Harry Kupfer

Harry Alfred Robert Kupfer (12 August 1935 – 30 December 2019)[1] was a German opera director and academic. A long-time director at the Komische Oper Berlin, he worked at major opera houses and at festivals internationally. Trained by Walter Felsenstein, he worked in the tradition of realistic directing. At the Bayreuth Festival, he staged Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer in 1978 and Der Ring des Nibelungen in 1988. At the Salzburg Festival, he directed the premiere of Penderecki's Die schwarze Maske in 1986 and Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss in 2014.

Harry Kupfer
Born(1935-08-12)12 August 1935
Berlin, Germany
Died30 December 2019(2019-12-30) (aged 84)
Berlin, Germany
EducationTheaterhochschule Leipzig
Occupation
  • Opera director
  • Academic
Organization
Awards

Career

Born in Berlin, Kupfer studied theatre at the Theaterhochschule Leipzig[2] from 1953 to 1957.[3] He was the assistant director at the Landestheater Halle, where he directed his first opera, Dvořák's Rusalka, in 1958.[3] From 1958 to 1962, he worked at the Theater Stralsund, then at the Theater in Karl-Marx-Stadt, from 1966 as opera director at the Nationaltheater Weimar, also lecturing at the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt, Weimar from 1967 to 1972. In 1971, he staged as a guest at the Staatsoper Berlin Die Frau ohne Schatten by Richard Strauss.[3]

Kupfer was opera director at the Staatsoper Dresden from 1972[2] to 1982. In 1973, he staged abroad for the first time: Elektra by Richard Strauss at the Graz Opera. He was from 1977 professor at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber Dresden.[3] In 1978, he was invited to direct Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer at the Bayreuth Festival, conducted by Dennis Russell Davies.[4] He staged the story in a psychological interpretation as the heroine Senta's imaginations and obsessions.[4]

Kupfer was chief director at the Komische Oper Berlin from 1981,[3] a protégé of Walter Felsenstein.[5][6] Simultaneously, he was professor at the Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" in Berlin. At the opera, he staged Mozart operas in the order of their composition, including Die Entführung aus dem Serail in 1982 and Così fan tutte in 1984. He also staged there Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in 1981, Puccini's La Bohème in 1982, Reimann's Lear, Verdi's Rigoletto and Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov in 1983, among many others.[3] He directed there the premiere of Judith by Siegfried Matthus.[2] In 1988, he staged at the Bayreuth Festival Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen.[7][8][9] The Los Angeles Times called the production "high-tech kitsch ... a bizarre stylistic jumble";[10] The Guardian remarked on a Götterdämmerung "full of paltry gimmickry";[11] and The Times commented that "the production gets progressively lazier [and] peters out in the clichés of the day before yesteryear, which Kupfer doubtless thinks the last word in modernity".[12]

Kupfer premiered several operas, including Udo Zimmermann's Levins Mühle at the Staatstheater Dresden in 1973, conducted by Siegfried Kurz.[13] He staged the GDR premiere of Schönberg's Moses und Aron there, also conducted by Kurz in 1975.[14] In 1979, he directed there the world premiere of Zimmermann's Der Schuhu und die fliegende Prinzessin, conducted by Max Pommer,[15] also the premiere of Georg Katzer's Antigone oder die Stadt at the Komische Oper Berlin in 1991, conducted by Jörg-Peter Weigle,[16] the musical Mozart by librettist Michael Kunze and composer Sylvester Levay at the Theater an der Wien in 1999, conducted by Caspar Richter,[17] and in 2000 Reimann's Bernarda Albas Haus, at the Bavarian State Opera, conducted by Zubin Mehta.[17] Kupfer co-wrote the libretto with composer Krzysztof Penderecki of Penderecki's opera Die schwarze Maske. He directed the 1986 world premiere production in Salzburg and the US premiere production at the Santa Fe Opera in 1988.[18]

Kupfer and his wife, the music teacher and soprano Marianne Fischer-Kupfer, had a daughter, Kristiane, who is an actress.[19][20]

