Artistic Director
Josef E. Köpplinger
Josef E. Köpplinger was born in Lower Austria. He studied at the Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna and attended seminars in New York and London.
He got his first permanent position from Marietheres List at the City Theatre in Regensburg. His directing career brought him from Vienna via Germany to Switzerland, to France, Italy, England, America and Japan. His repertory includes all categories of drama from opera to operetta and musicals. For the Musical Festival at Prugg Castle (Lower Austria) he was appointed as the youngest artistic director in Austria. In 2004-2007 he was drama director at the theatre in St Gallen. In 2005 he was able to initiate the St Gallen Authorsʼ Week drama competition and, in addition, helped to found the St Gallen Festival. From 2007 to 2012 Josef E. Köpplinger was artistic director of Klagenfurt Theatre. In 2009 he founded the MUT competition for musical entertainment theatre and staged, among other plays, the premieres of Peter Turriniʼs »Sylvester« and from the missing Cherubini opera »Koukourgi« which was broadcast live by 3Sat.
In addition to his international guest lecturing activities, his productions of opera, drama and musicals, some of them award-winning, have been staged at the Graz Opera, the Kammerspiele Berlin, the Volkstheater Vienna, the Opéra national du Rhin Strasbourg, the Aalto-Theater Essen, the Hamburg State Opera, the Theater in der Josefstadt Vienna, the Volksoper Vienna, the Théâtre du Capitole Toulouse, the Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona, the Vienna State Opera, the Staatstheater Nuremberg, the Bonn Opera, the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and the Semperoper Dresden.
Starting with the 2012/2013 season, Josef E. Köpplinger assumed artistic direction of Gärtnerplatztheater and has since then staged, among other things, »Im weißen Rössl«, »Anything Goes«, the premiere of Friedrich Cerhaʼs »Onkel Präsident«, »Man of La Mancha«, the continental premiere of »Chitty Chitty Bang Bang«, »Die Zirkusprinzessin«, »Cinderella«, the world premiere of the new musical »Gefährliche Liebschaften« by Marc Schubring and Wolfgang Adenberg, »Singinʼ in the Rain«, »A Little Night Music«, »Viktoria und ihr Husar«, the world premiere of Johanna Dodererʼs opera »Liliom« for which he also wrote the libretto, »Die Faschingsfee«, »Jesus Christ Superstar«, »Die lustige Witwe«, »My Fair Lady«, the world premiere of the new operetta »Drei Männer im Schnee« by Thomas Pigor, »On the Town«, »Nunsense«, the world premiere of Johanna Dodererʼs and Peter Turrini’s opera »Schuberts Reise nach Atzenbrugg«, »Il barbiere di Siviglia«, »Mozart muss sterben«, »Die Fledermaus, »La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein, »Le nozze di Figaro« and »Die Zauberflöte«.
In 2012 the Munich press designated him as the »Abendzeitung Star of the Year« and awarded his team the »Tageszeitung Rose Bouquet«. In 2013 he was awarded the Bavarian Culture Prize, and in 2014 he received a second »Abendzeitung Star of the Year« for »Die Zirkusprinzessin«. In 2018 Josef E. Köpplinger was awarded the Kulturpreis der Bayerischen Landesstiftung, in 2019 the »Deutsche Musical Theater Preis« for the staging of »Drei Männer im Schnee« and in 2020 the »Orpheus-Nadel« for special merits in the genre of operetta. In 2024, his production of »Die Zauberflöte« was awarded a third »Abendzeitung Star of the Year«.
In 2012, he received the »AZ-Stern des Jahres« from the Munich press and, together with his team, the »tz-Rosenstrauß«, followed by the Bavarian Culture Prize in 2013. Another »AZ-Stern des Jahres« followed in 2014 for the production of »Die Zirkusprinzessin«, and in 2018 he was awarded the Bavarian State Foundation’s Culture Prize. In 2019, Josef E. Köpplinger was awarded the »Deutscher Musical Theater Preis« for his production of the world premiere of »Drei Männer im Schnee«, in 2020 he received the »Orpheus Nadel« for special services to the operetta genre and in 2024 a third »AZ-Stern des Jahres« for his production of »Die Zauberflöte«. He was also awarded the Bavarian Constitutional Order and the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art I Class in 2024.