Günter Rimkus

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Günter Rimkus (born December 22, 1928 in Stallupönen , East Prussia ; † September 29, 2015 ) was a German dramaturge and director of the German State Opera Berlin from 1984 to 1991 .

Life

Günter Rimkus studied vocal music at the Liszt School of Music in Weimar from 1947 to 1953 . After the final exam he got the position of a dramaturge at the German State Opera Berlin . In 1970 he was appointed deputy director for artistic matters and managed the house as successor to Hans Pischner from 1984 to 1991. During his entire activity in the Admiralspalast and Unter den Linden, he had a significant influence on the institute's high artistic reputation. He organized the restructuring of the opera and ballet ensembles, as well as the choir and the Staatskapelle after the Wall was built in 1961, thus ensuring the playing ability of the house. The Berlin Academy of Music Hanns Eisler appointed him professor for opera dramaturgy.

During his directorship, he particularly encouraged the next generation and thus significantly rejuvenated the ensemble. He brought today's world stars like René Pape and Roman Trekel directly from the universities into the ensemble. His schedule policy continued the traditional promotion of contemporary creativity. For example, Büchner by Friedrich Schenker, Gastmahl by Georg Katzer and Count Mirabeau by Siegfried Matthus were premiered. The first performances included Shostakovich's Das Märchen vom Popen and his servant Balda , Schönberg's Moses und Aron and Victor Ullmann's Der Kaiser von Atlantis . He also successfully expanded the repertoire with rarely performed works such as Verdi's Sicilian Vespers , Weber's Euryanthe , Goethe / Reichardt's Erwin and Elmire , Meyerbeer's Afrikanerin or Hindemith's Neues vom Tage . During the reconstruction of the Linden Opera in the mid-1980s, he resolutely advocated the repositioning of the inscription FRIDERICUS REX APOLLINI ET MUSIS on the gable , which had been replaced by GERMAN STATE OPERA during the reconstruction in 1955 , which had led to Erich Kleiber's breach of contract with the Linden Opera.

As a freelancer for radio, television and record, he made a great contribution to popularizing classical and modern music. As a publicist he worked in domestic and foreign journals. Under his directorship, the number of guest tours through Europe and the Far East increased significantly. From 1976 to 1990 he was a member of the Berlin city council with the mandate of the Kulturbund der DDR . In November 1985 he was elected vice-president of the association at the 5th congress of the Association of Theater Professionals in the GDR .

Günter Rimkus was married to the prima ballerina Monika Lubitz and had a daughter. Günter Rimkus died on September 29, 2015 at the age of 86.

Awards

literature

  • Günther Buch: Names and dates of important people in the GDR. 4th, revised and expanded edition. Dietz, Berlin (West) / Bonn 1987, ISBN 3-8012-0121-X , p. 262.
  • Georg Quander (ed.): Appollini et musis. 250 years of the Unter den Linden opera house . Propylaea, Berlin 1992, ISBN 354905209X .
  • Michael Kraus (Ed.): The musical modernity at the State Operas of Berlin and Vienna 1945–1989 . JB Metzler Verlag, Stuttgart 2017, ISBN 978-3-476-04352-8 , p. 54 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  • Misha Aster: State Opera. The eventful history of the Berlin Linden Opera in the 20th century . Siedler Verlag, Munich 2017, ISBN 978-3-641-21531-6 ( limited preview in Google book search).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Central Committee of the SED congratulates Comrade Prof. Günter Rimkus . In: Neues Deutschland , December 22, 1988, p. 2.
  2. ^ On the 60th birthday of Günter Rimkus . In: Berliner Zeitung , December 22, 1988, p. 7.
  3. ↑ On the candidate list . In: Berliner Zeitung , September 16, 1976, p. 3.
  4. ↑ Prof. Günter Rimkus died on September 29, 2015 at the age of 86. (No longer available online.) In: staatsoper-berlin.de. German State Opera Berlin , November 15, 2015, archived from the original on March 22, 2016 ; accessed on November 16, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.staatsoper-berlin.de
personal data
SURNAME Rimkus, Günter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German musician, director of the State Opera Unter den Linden Berlin
DATE OF BIRTH December 22, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Stallupönen , East Prussia , German Empire
DATE OF DEATH 29th September 2015