Nikolaus Habjan on his Georg Kreisler evening: the crisis of meaning of a soubrette

Created: 04/03/2022, 16:30

By: Markus Thiel

"The fact that Lady Bug is a doll doesn't suit her ego": Nikolaus Habjan and his leading actress in "Everything is not true".

© Werner Kmetitsch/Photowerk.at

His puppets are truthful in a satirical to monstrous way.

And Nikolaus Habjan's creatures also like to be very independent - as can be seen in "Everything is not true".

A program with songs by Georg Kreisler, which will soon be making a guest appearance at Gärtnerplatz.

The Musikbanda Franui will be there.

Habjan, who was born in Graz in 1987, studied music theater direction, works as an artistic whistler and has already staged several operas, including Weber's "Oberon" for the Bavarian State Opera.

You once said that you grew up with Kreisler.

How are you confronted with such songs as a child?

My parents often drove to Greece with my sister and I.

We listened to cassettes – also with songs by Kreisler.

At school we once had to sing our favorite song.

So I took Poison Pigeons in the Park.

The teacher didn't think it was great.

My parents were summoned to her.

And she said to them, "Your son has expressed a musical desire to torture animals."

And this Kreisler love has remained.

Exactly.

I find his songs so incredibly prophetic.

Some look as if they are related to the Ukraine war, Corona or climate change.

In "Vienna without Viennese" there is the line of text: "Maybe there's a nice angina somewhere that a benefactor exports, how nice would Vienna be without Viennese".

There are some who have sung or adapted Kreisler's songs.

How hard is it to break free from his singing style, his sound?

I really wanted it to sound like Kreisler in our program.

But I never wanted to imitate him.

You can't do that, he's too brilliant for that.

The hardest part is catching that typical mix of speaking and singing.

Kreisler was also famous for throwing punch lines with that wicked grin.

Because we have a doll with us, things are different anyway.

So you hear a Kreisler song, but not his voice.

It is always said that this black humorous Kreisler is typically Austrian.

To what extent is that also a cliché?

This humor is particularly widespread in Vienna.

Especially the lust for death.

On nice days, people like to go for a walk at the Central Cemetery.

Kreisler's punchlines also hurt like crazy, precisely because they happen to incredibly funny music.

“Poisoning pigeons in the park” is actually about killing pests, i.e. genocide.

There is an aging soubrette in your Kreisler program.

Is that the only doll?

It's Lady Bug, who claims to be a great soubrette.

For 17 years she has been touring with a Kreisler recital.

And during our program she realizes she's a doll.

That's why the evening is also called "Everything is not true".

There is a serious crisis of meaning, the song recital crumbles more and more.

And it comes to the big confrontation with me: The fact that Lady Bug is a doll doesn't suit her ego.

So very real.

Divas can't find their way out of their artist and art existence.

And not just in opera, think Michael Jackson.

Here the artificial figure had practically taken over the human being.

This is beyond problematic.

Lady Gaga should no longer have a normal everyday life.

It's important that as an artist you draw a dividing line.

It's easy for me as a puppeteer.

I take the doll off my hand and it's fine.

Your advantage: Dolls are allowed to take even more risks than humans.

Sure, the tolerance towards dolls is greater.

Lady Bug, for example, is an incredibly unfriendly character.

She is mean to the audience if, for example, a scarf doesn't fit her.

Although I have to say: I really like the audience.

If you have this strange need to get on stage, you want to entertain people - even with the worst subject.

I'll say it quite frankly: I'm a stage pig.

So you used to be class president.

deputy.

At school I was initially more of a quirky outsider.

Does the audience fight back?

You moderated the opening program of the Bregenz Festival with your puppets and ripped off the then Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz.

He didn't gossip, was mad as hell and complained very hard twice.

He doesn't seem to have a sense of humor.

On the one hand, I found this incredibly ridiculous because these jokes weren't that bad.

No attack, basically just a tip.

And in view of the chats incriminating him, on the other hand, one has to say: if one gets into such waters, one should expect that one will be satirically addressed in public.

Politicians have to put up with it - like me, bad reviews.

You are staging more and more for musical theater.

Does that mean: first the opera made use of theatrical directors, then the cinema, now the puppets are coming?

It can be.

I think that in opera you are maneuvering yourself into a dead end.

I'm missing the joy of theater more and more.

And there is increasing discussion in the theater about what is no longer allowed to be done instead of simply risking something.

The theater must remain a free space.

The problem is that you bring more and more reality to the stage.

The theater is a processing reality.

Truth must be the goal, not reality.

Dolls are perfect for that.

I don't always use them in the opera, my "Tosca" in Dortmund managed without them.

A piece like this is perfect all around, it doesn't need any help.

Besides, I don't just want to be the doll Habjan.

The interview was conducted by Markus Thiel.

Performances

on April 8th, 9th and 10th,

phone 089/ 21 85 19 60.