He died on 30 December 2019 in Berlin.[1][21][22]

Style

Kupfer worked in the tradition of realistic directing, as developed by Walter Felsenstein and practised especially at the Komische Oper Berlin. The works are interpreted with a focus on implications drawn from them; actions on stage, conflicts and the development of drama are related to the score and to the logic of relationships between the characters. Kupfer always worked individually with the singers, including the choir members, requesting talent for acting and rendering credibility to the actions. Kupfer supported Giorgio Strehler's belief in a "human theatre" ("menschliches Theater"). The characters are, in the tradition of Bertolt Brecht's method of dialectic theatre, always placed in historic political context, which determines their actions at least partly.[23]

Productions

The Akademie der Künste lists several of his productions, including:[24]

Recordings

Among his productions available on DVD are:

Awards

Kupfer was a member of the Akademie der Künste in Berlin, the Freie Akademie der Künste in Hamburg, and the Sächsische Akademie der Künste in Dresden.[2] His awards included:[24]

Bibliography
  • Dieter Kranz: Harry Kupfer inszeniert an der Komischen Oper Berlin. Richard Wagner Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg 1981; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Die Entführung aus dem Serail, 1982; Giacomo Puccini La Bohème, 1982; Aribert Reimann Lear, 1983; Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto, 1983; Modest Mussorgski's Boris Godunov 1983; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Così fan tutte 1984 (Theaterarbeit in der DDR 11, Documentation), Berlin 1987.[3]
  • Dieter Kranz: Der Regisseur Harry Kupfer „Ich muß Oper machen“ Kritiken, Beschreibungen, Gespräche. Berlin 1988.
  • Dieter Kranz: Berliner Theater. 100 Aufführungen aus drei Jahrzehnten, Berlin 1990
  • Dieter Kranz: Der Gegenwart auf der Spur. Der Opernregisseur Harry Kupfer. Henschel, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-89487-522-4

