On the death of
Hans Neuenfels

The Opernhaus Zürich mourns Hans Neuenfels, who died on February 6 at the age of 80. Neuenfels, a German director, playwright, author, and intellectual, was one of the most important operatic directors of the last fifty years. His productions set new standards for staging, incited controversy, and wrote theatrical history. His legendary «Aida», which premiered in Frankfurt in the 1980s, unleashed choruses of boos and bomb threats alike; it was the dawn of a new age of operatic interpretation. Neuenfels took established works in the repertoire, and set them free from conventional readings. He set their action in modern society, exposed their contradictions, and plumbed the depths of character development.

He confronted an opera’s existence with its own performance history. And with his surreal pictorial imagination and unexpected relational concepts, he continually shaped opera as an art form into a sensually spectacular theatrical event.

Hans Neuenfels led the self-described Richard-Wagner-Fantasie «Wie ich Welt wurde» at the Opernhaus Zürich in 2013. Four years later, the directed the opera «Orest» by Manfred Trojahn. He also enjoyed a close artistic relationship with Intendant Andreas Homoki: Neuenfals was a central directorial presence at Homoki’s former artistic home, the Komische Oper in Berlin.