 |
Peter Konwitschny (born 21 January 1945 in Frankfurt am Main) is a German opera and theatre director.
|
Peter Konwitschny (born 21 January 1945 in Frankfurt am Main) is a German opera and theatre director.
Peter Konwitschny grew up in Leipzig, where his father Franz Konwitschny was principal conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. After an aborted study of physics, he studied theatre direction from 1965 until 1970 in Berlin.
In the 1970s, Konwitschny worked as an assistant director with Ruth Berghaus at the Berliner Ensemble. From 1980 onwards he chiefly worked as a free-lance director. During this period he directed both opera and theatre productions in Berlin, Halle, Greifswald and Rostock. From 1986 until 1990 he was chief director of the Landestheater Halle. His Handel productions Rinaldo , Aci, Galatea e Polifemo and Tamerlano , as well as Rigoletto and Carmen received high acclaim.
Even though Konwitschny had already directed operas in West Germany ( Bluebeard's Castle , Kassel, 1987, and Fidelio , Basel, 1989), it was only after the fall of the Berlin Wall, that his international career took off. After Puccini and Rossini operas in Graz, Leipzig and Basel, Konwitschny turned to Wagner: Parsifal (1995, Bavarian State Opera), Tannhäuser (1997, Dresden Semperoper), Lohengrin (1998, Hamburg State Opera), Tristan und Isolde (1998, Bavarian State Opera), and a highly acclaimed Götterdämmerung (2000, Staatsoper Stuttgart).
After Lohengrin, Konwitschny returned to Hamburg to cooperate with the conductor Ingo Metzmacher on Alban Berg's Lulu , Richard Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg , and Arnold Schoenberg's Moses und Aron . [1] In 2004 he directed Wagner's The Flying Dutchman at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, in 2005 Richard Strauss' Elektra in Copenhagen and in 2009 Strauss' Salome in Amsterdam. Since August 2008, Konwitschny is principal director of productions at the Leipzig Opera.
In 2018, Konwitschny, was fired from the Gothenburg Opera due to a conflict between Peter Konwitschny and co-workers around the stage, during the rehearsals of Boris Godunov. [2] The Gothenburg Opera CEO stated in a press release that This is a house where one is allowed to be angry, have conflicts and to make mistakes. But there is a limit to where a behavior towards co-workers becomes unacceptable. In this case, we could not afterwards reach a mutual understanding concerning the gravity of the situation. Therefore, we chose to terminate the cooperation [3] . Konwitschny later issued a statement to the press, comparing the response to the Spanish Inquisition and vowing not to return to the opera house.
Konwitschny is an honorary professor at the Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" in Berlin and a member of the Akademie der Künste in Berlin.
Some of Konwitschny's polarizing interpretations are far removed from the composer's or playwright's original idea. His 2000 production in Dresden of Die Csárdásfürstin , an operetta by Emmerich Kálmán, set by Konwitschny in World War I trenches, turned into a scandal and a lawsuit when the director of the Semperoper cancelled two scenes of Konwitschny's production.
Thomas Bernard Heppner is a Canadian tenor and broadcaster, now retired from singing, who specialized in opera and other classical works for voice.
Cheryl Studer is an American dramatic soprano who has sung at many of the world's foremost opera houses. Studer has performed more than eighty roles ranging from the dramatic repertoire to roles more commonly associated with lyric sopranos and coloratura sopranos, and, in her late stage, mezzo-sopranos. She is particularly known for her interpretations of the works of Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner.
Harry Alfred Robert Kupfer was a German opera director and academic. A long-time director at the Komische Oper Berlin, he worked at major opera houses and at festivals internationally. Trained by Walter Felsenstein, he worked in the tradition of realistic directing. At the Bayreuth Festival, he staged Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer in 1978 and Der Ring des Nibelungen in 1988. At the Salzburg Festival, he directed the premiere of Penderecki's Die schwarze Maske in 1986 and Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss in 2014.
Anja Harteros is a German soprano. Since winning the 1999 Cardiff Singer of the World competition she has been particularly associated with the Bavarian State Opera and enjoyed an international career.
Ekkehard Wlaschiha was a German operatic baritone who specialized in Wagnerian "villains", such as Alberich, Klingsor and Friedrich von Telramund. He performed at the Bayreuth Festival and at the Metropolitan Opera, and left many recordings.
Stefan Anton Reck is a German orchestra conductor and painter. He was born on 26 April 1960 in Baden-Baden, Germany.
Axel Köhler is a German countertenor and opera director. In 1994, he won the Handel Prize. Since 2009, he has been Artistic Director of the Halle Opera House.
Eytan Pessen is a pianist and voice teacher, currently at the Opera houses of Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Vienna (Volksoper), Zürich and international festivals. He was former opera director of the Semperoper in Dresden, artistic advisor to Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Teatro San Carlo in Naples, and former casting director of the Staatstheater Stuttgart.
Evelyn Herlitzius is a German opera singer, a dramatic soprano. She is known for performing major roles in works by Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss, such as Brünnhilde, Isolde and Elektra, at the Semperoper, the Bayreuth Festival and leading European opera houses.
Johannes Erath is a German opera director.
Michael Boder is a German conductor of opera and concert who works internationally. The chief conductor of the Royal Danish Theatre, he has conducted regularly at the Vienna State Opera, including the premieres of Cerha's Der Riese vom Steinfeld and Reimann's Medea. He also conducted the premieres of operas by Dusapin, Enescu, Henze, Lombardi, Penderecki and Trojahn.
Albert Dohmen is a German operatic bass-baritone who is known internationally for performing leading roles by Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss. He has also worked in concert halls and given lieder recitals.
Ruth Hesse is a German dramatic mezzo-soprano. She was a member of the Deutsche Oper Berlin from 1962 to 1995, and appeared internationally, including the Bayreuth Festival and the Salzburg Festival. She appeared regularly at the Vienna State Opera from 1965 to 1988, and was appointed an Austrian Kammersängerin in 1982. In Berlin, she took part in the world premiere of Henze's Der junge Lord.
Karine Babajanyan is an Armenian operatic soprano.
Michael Volle is a German operatic baritone. After engagements at several German and Swiss opera houses, he has worked freelance since 2011. While he first appeared in Mozart roles such as Guglielmo, Papageno and Don Giovanni, he moved on to title roles such as Verdi's Falstaff, Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin and Alban Berg's Wozzeck. He has performed at major opera houses in Europe and the Metropolitan Opera, in roles including Mandryka in Arabella and Hans Sachs in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. His awards include Singer of the Year by Opernwelt and Der Faust.
Ulrike Helzel is a German operatic mezzo-soprano.
Constantin Trinks is a German conductor.
Joachim Herz was a German Opera director and manager. He learned at the Komische Oper Berlin as an assistant to Walter Felsenstein. His major stations were the Leipzig Opera where he opened the new house with Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Komische Oper and Semperoper in Dresden, where he opened the restored house with Weber's Der Freischütz in 1985. He staged many world premieres, and worked internationally. Herz was the first director to apply Felsenstein's concepts to Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, staged in Leipzig from 1973 to 1976.
Friedrich Haider is an Austrian conductor and pianist.
Claus Guth is a German theatre director, focused on opera. He has directed operas at major houses and festivals, including world premieres such as works of the Munich Biennale, and Berio's Cronaca del luogo at the Salzburg Festival in 1999. Guth is particularly known for his opera productions of the works of Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss. He has received two Faust awards, for Daphne by Richard Strauss in 2010, and for Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande, both at the Oper Frankfurt.
| General | |
|---|---|
| National libraries | |
| Biographical dictionaries | |
| Other | |
