Stage direction

Herbert Föttinger

Herbert Föttinger was born in Vienna, where he attended private acting classes. After initial engagements in Hof, Detmold, Hildesheim, Graz and at the Volkstheater in Vienna, he joined the ensemble of the Theater in der Josefstadt in 1993, where he made his debut as Alfred in »Geschichten aus dem Wiener Wald«, directed by Karlheinz Hackl. This was followed by a large number of leading roles, such as Jaromir in Hofmannsthal's »Der Unbestechliche«, Serge in »Kunst«, the Colonel in »Jacobowsky und der Oberst«, Flottwell in Raimund's »Der Verschwender«, Sigismund in Calderón's »Das Leben ein Traum«, Don Juan in Frisch's »Don Juan oder die Liebe zur Geometrie«, Jean in »Fräulein Julie«, Benedikt in »Viel Lärm um Nichts«, Gregers in »Die Wildente«, the title role in Molnár's »Liliom«, Rappelkopf in »Der Alpenkönig und der Menschenfeind«, Mack the Knife in »Die Dreigroschenoper«, the title role in »Amphitryon«, Torvald Helmer in »Nora«, Vicomte de Valmont in »Gefährliche Liebschaften« and all the male roles in Schnitzler's »Reigen«.

In addition, Herbert Föttinger played the role of Benjamin Rubin in the first performance of Daniel Kehlmann's »Der Mentor« and Sigmund Freud in the first performance of Christopher Hampton's »Eine dunkle Begierde«. In 2012, Herbert Föttinger was awarded the Austrian honorary title of »Österreichischer Kammerschauspieler«.

Alongside his acting commitments at the Theater in der Josefstadt, he was also responsible for his own productions (»Talk Radio«, »Die Bernfeld-Revue«) and was regularly involved in socially critical projects such as »Schlussstrich« (speeches by Austrian politicians about the Jewish question) or »Künstler an der Macht«.

Herbert Föttinger has also worked as a director since the 2004/2005 season. At the Theater in der Josefstadt, where he has been Artistic Director since 2006, he has so far staged such works as Nestroy's »Kampl« with Helmuth Lohner and Otto Schenk, »Das vierte Gebot«, the first performances of Peter Turrini's »Mein Nestroy«, »Endlich Schluss« and »Aus Liebe« plus »Der Diener zweier Herren«, »Nächstes Jahr – gleiche Zeit«, »Die Buddenbrooks«, »Halpern & Johnson«, »Der blaue Engel«, »Geschichten aus dem Wiener Wald«, the first performance of Daniel Kehlmann's »Der Mentor«, »Die Schüsse von Sarajevo«, »Anatol« and the first performance of Ödön von Horváth's »Niemand«.

He made his debut as an opera director with »Fidelio« at the Theater an der Wien in 2013, and also directed »La mère coupable« at the same theatre in 2015. At the Gärtnerplatztheater, he directed Mozart’s »Don Giovanni« in 2017 and Verdi’s »Rigoletto« in 2019/20.