Christian Romanowski - Biography
Christian Romanowski was born in Flensburg, grew up in Hamburg and Bremen, and after graduation from the Bremen Altes Gymnasium he enrolled in the ‘Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst’ in Hamburg, where he studied acting and directing in the class of Professor Eduard Marks. Ever since his childhood he had been in close contact with painting and dance. His father was a painter whilst his mother, a leading solo dancer in the ensemble of the Berlin state opera ‘Unter den Linden’, came from the school of modern expressive dance. She ran her own ballet school in Bremen.
After permanent theatrical engagements in Düsseldorf, Darmstadt and Nürnberg, Christian Romanowski worked as an independent actor in Berlin. He accomplished his first stagedirection achievements as the leader of drama ensemble at the Landestheater in Memmingen and, later on, as an independent artist he directed theatrical pieces (by Dürrenmatt, Fassbinder, Sternheim, Hacks, O’Casey and Strindberg) in Marburg, Heilbronn, Wilhelmshaven, Würzburg and Bremen.
Since 1985 he was engaged as an external associate at Südwestrundfunk Radio (SWR) in Baden-Baden, working for the television channels SWR, 3Sat and ARTE as the author and director of a series of feature and documentary films thematically focused on culture. He produced 40 episodes of the Schätze der Welt–Erbe der Menschheit documentary series. View in Films) For the documentary entitled Ewig werdendes Vergehen about the Aletsch glacier Romanowski was awarded the main prize at the 15th International Festival of Documentary Films in Graz. Of particular interest were 3 documentarys about the Welt der Oper – Opernhäuser der Welt’ (Dresden) , Lyon, Napels). The Film about young singers Die Callas-Fabrik Callas Fabric the film Das Blutbad am Bartholomäusfest Das Blutbad am Bartholomäusfest and from the seria Länder Menschen Abenteuer, Nomadenleben in der Mongolei also a documentary about military music Militärmusik
Romanowski has also worked with the music editorial department of Croatian Radio-Television in Zagreb. Among other things, he authored a 90-minute film portrait of Dunja Vejzović and filmed a number of her concerts (Schubert Die Winterreise).
As his first opera directing with his own scenography, he staged Verdi’s Don Carlos in the Croatian National Theatre in Split. In the subsequent opera productions, along with directing, he also designed scenography of Cavalieri’s opera Rappresentatione di anima et di corpo Rappresentatione and the one in semi-staged performances of the operas Oedipus Rex ’ Oedipus Rex by Igor Stravinsky and Salome by Richard Strauss, performed in the Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall in Zagreb (the latter also in the Cankar Centre in Ljubljana). On the stage of the Croatian National Theatre pl. Ivan Zajc in Rijeka, he staged the opera Oidipus Rex The first part of the evening, entitled Inferno presented his stage adaptations of four compositions by Milko Kelemen: Aria, Inferno di Dante,’ Das Lied der Marketenderin (Heinrich Heine) and Die Sieben Plagen (Arrabal), all performed by Dunja Vejzović. In 2018 he staged Bellinins Norma at the HNK Rijeka, and was invited to stage his production at the National Opera house Split in 2019
Apart from staging, set and light designing for the theatre, he produces continuously drawings, watercolours and oil paintings which were exhibited lately in the Mali Salon of MMS (Museum of contemporary art) in Rijeka.