Further reading

Obituaries

References
  1. "Harry Kupfer ist tot". Der Spiegel (in German). Hamburg. dpa. 31 December 2019. Retrieved 31 December 2019.
  2. "Kupfer, Harry". bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de (in German). Retrieved 11 August 2018.
  3. "Harry Kupfer". Staatsoper Berlin (in German). Retrieved 17 August 2018.
  4. Herbort, Heinz Josef (1978). "Oper: "Der fliegende Holländer" in Bayreuth: Senta, ein Psycho-Drama". Die Zeit (in German). Retrieved 18 September 2018.
  5. Luehrs-Kaiser, Kai (12 August 2015). "Harry Kupfer wird 80 – Im Sitzen kann man keine Opern inszenieren". Die Welt (in German). Berlin. Retrieved 17 August 2018.
  6. Davis, Peter G. (18 May 2008). "Aria! Action! Making Opera a Director's Art". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 March 2009.
  7. Rockwell, John (5 August 1988). "The Final 2 Parts of Bayreuth's Ring". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 March 2009.
  8. Breiholz, Jochen (August 2002). "The Age of the Director (VI): The Rise and Fall of Harry Kupfer". andante.com. Archived from the original on 21 June 2008. Retrieved 18 August 2018.
  9. Bernheimer, Martin (15 August 1988). "In Bayreuth, staging a run-and-roll 'Ring'". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia. p. 25. Retrieved 20 May 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. Bernheimer, Martin (14 August 1988). "Kupfer's Controversial New Ring in Bayreuth : High-Tech Kitsch". The Los Angeles Times.
  11. Greenfield, Edward (4 August 1988). "Hollow Ring". The Guardian. London. p. 17. Retrieved 20 May 2020 – via Newspapers.com. Edward Greenfield finds little to applaud as Harry Kupfer's controversial new Ring cycle finishes at Bayreuth
  12. Levin, Bernard (3 September 1988). "Wagner, twaddle and mustard". The Times. p. 35.
  13. Breiholz, Jochen (4 October 2000). "Vergangenheitsbewältigung ohne Nazi-Mantel". Die Welt. Hamburg. Retrieved 2 October 2018.
  14. Ernst, Michael (1 October 2018). "Dummes Volk: 'Moses und Aron' an Dresdens Semperoper". neue musikzeitung. Regensburg. Retrieved 2 October 2018.
  15. Gojowy, Detlef (2002) [1 December 1992]. "Schuhu und die fliegende Prinzessin, Der ('The Bird-Man and the Flying Princess')". Grove Music Online (8th ed.). Oxford University Press.
  16. Herbort, Heinz Josef (22 November 1991). "Der Mythos und die Wirklichkeit". Die Zeit (in German). Hamburg. Retrieved 2 October 2018.
  17. Mozart. Das Musical. musicalvienna.at
  18. Henahan, Donal (2 August 1988). "Murder, Suicide and the Black Plague". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 March 2009.
  19. Hanssen, Frederik (17 September 2008). "Marianne Fischer-Kupfer ist tot". Der Tagesspiegel (in German). Berlin. Retrieved 27 September 2018.
  20. "Danke, Harry Kupfer!". B.Z. (in German). Berlin. 18 July 2002. Retrieved 27 September 2018.
  21. Cooper, Michael (3 January 2020). "Harry Kupfer, Director and 'Opera King of Berlin,' Dies at 84". The New York Times. New York City. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
  22. Millington, Barry (9 January 2020). "Harry Kupfer obituary". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
  23. Kranz, Dieter (2005). Der Gegenwart auf der Spur. Der Opernregisseur Harry Kupfer. Berlin: Henschel. pp. 9–10. ISBN 3-89487-522-4.
  24. "Harry Kupfer". Akademie der Künste (in German). Retrieved 2 October 2018.
  25. Gespenstischer Abschied von Harry Kupfer Die Welt 10 March 2002
  26. Pfaff, Timothy (15 August 1988). "Mutilated in Munich". The San Francisco Examiner. San Francisco. p. 23. Retrieved 20 May 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  27. Yan Tax Archived 2 October 2018 at the Wayback Machine Salzburg Festival
  28. Pachl, Peter P. (8 June 2009). "Harry Kupfer inszeniert Hans Pfitzners "Palestrina" als Stalinistisches Gleichnis". neue musikzeitung (in German). Regensburg. Retrieved 2 October 2018.
  29. Ackermann, Klaus (15 January 2013). "Prokofjews "Der Spieler" / Reif für die Anstalt". Offenbach Post (in German). Retrieved 4 October 2018.
  30. Hanssen, Frederik (12 August 2015). "Harry Kupfer zum 80. Geburtstag Die Kunst ist seine Heimat". Der Tagesspiegel (in German). Retrieved 2 October 2018.
  31. Mahlke, Sybill (4 August 2014). ""Der Rosenkavalier" bei den Salzburger Festspielen – Endlich nicht mehr stubenrein". Der Tagesspiegel (in German). Berlin. Retrieved 18 August 2018.
  32. Hanssen, Frederik (4 October 2016). "Harry Kupfer und sein "Fidelio" – Treu und Glauben". Der Tagesspiegel (in German). Berlin. Retrieved 18 August 2018.
  33. Schreiber, Wolfgang (27 November 2016). "Liebe statt Sex". Süddeutsche Zeitung (in German). Munich. Retrieved 18 August 2018.
  34. Badelt, Udo (18 June 2018). "Hochamt der Apokalypse". Der Tagesspiegel (in German). Berlin. Retrieved 2 October 2018.
  35. Quantrill, Peter (August 2002). "Record of the Month". musicweb-international.com. Retrieved 2 October 2018.
  36. Music Web International Review
  37. Wagner Opera Net review Archived 21 July 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  38. Clements, Andrew (21 December 2007). "Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 March 2009.
  39. Ashman, Mike (2007). "The Gramophone Collection: Wagner's Ring". Gramophone. Retrieved 3 October 2018.
  40. Skramstad, Per-Erik. "Der Ring des Nibelungen". wagneropera.net.
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