Regie

Nikolaus Habjan

Nikolaus Habjan, born in Graz in 1987, studied musical theatre directing at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. He was already involved in puppet theatre at the age of 15 and perfected the use of folding puppets with Neville Tranter, which he uses in his productions. He created his first puppet theatre productions at the Schubert Theatre in Vienna, including »Der Herr Karl« und »F. Zawrel – erbbiologisch und sozial minderwertig«, which was awarded the Nestroy Prize in 2012.

Nikolaus Habjan's productions with puppets and actors have been staged at the Vienna Burgtheater (including Jelinek: »Schatten – Eurydike sagt«; Schwab: »Volksvernichtung«), the Vienna Volkstheater (Lessing: »Nathan der Weise«, »Wien ohne Wiener – Eine Georg Kreisler Revue«), the Schauspielhaus Graz (Camus: »Das Missverständnis«; Hochgatterer: »Böhm«, Neville Tranter: »The Hills are Alive«), at the Next Liberty Graz (Goethe: »Faust, der Tragödie erster Teil«), at the Munich Residenztheater (Marivaux: »Der Streit«), at the Bavarian State Opera (Weber: »Oberon«), at the Schauspielhaus Zürich (»Ausschließlich Inländer – Eine Georg Kreisler Revue«) and at the Landestheater NÖ in St. Pölten (Jelinek: »Am Königsweg«, Canetti: »Die Blendung«). In 2019, he staged »Faust« by Gounod in the chamber opera for the Theater an der Wien and »Salome« by Richard Strauss at the Theater an der Wien in 2020. 2020 saw the world premiere of »Alles nicht wahr! – ein Georg Kreisler Abend« with Nikolaus Habjan and Franui took place at the Haus für Mozart in Salzburg. Nikolaus Habjan also performed this evening at the Gärtnerplatztheater in Munich in 2024.

In 2023, he staged Knussen's »Wo die wilden Kerle wohnen« and Offenbach's »La Périchole« for the Musiktheater an der Wien, for which he won the Austrian Music Theatre Award in the Best Overall Production Operetta category. In 2023, he will also develop ‘»Die schöne Müllerin – einen Musiktheaterabend nach Franz Schubert« with the Musicbanda Franui at the Staatsoper Berlin. Nikolaus Habjan was in-house director at Dortmund Opera for several seasons and staged productions including Mozart's »Die Zauberflöte«, »Die Entführung aus dem Serail«, Offenbach's »Orpheus in der Unterwelt« and Puccini's »Tosca«. In 2024, he worked with Franz Welser-Möst again on »Die Zauberflöte« in Cleveland. Monteverdi's »LʼOrfeo« was directed by Habjan at the Dresden Semperoper in 2023 and at the Salzburg Mozart Week in 2025. Most recently, he directed »Schicklgruber« by Neville Tranter and Jan Veldman at the Deutsches Theater Berlin and »Wiener Blut« by Johann Strauss at the Schlosstheater Schönbrunn.

Nikolaus Habjan performs with various musicians - including the Musikbanda Franui, the Wiener Konzertschrammeln and pianist Ines Schüttengruber - in Austria and abroad as an actor, artistic whistler and singer. He has been teaching puppetry at the Department of Drama at Graz University of the Arts since 2019.