Name Michael Leinert | Role Author | |
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Michael Leinert (born 1942 in Meldorf / Schleswig-Holstein, Germany) is a well-known stage director, dramaturg, editor and author. His father, Friedrich Leinert was a respected composer (a pupil of Arnold Schönberg), conductor and Professor of Music in Hannover; Michael Leinert's mother was an operatic and concert singer.
Contents
- Studies and first engagement
- Artistic Director and General Manager
- International engagements
- Successful productions
- Theatre and Drama
- Contemporary Music Theatre
- Translations and Composers Biography
- The Spohr Society of the United States
- The Chamber Opera of Memphis
- Libretti by Michael Leinert A selection
- References
Studies and first engagement
Michael Leinert studied Music (Oboe) at the University for Music in Detmold, German Literature and History of the Arts at the University of Munich. His teachers of Drama and Opera Direction were Professor August Everding, Professor Heinz Arnold and Professor Goetz Friedrich. In 1970 he became a Dramaturg and director for drama and opera at the Theater of Kiel. Following this appointment, came further engagements as Dramaturg and stage director at the Staatstheater Braunschweig, the Hamburgische Staatsoper and at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich. From 1983-1985 he was Oberspielleiter (stage director) at the Landestheater Coburg. In 1985, Michael Leinert became the personal assistant of General-Intendant Tobias Richter at Theater Bremen.
Artistic Director and General Manager
In 1988 he was appointed Artistic Director and General Manager of Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern and from 1991-1999 he was the Artistic Director and General Manager of the Staatstheater Kassel. In autumn 1999 Leinert started his position as Chefdramaturg and stage director of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf-Duisburg (until summer 2006).
Since 2007 he lives with his wife, the well-known opera singer and Professor of Voice Susan Owen-Leinert in Memphis Tennessee.
International engagements
Michael Leinert has been invited to direct plays and operas in Germany, Italy, Denmark, Russia, The United States and Cyprus. He created and directed the first Cypriote Opera "Manoli" by Vassos Arghyrides and Giorgos Neophytou, also the world premiere of Ingomar Gruenauer's Amleth und Fengo in Heidelberg and Jürg Baur's first Chamber opera (Libretto: M. Leinert after Anton Chechov's The novel with the contrabass), in Düsseldorf, 2005. At Florida’s Palm Beach Opera, Leinert directed successfully Samson et Dalila, Richard Wagner's Der Fliegende Holländer and Tannhäuser in 2002.
With great acclaim from International press, he directed in 2002 at the National Theatre of Cyprus in Nicosia the World Premiere of the Greek translation of Goethe's FAUST by the famous poet Nikos Kazantzakis.
At the Chamber Opera of Hamburg he directed Donizetti's Il Borgomastro di Saardam, Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, Giovanni Paisiello's Il barbiere di Siviglia and Richard Wagner's Das Liebesverbot.
In March 2006 he produced successfully the opera Hamlet by Ambroise Thomas at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Düsseldorf - Duisburg.
In March 2007 he was the stage director oft the play Don Juan by Molière with The Cyprus Theatre Organisation THOC in Nicosia / Cyprus.
Successful productions
Michael Leinert's greatest international achievements as a director are: Don Giovanni, Der Ring des Nibelungen (Staatstheater Kassel 1997 - 99), Tristan und Isolde, Tannhäuser, Der Fliegende Holländer (Kassel, Aachen, Festival in Heidenheim, Ferrara, Parma, Padua, Palm Beach Opera / Florida), Wozzeck, Tosca, La Bohème, Madama Butterfly, Il tabarro, Gianni Schicchi, Manon Lescaut, Rigoletto, Jenufa, Sibelius': The maiden in the tower and Rachmaninow's Francesca da Rimini (First Premiere in Germany), Pagliacci, Cavalleria rusticana and Ernst Krenek's Orpheus und Eurydike.
Leinert's stage direction of Jan Cikker's Das Erdbeben in Chile (First Premiere in Germany. opera after the novel of Heinrich von Kleist) got the rating: "Best production of the month" from the Opera Magazine Orpheus International. For his stage direction of Leoncavallo's Pagliacci at the Opera house of Halle he received a nomination in the magazine Opernwelt Year Book 1994/95 (Critic's inquiry) for his "expressive stage direction".
Theatre and Drama
Michael Leinert produced many theatre plays, such as from Friedrich Schiller (Die Braut von Messina, Die Jungfrau von Orleans), Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Faust), Witold Gombrowicz (Yvonne, Prinzessin von Burgund), Jean Racine (Phaedra) and Molière among others. His production of Nikolaj V. Koljada's monodrama Die Amerikanerin (The American woman) was successfully premiered in Germany, Russia and in Greek translation at Skala Theater, Larnaca, Cyprus.
Leinert was the initiator of the First European Drama Award Competition (in connection with the world's greatest exhibition for Modern Art: documenta IX in Kassel, 1992), promoted by Sir Peter Ustinov and Professor August Everding.1150 plays were submitted from 29 European countries.
Contemporary Music Theatre
He performed also successfully experimental authors and modern music composers as Mauricio Kagel (Presentation, Pas de cinq, Himmelsmechanik, etc.), John Cage (Theatre piece, 4:33), Bent Lorentzen (Perogolesi's Home Service, Fackeltanz), Wilfried Hiller (IJOB - world premiere at the Bavarian State Opera of Munich, Opera Festival 1979 with Lorenz Fehenberger, tenor), Hans - Joachim Hespos (Nachtvorstellung, world premiere 1886 in Bremen/Concordia), György Ligeti (Rondeau), Jörg Wyttenbach (Streichquartett), Manfred Trojahn, Dieter Schnebel (Nostalgie - Solo for conductor without an orchestra), Manfred Niehaus, Marc Neikrug (Through roses), Karlheinz Stockhausen, Hans Jürgen von Bose (BLUTBUND, world premiere at Hamburgische Staatsoper); among others.
Translations and Composer's Biography
Leinert translated Jean Sibelius' Maiden in the tower into the German language as well as Gaetano Donizetti's Il pazzi per progetto and Tom Johnson's The four note opera. He has written and directed many Radio Plays, several opera libretti and three musical plays for children.
His biography of the German Romantic Composer Carl Maria von Weber is published in the fifth edition by the well-known Rowohlt Verlag (Serie Monografien) and has been translated into Swedish and Chinese.
The Spohr Society of the United States
Together with Susan Owen-Leinert he founded the Spohr Society of the United States of America and edited the first complete and critical edition of Louis Spohr’s Lieder in 12 vols. with the publisher Dohr in Cologne, Germany.
Michael Leinert has taught as a Guest Professor of Opera History and Opera Literature and Drama at the Universities of Bremen, Braunschweig, Hamburg and Munich. At Robert-Schumann-Hochschule Düsseldorf he gave lessons in stage direction for the Opera Department. He was one of the directors of the Memphis Opera & Song Academy at the University of Memphis, Tennessee, USA, a summer academy for singers.
The Chamber Opera of Memphis
Michael Leinert was for many years the Artistic Director of several Studios for Contemporary Experimental Music Theatre in Germany, for example in Kiel, where he was also the Director of "Musica nova" (1970 - 1974); later in Braunschweig, Coburg, at the Hamburgische Staatsoper (Opera stabile), at the Bayerische Staatsoper Munich (together with Walter Haupt) and in Bremen. In Memphis, Tennessee, he founded together with his wife, Prof. Susan Owen-Leinert, the Chamber Opera of Memphis, a forum for contemporary Music Theater.