Skip to main content

Harry Kupfer: German opera great dies aged 84

Harry Kupfer
Harry Kupfer

One of the world’s most celebrated opera directors, Germany’s Harry Kupfer, has died at the age of 84 in Berlin, his agency confirmed on Tuesday.

In a career spanning 44 years, Kupfer worked at opera houses across Germany and was chief director of Berlin’s iconic Komische Oper for more than two decades.

Born in 1935, Kupfer studied in Leipzig and first worked in then-communist East Germany.

But he rose to fame in 1978 with a production of Richard Wagner’s “The Flying Dutchman” at the world-renowned Bayreuth festival.

READ ALSO: Be vigilant against menace of road accidents in 2020, FRSC urges Nigerians

He took the reins at the Komische Oper three years later in 1981.

A student of Komische Oper founder Walter Felsenstein, Kupfer staged works by Mozart and Wagner and oversaw two world premieres at the opera house before bowing out in 2002.

He returned to Bayreuth in 1988, staging Wagner’s “Ring of the Nibelung” alongside Argentine-Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Kupfer cooperated with Barenboim again on an ambitious project to stage one Wagner opera a year over the course of a decade at the Berlin State Opera.

He continued to work until right up to his death, directing around the world and staging Georg Friederich Handel’s Poro in a triumphant return to the Komische Oper earlier this year.

VANGUARD

The post Harry Kupfer: German opera great dies aged 84 appeared first on Vanguard News.


by Emmanuel Okogba via Vanguard News https://ift.tt/2QBRJCQ Wikipedia Our Friends From Virginia

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Washington in the Fifties

 The Washington that I knew in the fifties was not the Washington of Dickens, Mrs. Trollope, and Laurence Oliphant. When I knew the capital of our country, it was not "a howling wilderness of first book of Adam and Eve deserted streets running out into the country and ending nowhere, its population consisting chiefly of politicians and negroes";[1] nor were the streets overrun with pigs and infested with goats. I never saw these animals in the streets of Washington; but a story, told to illustrate the best way of disposing of the horns of a dilemma proves one goat at least to have had the freedom of the city. It seems that Henry Clay, overdue at the Senate Chamber, was once hurrying along Pennsylvania Avenue when he was attacked by a large goat. Mr. Clay seized his adversary by the horns. So far so good, but how about the next step? A crowd of sympathetic bootblacks and newsboys gathered 4 around offering advice. "Let go, Mr. Clay, and run like blazes," shouted one

Lai Mohammed condoles with Oyedepo over wife’s death

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed,  on Friday condoled with Dr Hezekiah Oyedepo over the death of his wife and General Manager of the National Theatre, Dr Stella Oyedepo. Continue reading Lai Mohammed condoles with Oyedepo over wife’s death at Vanguard News. by Nwafor Polycarp via Vanguard News http://bit.ly/2L5PlVs Wikipedia Our Friends From Virginia

All-new A-Class leads Mercedes-Benz sales growth in four months

MERCEDES-Benz delivered 181,936 cars in April (-5.5%) and a total of 742,809 in the first four months of the year (-5.6%). The ongoing sales success of the new A-Class resulted in worldwide growth for the compact cars in April (+6.0%). A contribution to this sales success came from the new A-Class Saloon, a further model complementing the compact-car entry into the world of premium saloon cars from Mercedes-Benz. Unit sales of SUVs were still dampened in April by the model changes. Continue reading All-new A-Class leads Mercedes-Benz sales growth in four months at Vanguard News. by Urowayino Warami via Vanguard News http://bit.ly/2XfBqOd Wikipedia Our Friends From Virginia