Feuer).[3] It was translated into several languages; The New York Times called it "a vivid story of a witch."[4] He wrote a second book, Give Way To Freedom (German Title: Der Freiheit eine Gasse) on the 1848 democratic revolution in Southern Germany.[5]
Later career
In the 1980s, the musical began making its way into the center of Kunze's activities. First, he adapted
Kunze also started working for television. He conceived and wrote several, 90-minute shows for the major German and Austrian networks (Liebe ist .../ZDF, Sport Gala/ARD, Weil wir leben wollen /ZDF) and developed the ARD Series Showgeschichten. In 1991, he conceived the international Peter Ustinov Gala in Paris, celebrating
With the annual
Current career
Since the 1990s, Kunze is creating original musicals in his own style. In September 1992, his musical
Collaborating with Roman Polanski (director) and Jim Steinman (composer), Kunze wrote his first English libretto and lyrics for the musical, Dance of the Vampires.[8] In October 1997, a German version opened at the Viennese Raimund Theater. On 3 March 2000, the show was transferred to Stuttgart, Germany. In December 2003, it opened in Hamburg, where it ran for another three years before opening in Berlin. The show also reached Broadway, where, despite Kunze's protests, an unauthorized version ran, for three months. It is currently running in Warsaw, Stuttgart, Vienna, Budapest and Tokyo.[9]
Kunze's Mozart! (music: Sylvester Levay; director: Harry Kupfer), dramatizing the famous composer's life, premiered in October 1999 in Vienna (Theater an der Wien). It continues to play and run in Hamburg, Germany; Karlstad, Sweden; Tokyo, Japan; and Budapest, Hungary.
In 2006, two new Michael Kunze musicals opened. While
In September 2009, Kunze gave the keynote speech at Second European Conference of the Musical Theater Educators Alliance International, "A Tale of Two Cities", in Hamburg, Germany.[10]
His musicals are considered the foundation of a new genre in contemporary musical theater, called the Drama Musical. Its dramatic structure integrates elements of the film structure into the classic two-act drama form.[11]
Awards
- 56 gold records
- 23 platinum records
- Grammy Award for Fly, Robin, Fly, music by Sylvester Levay(1975)
- Paul-Lincke-Ring (1989)
- Goldene Feder des Deutschen Textdichter-Verbandes (1991)
- Heinz-Bolten-Baeckers-Preis of the GEMA-Stiftung (1993)
- Musical of the Year Award for Mozart! (musical) (2000)
- Musical of the Year Award for Elisabeth(2001)
- ECHOLifetime Award (2005)
- Musical of the Year Award for Rebecca (musical) (2007)
- German Music Authors' Awards (2010)[12]
Major works
Adaptations
- 1980 – "I Love My Wife" German version (Theater Oberhausen)
- 1981 – "Evita" German version (Theater an der Wien)
- 1983 – "Cats" German version (Theater an der Wien)
- 1985 – "Le Cochon" (Le Cochon qui voulait maigrir) German version (Burgtheater Vienna)
- 1985 – "Song and Dance" German version (Deutsches Theater, Munich)
- 1986 – "A Chorus Line" German version (Raimundtheater)
- 1986 – "Little Shop of Horrors" German version (Szene Wien)
- 1987 – "Wodka-Cola" (Leave it to Me) German version (Staatstheater Stuttgart)
- 1988 – "The Phantom of the Opera" German version (Theater an der Wien)
- 1988 – "Avos!" German version (Stadttheater, Grosses Haus, Freiburg)
- 1989 – "Czechow" German version (Theaterfestival Konstanz)
- 1990 – "Into the Woods" German version (Stadttheater, Heilbronn)
- 1991 – "Follies" German version (Theater des Westens, Berlin)
- 1992 – "Dorian Gray" German version (Stadttheater, Heilbronn)
- 1993 – "Assassins" German version (Stadttheater, Heilbronn)
- 1993 – "Kiss of the Spider Woman" German version (Raimundtheater)
- 1995 – "City of Angels" German version (Stadttheater, Heilbronn)
- 1995 – "Sunset Boulevard" German version (Rhein-Main-Theater, Niedernhausen)
- 1996 – "Aspects of Love" German version (Staatsoperette, Dresden)
- 1999 – "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" German version (Musicaltheater Berlin)
- 2001 – "The Lion King" German version (Hafentheater Hamburg)
- 2002 – "Mamma Mia!" German version (Operettenhaus Hamburg)
- 2003 – "Wicked" German version (Palladiumtheater Stuttgart)
Original musicals
- 1991 – "Hexen Hexen" (Sylvester Levay) Deutschhof, Heilbronn, 15 June
- 1992 – Elisabeth(Levay) Theater an der Wien, 3 September
- 1997 – Tanz der Vampire(Jim Steinman) Raimund Theater, 4 October
- 1999 – Mozart! Das Musical(Levay) Theater an der Wien, 2 October
- 2006 – Marie Antoinette (Levay) Imperial Theatre, Tokyo, 7 January
- 2006 – Rebecca (Levay) Raimund Theater, Vienna, 3 September
- 2014 – Lady Bess (Levay) Imperial Theater, Tokyo, 13 April
References
- ^ "Culture, Nature and Beer", Billboard, pp. 65–66, 6 June 1998
- ^ "The Silver Convention Biography". Billboard.
- ^ Flanagan, Thomas (12 November 2001), "Book Review Kunze, Michael. Highroad to the Stake", King's College History Department
- ^ Doniger O'Flaherty, Wendy (19 April 1987). "Agony and Apostasy". New York Times.
- ^ "Books". Michael Kunze.
- ^ "Adaptations". Michael Kunze. Archived from the original on 7 May 2019. Retrieved 11 December 2010.
- ^ "Musical "Elisabeth"". The Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan. Archived from the original on 1 August 2010.
- ^ "Dance of the Vampires Librettist Michael Kunze Reveals Changes for Broadway". Playbill. Archived from the original on 14 December 2010.
- ^ "Chihiro Otsuka and Rina Chinen to star in 'Dance of the Vampires'". Japan Today. 27 June 2010.
- ^ Tale of Two Cities (PDF), European Conference of the Musical Theater Educators Alliance International, archived from the original (PDF) on 19 July 2011
- ^ "The Making of a Drama Musical 1. Composition", Drama Musicals
- ^ Spahr,Wolfgang (16 April 2010), "GEMA To Honor Michael Kunze", Encyclopedia of Things
External links
- michaelkunze.info Official Site
- storyarchitekt.com Official Site
- Michael Kunze's blog
- Michael Kunze's Drama Musicals
- Michael Kunze at the Internet Broadway Database
- Broadway World West End Interview: Writer And Interpreter Michael Kunze
- Broadway World West End: "German Music Authors' Awards to Honor Lyricist Michael Kunze"
- Broadway World West End:"REBECCA: Author, Lyricist And Translator Michael Kunze Opens Website To Questions"
- Playbill.com Celebrity Buzz: Michael Kunze
- The Playwrights Database, Michael Kunze
- Official website (in German)
- Official fan portal (in German)
- Offizieller Rebecca Fanclub (in German)