Biography

In her work, Sabine Hartmannshenn emphasises authenticity and detailed characterisation. At the same time, she consistently focuses on the music. Her first production was Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro at the Teatro Colón in Bogotá, Colombia's national theatre. She celebrated major international successes with Der Kaiser von Atlantis and Die sieben Todsünden at the Théâtre She celebrated major international successes with Der Kaiser von Atlantis and Die sieben Todsünden at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels, after which both productions were also shown in Antwerp, Liège, Lisbon, Tel Aviv and at the festival in Sarajevo, among other places. As well as Lulu in Gothenburg and Werther in Oslo.

Hartmannshenn lives in Cologne, where she initially studied musicology, German language and literature, and philosophy. She also took singing and piano lessons. After completing her studies, she worked as a stage manager, assistant director and evening performance manager at the Cologne Opera. She assisted Willy Decker in many productions, which she then restaged at many important theatres around the world. She also worked with directors such as John Dew, Michael Hampe, Harry Kupfer and Kurt Horres. Parallel to her work as a director, she held a teaching position for several semesters in ‘Scenic Instruction’ at the Cologne University of Music. A visiting professorship took her to the Dortmund University of Applied Sciences in the Department of Design "Scenography‘. Since 2010, she has been a lecturer for ’Scenic Instruction" at the Robert Schumann University of Music in Düsseldorf.

In addition, Sabine Hartmannshenn is regularly engaged by renowned opera houses in Germany and abroad, including the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, the Houston Grand Opera, the Hamburg State Opera and the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen. Among other productions, she has staged Don Giovanni at the Bremen Opera, Salome at the Freiburg Theatre, Cosi fan tutte, Lucia di Lammermoor and Banditenstreiche at the Kassel State Theatre, and Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci at the Lübeck Opera. Among other things, she has staged Don Giovanni at the Bremen Opera, Salome at the Theatre in Freiburg, Cosi fan tutte, Lucia di Lammermoor and Banditenstreiche at the Kassel State Theatre, and Cavalleria rusticana/I Pagliacci and Liebermann's Schule der Frauen in Lübeck. Her highly acclaimed production of Lulu at the Gothenburg Opera was voted ‘Production of the Year 2002’ in Sweden by critics. The English trade magazine ‘Opera Now’ attested that her Gothenburg production was the most worthwhile Lulu production in Europe in the 2001/2002 season. The Den Norske Opera in Oslo took on her Werther, which she had staged at the Nuremberg Theatre. Other successful productions included Hans Werner Henze's opera Phaedra at the Opera am Rhein Düsseldorf/Duisburg as a contribution to the Capital of Culture 2010 and Handel's opera Rinaldo at the Cologne Opera.

Important productions in recent years include: Verdi's Falstaff at the German National Theatre in Weimar, The Rake's Progress at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Puccini's Trittico at the Cologne Opera, Peter Grimes at the Hamburg State Opera and Lohengrin at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein. Sabine Hartmannshenn has directed, among other things, Romeo and Juliet in the Village, Bielefeld; Die Fledermaus, German National Theatre Weimar.

In 2018, she successfully staged Siegfried as part of the Chemnitz Ring project. Equally successful were the productions of Land des Lächelns (Land of Smiles) in 2019 at the Aalto Theatre in Essen and, more recently, Casanova at the Dresden State Operetta. On BR Klassik, Casanova was awarded the ‘Operettenfrosch’ by critics.

In September 2025, Sabine Hartmannshenn will once again stage her production of Wagner's Lohengrin from the Deutsche Oper am Rhein – this time, however, at the National Kaohsiung Centre for the Arts in Taiwan. This will also be the first complete stage production of Wagner's Lohengrin in Taiwan's history. This production will be conducted by Chien Wen-pin.

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Press

Casanova / Dresdener Staatsoperette / 19.06.22 / Die deutsche Bühne

"Sie macht ihren "Casanova" zu einem Teil jener nachhaltigen inhaltlichen Legitimation eines eigenständigen Operettentheaters jenseits einer bloßen Wiederholung von bekannten Publikumslieblingen." 

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Das Land des Lächelns / Aalto-Theater Essen / 23.02.20 / Online Merker

"Es sind solche vielsagenden Gesten, Zeichen und Signale, die Sabine Hartmannshenns Land des Lächelns zu einem dicht gewebten, virtuos konstruierten Theater-Ereignis machen"

"So verwebt Sabine Hartmannshenn die Geschichte der Léhar-Operette, die Zeitgeschichte ihrer Entstehungsstationen virtuos mit einem politischen Kommentar, der dem Stück keine Gewalt antut, sondern aus genau ausgearbeiteter Distanz befragt und seine überraschend aktuellen Seiten herraustellt." 

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Alcina / 17.04.2015 / opernnetz.com

"Vorbildlich. Ebenso wie die Personenführung von Hartmannshenn. Sie versteht Chor und Solisten als lebendiges Bühnenbild, und das gelingt hervorragend. [...] Mit dieser Inszenierung führt Hartmannshenn jede Diskussion über das Regietheater ad absurdum."

"Dabei hat Sabine Hartmannshenn mit einfachsten Mitteln die Messlatte der Regie so hoch gehängt, wie man sie einem professionellen Ensemble kaum zumuten dürfte." 

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