Conflicts: Barrie Kosky: “Fear is not the answer to terror”

2023-12-12 08:55:05

Conflicts Barrie Kosky: “Fear is not the answer to terror”

“I feel like I’m in the middle of this storm. I oscillate between different emotions every day,” says director Barrie Kosky, referring to the situation in the Middle East since Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel. photo

© Soeren Stache/dpa

Many people in Germany are afraid, says the theater and opera director, referring to the situation in the Middle East. He sees his “main duty as a Jew” as thinking about all the victims of the conflict.

The theater and opera director Barrie Kosky is not intimidated by hard times and war: “Fear is not the answer to terror,” he told the German Press Agency ahead of a new production of the operetta “Die Fledermaus” at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich.

Kosky, grandson of Jewish immigrants, reflects that many people in Germany are afraid at the moment. “I feel like I’m in the middle of this storm. I oscillate between different emotions every day,” said the Berliner, referring to the situation in the Middle East since Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel on October 7th.

The native Australian always sees himself in the problematic situation of always having to take one side as a Jew in Germany. “My main emotion is to think of all the victims of the Hamas attack, of this pogrom, of this massacre. That is my main duty as a Jew. But if I have done that, then I also have the duty as a citizen, as a human being, to them “To think of the innocent victims in Gaza. That’s over 5,000 children,” he emphasized.

After ten years as opera director, Kosky is now returning to his roots. “I am an artist – that is my main identity. I was the artistic director of the Komische Oper Berlin, but I am not an artistic director by profession. My next chapter goes back to being a freelance artist.” But his calendar remains as full as ever; he is currently preparing “Die Fledermaus” at the Bavarian State Opera. “I would like to give Munich a little foretaste of this Kosky operetta frenzy,” he said with a laugh.

dpa