Harry Kupfer Tickets

The long-time opera director and chief Director of the Komische Oper Berlin studied theatre studies in Leipzig. After his debut in Hall in 1958 with Antonín Dvořák's "Rusalka", he took over the direction of the Opera Ensemble at the Stralsunder Theater and became head of the Karl-Marx-Stadt in 1962 (now again Chemnitz). In 1966 the opera director at the German National Theatre and at the Staatskapelle Weimar followed, in 1972 he took over the artistic direction of the Staatsoper Dresden as opera director and chief Director. In 1981, he was appointed chief Director of the Komische Oper Berlin. Among other things, he staged Wagner's "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg", the first performances (in the former GDR) by Aribert Reimann's "Lear" and Handel's "Giustino", the world premiere by Siegfried Matthus's "Judith", Mussorgsky's "Boris Godunow" (in the original instrumentation), Christoph Willibald Gluck's "Orfeo ed Euridice", "Carmen", "the first performance of Wagner's" Die Meistersinger – A Version "according to Georges Bizet, Offenbach's "Hoffmann's narratives", " Julius Caesar in Egypt "by Handel and" Die Fledermaus "by Johann Strauß, as well as a Mozart cycle ranging from" Idomeneo "to the" Magic Flute " and under an overall concept. At the Komische Oper he directed most recently in 1996 with Gaetano Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor", 1997 with Ludwig van Beethoven's "Fidelio", 1998 with Hans Werner Henze's "König Hirsch" and Jacques Offenbach's "Orpheus in the underworld".

Harry Kupfer is a member of the Akademie der Künste in Berlin, the Freie Akademie der Künste in Hamburg and the Saxon Akademie der Künste in Dresden as well as a Professor at the Hochschule für Musik "Carl Maria von Weber" in Dresden. Over 220 productions originated in Graz, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Cardiff, London, Vienna, Salzburg, San Francisco, Moscow, Zurich, Frankfurt, Cologne, Mannheim, Stuttgart, Munich, Hamburg, Sydney and Berlin. At the Bayreuth Festival he directed "Der fliegende Holländer" in 1978 and "Der Ring des Nibelungen" in 1988. The Wagner cycle produced together with Daniel Barenboim at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin ended in 1997 with the complete "Ring des Nibelungen". In Vienna, he directed a total of seven Times at the state Opera and the national Opera: Puccini's "La Bohème" and Handel's "Il Giustino", Krzysztof Penderecki's "The black mask", Strauss' "Elektra" (both co-productions with the Salzburg festival), Bernd Alois Zimmermann's "die Soldaten", Tchaikovsky's "Eugen Onegin" and "Boris Godunov". At the Theater an der Wien, productions of Strauss' "Ariadne auf Naxos" and the world premiere of the Musicals "Elisabeth" and "Mozart!". Harry Kupfer's works of recent years include Léhar's "the Merry Widow" in Hamburg, Pfitzner's "Palestrina" and "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg" in Helsinki, Berlioz's "La damnation de Faust" and Prokofjew's "der gamer" in Frankfurt, "Parsifal" in Tokyo, "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg" in Zurich, "Hoffmann's narratives" in Tel Aviv, the equally acclaimed production of Strauss's "Der Rosenkavalier" in Salzburg Festival in the summer of 2014 and Glinkas "a life for the Tsar" at the Opera Frankfurt 2015. In the season 2016/17 he staged Shostakovich's "Lady Macbeth von Mzensk" at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. His future projects include the production of Handel's "Poros" at the Komische Oper Berlin.