Dörte Lyssewski
Actress
After studying at the Hamburg University of Music and Theatre, Dörte Lyssewski made her debut at the Berliner Schaubühne, where she was a member of the ensemble for seven years. There she worked with Peter Stein, Klaus Michael Grüber and Luc Bondy, among others. She has performed repeatedly at the Zurich Schauspielhaus, the Deutsches Theater and the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz in Berlin, in Bochum, and at the Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe and the Paris Opéra. She has been a member of the ensemble at Vienna’s Burgtheater since 2009.
She has worked with Martin Kušej, Ernst Stötzner, Jürgen Gosch, Heiner Müller, Werner Schröter, Patrice Chéreau, Thomas Vinterberg, Dušan David Pařízek, Matthias Rippert, Thomas Jonigk, Barbara Frey and Frank Castorf, among others.
Since 1992 she has appeared regularly at the Salzburg Festival, including in 1997 in Peter Stein’s acclaimed production of Libussa and from 1999 to 2001 as the Buhlschaft alongside Ulrich Tukur in Jedermann. She most recently appeared in Salzburg in 2024 in Jedermann as Armer Nachbar and Werke and in 2025 in Karl Kraus’s Die letzten Tage der Menschheit.
In collaboration with Gerard Mortier, she took part in numerous musical productions in Salzburg, including as Andromache in Herbert Wernicke’s production of Les Troyens. She later followed Mortier to the Ruhrtriennale, which he founded, and to the Paris Opéra.
Other engagements include regular performances at the Vienna Festival (including in Boesmann’s Yvonne, die Burgunderprinzessin), La Monnaie in Brussels, the Opéra National de Montpellier, the Berlin and Cologne Philharmonies, the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, the Alte Oper in Frankfurt and the Heidelberg Spring Festival.
She has also realized musical works with Claudio Abbado, Alain Altinoglu, Sylvain Cambreling, Ingo Metzmacher and Marc Minkowski. Since 2009 she has performed regularly at the Vienna Konzerthaus and Musikverein. She also collaborates regularly with Klangforum Wien, Musicbanda Franui and the pianist Igor Levit.
Dörte Lyssewski received the Josef Kainz Medal in 1997, the Gertrud Eysoldt Ring in 2004 and the Nestroy Theatre Prize in 2012 and 2018; in February 2025 she was named ‘Actor of the Year 2024’ at the Ö1-Hörspielgala.
In 2015, she published the collection of stories Der Vulkan oder Die Heilige Irene with Matthes & Seitz Berlin. This was followed in 2022 by her translation of Henri-Pierre Roché’s episodic novel Don Juan und … and most recently, in 2026, her poetry volume Exit Pan, published by Klever Verlag.
In 2021 Dörte Lyssewski made her directorial debut at the Salzburg Landestheater with J. M. R Lenz’s Der neue Menoza; in 2022 she made her opera directing debut with Mozart’s La finta giardiniera, also at the Salzburg Landestheater. Alongside her activities in theatre, Dörte Lyssewski also works for radio stations, recording studios and film productions.
