Not every artist likes what is written about them. But not everyone reacts like the ballet director Marco Goecke, who smeared a critic with dog excrement. Now he's banned.
Ballet director Marco Goecke justifies himself: My work was also soiled
Biting criticism hurts every artist's soul. In some books, the unwelcome scribblers who tear up the work created with passion, like to be killed – like in Martin Walser's famous novel: “Death of a Critic”. But in real life, you have to grit your teeth and swallow your anger.
The ballet director of the Hanover State Opera, who has been spoiled by success and has won several awards, Marco Goecke, however, could not control himself. He used his dog's excrement to take revenge on an unwelcome critic. For 23 years, Wiebke Hüster has been writing reviews of premieres of plays or dance performances for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The artists then learn the next day that whether their work was well received – or not. But no one has ever become violent out of anger at Hüster's criticism. What happened there?
Not a normal working day
When the ballet “Faith, Love, Hope” premiered in Hanover on Saturday evening (February 11, 2023), it was a completely normal working day for Wiebke Hüster until – yes until – ballet director Marco Goecke looked at her during the break in the foyer of the opera house he had his dachshund on a leash. She had never met the 50-year-old personally, but he apparently knew her. Angry, Hüster reported to the dpa news agency, he accused her of writing bad personal reviews. Then he asked her what she was doing at the premiere and finally threatened her with being banned from the house.
Apparently, Hüster suspects, Goecke was extremely annoyed about the criticism she published the day before about his ballet production “In the Dutch Mountains” (here in the YouTube clip an excerpt) in The Hague : It says: “While watching, one is alternately insane and killed by boredom… The piece is like a radio that doesn't get the station properly tuned in. It's a disgrace and a cheek, and the choreographer has to be blamed for both more than the virtuosity and presence of the Dancers from the Nederlands Dans Theater ask for her.”
Eklat in the foyer
Harsh words – and Goecke was visibly offended in his vanity. The criticism had led to subscription cancellations, for which Hüster was responsible, he accused her, pulled out a bag of dog excrement and smeared it on her face. “When I felt what he was doing, I screamed,” reports the critic. She was in shock, and while Marco Goecke simply disappeared into the crowd, the press spokeswoman for the theater led her into the manager's washroom and helped her to clean herself. Then Hüster drove to the police and filed a complaint. She is convinced that the ballet boss planned the attack: “That was intentional.”
Hesitant reaction from the State Opera
The opera confirmed the incident on Sunday. They apologized to the journalists, it said and went on: “The Hanover State Opera is an open place for respectful cooperation and exchange. We believe that calm and care are now required. We will examine the legal steps taken against ballet director Marco Goecke .”
Marco Goecke's choreographies – like Dog Sleep here – are usually highly praised
This test is now complete. Goecke was suspended on Monday afternoon with immediate effect and is banned from the premises to “protect the ballet ensemble and state theater from further damage”. The ballet director violated all of the Hanover State Opera's principles of conduct, deeply offended the journalist personally and made both the audience and the employees of the house extremely insecure. “He did massive damage to the State Opera and the State Ballet in Hanover.”
Attack on freedom of the press
For Wiebke Hüster's employer, the FAZ, the step was overdue; Goecke's action was an “attack on free, critical art appreciation,” the newspaper wrote on Sunday enforced through the use of force. In times when sensitivity and mindfulness are proclaimed at all levels in the art world, this is a particular perfidy.”
Goecke came to Hanover in the 2019/2020 season
In addition to the physical injury, the humiliating act was also an “attempt to intimidate our free, critical view of art” and revealed “the disturbed relationship of an artist to criticism .”
Frank Rieger from the German Association of Journalists in Lower Saxony also speaks of an attack on press freedom. “Anyone who reacts to criticism with violence is unacceptable.”
Meanwhile, Marco Goecke justified himself for the incident in an interview with Norddeutscher Rundfunk. He was a bit shocked about himself and the choice of means is definitely not great, he said. But also his person, his work, his business had been soiled over the years.
“Piss off!”
Criticism of art? Not everyone wears them with composure
Incidentally, Wiebke Hüster is not the first FAZ employee to have had to deal with an angry artist. In 2006, an actor snatched the notepad from her colleague Gerhard Stadelmaier and wanted to read it aloud, but failed because of the illegible writing. When he left the hall during the performance, the actor yelled after him: “Get lost, you asshole, fuck off!”
The director of the Hamburger Schauspielhaus Karin Beier explained to Deutschlandradio in 2021 what she thinks of criticism and reviews: they are “shit on the sleeve of art”. And it was not until September 2022 that the Belgian theater and film actor Benny Claessens, reports the FAZ, verbally abused an unwelcome critic as mentally disturbed and threatened her “Your time is over, darling.”
The outbursts of anger by the deceased world star Klaus Kinski are also legendary when asked by journalists: “You ask me all kinds of stupid things” or: “I have to let an illiterate tell me such nonsense!”
Goethe: “Beat the dog to death!”
By the way, displeasure with critics is not a phenomenon of our time. As early as 1774, Goethe mocked his lack of appreciation in his “Rezensent” poem and demanded: “Beat the dog to death!” But even then not all such radical measures were justified. The dramatist Heinrich Leopold Wagner answered Goethe with one Counterpoem that ends with the words: “Throw the dog dead! It's an author who doesn't want to be criticized.”