Austrian musical theatre awards – 2015 winners

Winner of Best Production – Sweeney Todd at the Volksoper, Vienna

Just one day after the Tony Awards were held, the third Austrian musical theatre awards, known as der österreichische Musiktheaterpreis, were presented at the current home of Disney’weeney Mary Poppins, the Ronacher.

Unlike the Tonys, these awards are dedicated to both musical theatre and opera. Here is the full list of winners:

Lifetime Achievement Award: Neil Shicoff

Best Festival: Wiener Festwochen

Best Set and Costume Design: Peter J. Davison (sets) and Uta Loher and Conny Lüders (costumes) for der Besuch der alten Dame, Ronacher and Gideon Davey for Platée at the Theater an der Wien.

Best Ballet Production: Hamburg Ballet/John Neumeier, Die Kameliendame at the Theater an der Wien.

Best Production: Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, Volksoper, Vienna.

Best Male Singer in a Leading Role: Jochen Schmeckenbecher as Don Quixote/Cervantes in The Man of La Mancha, Bühne Baden.

Best Male Singer in a Supporting Role: Bo Skovhus as Nick Shadow in Rake’s Progress, Theater an der Wien.

Best Male Newcomer: Alexey Birkus as Gremin in Eugene Onegin at the Salzburger Landestheater.

Best Musical Director: Hans Graf, Feuersnot at the Volksoper, Vienna.

Best Director: Damiano Micheletto, Idomeneo, Theater an der Wien.

Best Female Singer in a Leading Role: Jennifer Maines as Kundry in Parsifal, Tiroler Landestheater.

Best Female Singer in a Supporting Role: Bernadett Fodor as Erda in Das Rheingold, Landestheater Linz.

Best Female Newcomer: Dshamilja Kaiser as Leonor de Guzman, La Favorite, Opera Graz.

The Orf III (linked tithe TV channel that aired the ceremony live) was awarded to Piotr Beczala.

For the first time, the newspaper Kurier gave readers the opportunity to vote for the Krone Musicalpreis. This was awarded to the renowned Uwe Kröger (der Besuch der alten Dame, The Sound of Music).

The evening was hosted by Christoph Wagner-Trenkwitz and featured musical appearances from Herbert Lippert singing ‘Maria’ from West Side Story, Mara Mastalir performing a song from the operetta Paganini, Vincent Schirrmacher singing ‘Nessun Dorma’, all accompanied by Koen Schoots as musical director and the orchestra of the Vereinigte Bühnen Wien.

Karl-Michael Ebner, singer and artistic director at the Musikfestival Steyr, launched the award with help of a board consisting of musical theatre professionals. This year saw the arrival of a new board member, the internationally famous Daniel Serafin.

www.musiktheaterpreis.at