Alexander von Pfeil | © Elsa Okazaki
Teacher

Univ.-Prof.

Alexander von Pfeil

Univ.-Prof. for Musical Dramatic Representation (scenic)Department Opera & Musical Theatre

Alexander von Pfeil studied musical theatre directing at the Hamburg University of Music and Theatre with Götz Friedrich. His directing work has taken him to Kiel, Düsseldorf-Duisburg, Meiningen, Bielefeld, Aachen, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Hamburg State Opera, Freiburg, Oldenburg, Gelsenkirchen, Würzburg, Biel/Solothurn, Koblenz and the Landestheater Linz.

The operas he has staged include great works of the repertoire (Orfeo ed Euridice, L'elisir d'amore, Carmen, Les contes d'Hoffmann, Rigoletto, La forza del destino, Falstaff, Tannhäuser, Tristan und Isolde, Faust, Rusalka, Madama Butterfly, Salome, Arabella, Das schlaue Füchslein) as well as a large number of rarely performed works and rarities (Piccinni's La Cecchina, Alfano's Cyrano de Bergerac, Donna Diana von Reznicek, Meyerbeer's Le prophète) and works of the 20th century (from Schönberg's Pierrot to the opera of the same name). He has performed works of the 20th century (from Schönberg's Pierrot lunaire to Weill's The Seven Deadly Sins, Britten's The Rape of Lucretia and Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex to songbooks by Cage) and world premieres such as Sidney Corbett's Ubu.

In addition to his staging activities, he has been a lecturer in scenic teaching at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts and in directing at the Hanns Eisler University of Music Berlin (guest professorship) since 2013.

Since 2016 he has been Professor of Music Dramatic Performance at the University Mozarteum Salzburg, where he leads a class in the Master's programme Opera/Music Theatre. At the Mozarteum University he has so far worked on Carmen, Eugene Onegin, Gianni Schicchi, Alcina, La finta semplice, Reigen, Les contes d'Hoffmann, Owen Wingrave, Winterreise, La clemenza di Tito, the Faust Scenes project, Faust, L'incoronazione di Poppea and Albert Herring.