2006. Dramaturgy
There are no coincidences.
Could it really be pure coincidence that Dr. Peter Vitz, mentioned above, who years earlier in Brussels provided me with the invaluable contact to the conductor Peter Jan Marthé, was born in the same town as my desired actor for the Abbot in Bruckner's Ninth Symphony?
In any case, Vitz spontaneously arranged an appointment for me with the supposedly difficult Austrian actor Klaus Maria Brandauer in his penthouse in Vienna.
In any case, that first of December 2006 was a memorable day in my life and a demonstration of acting genius: Brandauer only read a short excerpt from my finished film concept – never before have I seen anyone recite an unfamiliar text so impressively from the floor as this divinely gifted Austrian actor. If cell phones with cameras had existed back then and I had been allowed to record it, it could easily have served as the planned trailer for my film.
sinfonìa visìbile in re minore rigeneratione bruckner halten und so unschnitt
send. I still get goosebumps when I think of that memorable moment.
Professor Brandauer put the script aside, glanced at me briefly, jumped up, and then toasted me with a hastily procured shot of Styrian schnapps for this moment, which he too seemed to find exciting, and then suddenly suggested that instead of a profane film, a dramatic theatrical adaptation of this material should be staged, in the style of Peter Shaffer's Amadeus.
How right he was, after all, BRUCKNER'S NINTH is a combination of orchestra, drama and film.
Brandauer's skillful attention to form deeply shames me in retrospect, especially since at that time he was rehearsing his text-intensive, difficult main role in Schiller's Wallenstein, something I, as a young Legenstein, could not have known.
After that meeting, I was very optimistic from then on, because, as is well known, Brandauer is not so easily satisfied artistically. But it's an incredibly good feeling to have such a talented actor and director at your side, behind whom you gladly take a back seat in such a daring artistic project – to marvel and learn.
Whether Brandauer, as I solemnly offered in his penthouse in Vienna, will ultimately be the hysterical abbot in my symfonìa visìbile I sincerely wish for him to play.
Let's wait and see, then we'll see...
