Katharina Thalbach


Katharina Thalbach is a German actress and stage director. She played theater at the Berliner Ensemble and at the, and was an actress in the film The Tin Drum. She worked as a theater and opera director.

Life and work

Born in East Berlin, Katharina Thalbach's father Benno Besson was a director, her mother Sabine Thalbach, was an actress. Her half-brother Pierre Besson and her stepmother Ursula Karusseit are actors as well.
At the age of four, Thalbach was playing children's roles on stage, on television, and in films. After the death of her mother in 1966, Helene Weigel took her under her care. In 1967, she made her debut as the whore Betty in Erich Engel's production of Brecht's Dreigroschenoper. She completed her Abitur at the Max-Planck-Oberschule. She obtained her stage maturity examination as a master student of Helene Weigel, Berliner Ensemble. Thalbach played at the Berliner Ensemble and at the Volksbühne Berlin, where her father worked as artistic director.
In 1976, Thalbach moved with her partner Thomas Brasch to West Germany, because he was protesting against Wolf Biermann's expatriation. In West Berlin, she made her debut at the Schillertheater. She acted as a guest star in Hans Lietzau's production of Hauptmann's Der Biberpelz and in Jürgen Flimm's production of Kleist's Das Käthchen von Heilbronn, for which she was voted actress of the year by Theater heute in 1980. She had success with the role of Maria in Volker Schlöndorff's 1979 film adaptation of Grass' sThe Tin Drum. In 1984, she performed the Ophelia in Shakespeare's Hamlet in Zürich.
Since 1987, she worked as a director. Her break through was the award-winning production Macbeth. Since 1997, she was opera director, with productions of Mozart's Don Giovanni and Janáček's The cunning little Vixen in Berlin.

Personal life

Thalbach's partner Thomas Brasch was an author. Her daughter Anna from a former relationship with and her granddaughter are actresses. She is married to Uwe Hamacher. She lives in Berlin.

Awards

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Memberships

Filmography

Source:Johannes Kepler The Blue Light It is an Old StorySchlaraffenlandLotte in Weimar' The Second Awakening of Christa Klages Winterspelt The Tin Drum

Theatre and opera

Actress

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Director

Source:Macbeth Mann ist Mann and Dreigroschenoper Der Hauptmann von Köpenick and Romeo und Julia Das schlaue Füchslein and Der Barbier von Sevilla Don Giovanni Salome, Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny, Rigoletto Hänsel und Gretel and Aida Die Fledermaus Fidelio Im Dickicht der Städte Die Zauberflöte The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui