Gerard Mortier

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Gerard Mortier (2007)

Gerard Mortier (full name Gerard Alfons August Mortier, born November 25, 1943 in Ghent , † March 8, 2014 in Brussels ) was a Belgian opera and theater director.

life and work

Mortier was the son of a baker and came from the Flemish city of Ghent. He grew up there in the Muidekwartier, a working-class district in the north of the city. After finishing school at the Sint-Barbaracollege , a Jesuit college in the Savaanstraat, he studied law at the University of Ghent from 1960 to 1965 and then received his doctorate . From 1966 to 1967 he completed a second degree in communication sciences .

He began his career in 1968 as assistant to the director of the Flanders Festival. From 1973 to 1980 he headed the offices of Christoph von Dohnányi and Rolf Liebermann in Düsseldorf, Frankfurt , Hamburg and Paris.

In 1981 he took over the management of the Brussels Opera La Monnaie / De Munt for ten years . Together with the musical director Sylvain Cambreling he developed a new understanding of opera, modernized it and made the opera house internationally known.

In 1991, Mortier was appointed artistic director and artistic director of the Salzburg Festival . He was supposed to open up the festival to a younger audience and prepare the festival programmatically for the 21st century. During his era, 25 operas of the 20th century saw their performance in Salzburg. 2001 his term of office ended.

At the invitation of the state government of North Rhine-Westphalia, he designed the first cycle of the Ruhrtriennale from 2002 to 2004. From the 2004/05 season he headed the Paris Opera until July 2009 .

One week before the board of trustees met to replace the director of the Bayreuth Festival on September 1, 2008, he applied together with Nike Wagner . In the event of an engagement in Bayreuth, he wanted to direct the New York City Opera outside the six-week Bayreuth Festival, but would have given Bayreuth priority in the event of a time conflict. However, Katharina Wagner and Eva Wagner-Pasquier were unexpectedly unanimously chosen to lead .

From 2009 Mortier was to take over the management of the New York City Opera as General Manager and Artistic Director. Due to serious financial losses of the New York City Opera due to the financial crisis from 2007 , Mortier was no longer able to offer an artistically demanding program despite two years of preparation, and he withdrew from the upcoming management. In 2010 he succeeded Antonio del Moral at the Madrid opera house Teatro Real as artistic director. In view of the economic crisis in Spain, which led to drastic cuts in public budgets, he had to implement an austerity program there. He was released in September 2013, but as a result of international protests he was immediately hired again as an artistic advisor to the same company.

Gerard Mortier was a member of the Berlin Academy of the Arts .

Mortier died at the age of 70 of pancreatic cancer , which had been diagnosed the year before. The public obituary notice with the German slogan “Dem Wahren, Guten und Schönen” was signed by his sister Rita Mortier and by Sylvain Cambreling , his partner.

The University of Ghent announced on March 10, 2014 that it had decided to hold on to the awarding of an honorary doctorate to Gerard Mortier, which is planned for March 21, and to award the honorary doctorate posthumously.

Awards

Occupations

Fonts

  • with Karin Kathrein, Hans Landesmann, Gerhard Rohde (eds.): Opera, drama. Salzburg Festival 1992–2001 . Zsolnay, Vienna 2001, ISBN 3-552-05170-8 .
  • (Ed.): Herbert von Karajan and the Salzburg Festival. Documentation of a partnership 1933, 1948, 1957–1989 . With an introduction by Joachim Kaiser . Residence, Salzburg 1994, ISBN 3-7017-0844-4 .
  • Dramaturgy of a passion. For theater as a religion of the human. From the French by Sven Hartberger, JB Metzler, Stuttgart 2014, ISBN 978-3-476-02546-3 .
  • The theater that changes us . Essays on opera, art and politics. Bärenreiter, Metzler, Kassel, Stuttgart 2018, ISBN 978-3-7618-2088-9 .

Movies

  • Gerard Mortier at the Paris Opera. A multifaceted look back at his last opera season in Paris. Documentation, France, 2009, 91 min., Director: Richard Copans, production: ARTE France, Les films d'ici, German first broadcast: September 21, 2009, synopsis by arte
  • Gerard Mortier: Job? Opera! Documentation, Belgium, 2001, 55 min, Director:. Christian Leblé, production: Belair Media, RTBF , Summary of arte
  • Mortier on Katharina Wagner and the succession process. Bayreuth, September 1st, 2008, production: FAZ , Mortier on Katharina Wagner “I would like to invite you to New York” - online video , 1:41 min.

literature

  • Detlev Baur: Ruler of the halls: Gerard Mortier came as director of the Salzburg Festival, is the founding director of the Ruhrtriennale for three years and goes to the Paris Opera next year. A conversation with the Flemish cultural organizer at the beginning of the autumn season of the Mammut Festival on the Ruhr. In: Die Deutsche Bühne , 74 (2003), 10, pp. 16-18.

Web links

Commons : Gerard Mortier  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gerard Mortier's first name is written without an accent according to the Paris Opera ( memento of November 13, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), Akademie der Künste ( memento of December 24, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) and the German National Library .
  2. ^ Gerard Mortier, 70, Intendant Who Courted Innovation and Controversy in the Opera House, Has Died.
  3. ↑ Nike Wagner and Mortier explain their concept. In: FAZ , August 27, 2008.
  4. ↑ Bayreuth: Gérard Mortier explains himself. In: Der Tagesspiegel , August 28, 2008.
  5. ↑ Bayreuth does not stay in the family. In: FAZ , August 31, 2008.
  6. ^ Mortier's rejection of New York. The first cultural victim of the crisis. In: FAZ , November 9, 2008.
  7. ↑ Gerard Mortier goes to Madrid ( Memento from July 30, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ), VRT , November 27, 2008.
  8. ↑ Thomas Urban : “We only turn on light when necessary.” The crisis does not spare one of the most important opera directors in the world either: Gerard Mortier, artistic director in Madrid, has to save a lot. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , April 13, 2013, p. 22.
  9. ^ Theater director Gerard Mortier is dead. In: Die Presse , March 9, 2014.
  10. ↑ Gerard Mortier krijgt postuum eredoctoraat van UGent on demorgen.be of March 10, 2014 (Dutch).
  11. ^ Belgian State Gazette of April 27, 2007: Vergunning van de persoonlijke titel van baron aan [...] Gerard MORTIER, [...]. (FOD Buitenlandse Zaken: Adellijke in favor of verleend bij Koninklijke besluiten from April 21, 2007) nobility news
personal data
SURNAME Mortier, Gerard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mortier, Gerard Alfons August (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Belgian opera director
DATE OF BIRTH November 25, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Ghent
DATE OF DEATH March 8, 2014
Place of death Brussels