Ehrhard Warneke

Ehrhard Warneke (born January 17, 1934 in Leipzig , Saxony ; † March 11, 2019 in Weimar , Thuringia ) was a German director , opera director and artistic director .

Life

Ehrhard Warneke studied orchestral music from 1952 to 1957 at the "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" University of Music and Theater in Leipzig. He then studied music theater directing at the Berlin Music Academy with Carl Riha until 1962 .

At the same time he completed an internship as a director at the Städtisches Theater in Karl-Marx-Stadt . There he made his debut as an opera director in 1962 with his first own production, Don Pasquale . At the Municipal Theater he worked as an assistant director until 1964, then from 1964 to 1967 he was director of the theater there, and from 1967 senior director. From 1967 to 1970 he was senior director at the Meiningen Theater .

In 1970 he moved to the Deutsche Nationaltheater Weimar (DNT), where he was the opera director from 1972 to 1999 , signed by Harry Kupfer . In Weimar he was responsible for 56 of his own productions. As an opera director, he has distinguished himself in the classical opera repertoire as well as with contemporary works. His Weimar productions included u. a. The Mastersingers of Nuremberg (1977), Aida (1979) Lohengrin (1980), Die Zauberflöte (1983), La Bohème (1985), Salome (1987) and Tannhäuser (1988). In the field of contemporary music theater, he realized operas by Udo Zimmermann ( Levins Mühle , 1973), Robert Hanell , Siegfried Matthus , Gerhard Rosenfeld , Fritz Geißler , Viktor Ullmann and Michael Obst . In the 1992/93 season, Warneke staged the German and German-language premiere of Luca Lombardi's musical theater work Faust at the National Theater Weimar . A travesty that he brought to the stage with "biting irony". His last production at DNT was in 2001 Paul Hindemith's opera Mathis der Maler . Warneke was considered to be a “sensitive” director whose “masterful personal direction”, with which he “drew characters large and small with humor and with great attention to detail”, was particularly praised by the critics.

Since 1999 he has worked as a freelance opera director. He staged a. a. in Bratislava , Wilnjus , Sendai , at the Oslo State Opera , at the Leipzig Opera House , at the Berlin State Opera and at the Hessian State Theater Wiesbaden .

From 1969 to 1982 and from 1990 he was a lecturer and honorary professor for the subject “Opera School” at the “Franz Liszt” University of Music in Weimar. Since the end of 2003 he has been a professor at the Oslo School of Art. He also taught in Tsuyama .

Warneke has received various art and directing awards for his artistic work. Warneke was a member of the Presidium of the GDR Theater Association. He died in Weimar in March 2019 at the age of 85.

literature

• Matthias Frede: The theater has to make offers and get involved again . Conversation with the Weimar opera director Ehrhard Warneke. With a biographical sketch. In: Opera world . Edition September 1993. page 51.
• Wilhelm Kosch (Ed.): German Theater Lexicon . Volume V. Uber – Weisbach. De Gruyter, Berlin [et al.] 2000. ISBN 978-3-907820-40-7 . P. 2996. (accessed via De Gruyter Online).
• Horst Seeger : Opera Lexicon . Florian Noetzel Publishing House. "Heinrichshofen Books". 3rd, expanded edition. Wilhelmshaven 1987. Page 675. ISBN 3-7959-0271-1 .

Web links

• Farewell to Ehrhard Warneke - obituary (Nationaltheater Weimar)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j} Long-time opera director of DNT Weimar has died . Obituary. In: Thüringer Allgemeine from March 15, 2019. Retrieved March 20, 2019.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Ehrhard Warneke dies at the age of 85 . Obituary at Radio Lotte Weimar on March 15, 2019. Accessed March 20, 2019.
3. ^ Matthias Frede: Evil Metamorphosis . Performance review. In: Opera world . Edition September 1993. page 50.
4. ↑ Ehrhard Warneke . In: Theater of Time (1985). Retrieved March 20, 2019.