German Music Authors' Awards to Honor Lyricist Michael Kunze

The German Music Authors' Awards will honor lyricist and librettist Michael Kunze, presented on April 22 at the Axica building in Berlin. Kunze is the recipient of 23 platinum records, 56 gold records, and a Grammy Award.

Kunze has written successful translations of the works of Andrew Lloyd Webber (Evita, Cats, Phantom of the Opera, Aspects of Love, Sunset Boulevard) and above all, of Stephen Sondheim (Company, Follies, Into the Woods), have brought him renown in the field. Likewise he is credited with the German versions of A Chorus Line, Little Shop of Horrors, Kiss of the Spider Woman, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Lion King, Mamma Mia!, and Elton John's Aida.
Since the beginning of the 1990s, Kunze has written several of his own musicals. In 1990, together with his friend Sylvester Levay, he produced Hexen, Hexen, and in 1992, Elisabeth, which played for more than four years at the Theater an der Wien. This was followed by Tanz der Vampire (with Roman Polanski, music by Jim Steinman) and Mozart!.

More recent works include a play entitled Lenya (premiered at the Kurt-Weill-Fest in Dessau, 2002); an American opera, Raoul (music: Gershon Kingsley); and the German version of the Karel Svoboda musical Dracula, which had its premiere at the Musicaltheater, Basel, on 30 April 2004.

In 2006 two new Michael Kunze musicals opened. Rebecca (music: Sylvester Levay), based on Daphne Du Maurier's famous novel, premiered on September 28 at Vienna's Raimund Theater. Critics praised it as "a dream of a musical" (Variety magazine) and the audience response made it into an immediate box office success. Rebecca was directed by the distinguished opera director Francesca Zambello.

In November, 2006, Marie Antoinette, Kunze's musical dramatizing the events of the French Revolution, opened at Tokyo's prestigious Imperial Theatre. Again Sylvester Levay wrote the music for this highly emotional drama musical. It was directed by Tamiya Kuriyama, chief director of Japan's New National Theatre. Kunze regards Marie Antoinette as his greatest artistic achievement yet. The show ran in Tokyo, Fukuoka, Osaka and, from April through May 2007, once more in Tokyo.

Photo Credit: Alexander Wulz