Austrian actor and opera, stage, theatre and film director Otto Schenk was born in Vienna on 12 June 1930. After studying law for a year in Vienna, he switched to acting, which he studied at the Max Reinhardt Seminar, also in Vienna.
He began his acting career at the Theater der Jugend in Vienna, and was soon appearing at other theatres and also as a comedian, He began directing in 1953 - particularly absurd theatre works by Samuel Beckett and Eugene Ionesco. He directed his first opera, The Magic Flute, in 1957, for the Salzburger Landestheater, and was really noticed in 1962, when he directed Alban Berg's Lulu at the Theater an der Wien.
During the 1960s, 70s and 80s his assignments included opera directing work for Vienna State Opera, Austrian TV, Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Covent Garden, Berlin State Opera, Bavarian State Opera, Hamburg State Opera and New York Metropolitan Opera, where he directed a production of Wagner's Ring which was used until 2009. In 2010 he revived his Rosenkavalier production at Vienna State Opera.
Otto Schenk died at his lake house near Lake Irrsee in Salzkammergut, Oberhofen am Irrsee on 9 January 2025, aged ninety-four.
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