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Biographies
The Ring Team
Michael Schønwandt
Born 1953. One of the most popular conductors of his generation, ever since his 1977 debut in Tivoli Gardens. He has been principal conductor of Collegium Musicum since the orchestra was founded in 1981. He was the principal guest conductor at the opera and symphony orchestra in Nice 1987-1991, and principal guest conductor of the Radio Symphony Orchestra 1989-2000. Finally, he was principal conductor of the Berliner Sinfonie Orchester 1992-98. He performs frequently with the leading orchestras in Europe's finest opera houses, including the Berlin Philharmonic, the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, the French Radio Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He is also a regular visitor to opera house stages in London, Paris, Vienna, Brussels, Nice, and Stuttgart.
In 1987 and 1988, Schønwandt was the first Scandinavian conductor ever to conduct the Wagner Festival at Bayreuth. Michael Schønwandt received the Danish Music Awards Classical in 2001 for his recording of Poul Ruders’ opera The Handmaid’s Tale. He has also received numerous awards and honours including the Carl Nielsen Award in 1997. In 2000 he accepted the position of Music Director at the Royal Danish Theatre, where he has conducted numerous operas since 1979.
Kasper Bech Holten
Born 1973 and
one of the leading directors of his generation. He is the Artistic Director of
the Royal Danish Opera, and has staged more than 40 operas, plays, and musicals
in Denmark, Sweden, Austria, France, Latvia, and Iceland. Among his productions
are: Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet at Aalborg Theatre, Tchaikovsky's
Pique Dame and Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre at the Royal Danish Theatre, and
Verdi’s La traviata and Heise’s King and Marshall at the National Danish Opera.
He has also staged musicals such as Rent and Taming of the Shrew. His critically
acclaimed stagings of Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier, Donizetti’s Lucia di
Lammermoor, and Menotti’s Goya and Le Grand Macabre appeared in Lyon, Stockholm
and Vienna. His stagings have won Reumert Awards for the past three years and in
2001 he received a Reumert Award for best director. The international journal,
OpernWelt, nominated him Director of The Year in 1996 and 2000. He was Artistic
Director of the Aarhus Summer Opera from 1996-99 and a member of the Danish
Music Council from 1995-1999. He was assigned to the Royal Danish Theatre as
artistic director of the Royal Danish Opera in 2000.
Marie í Dali
Graduated as a set designer at the Wimbledon School of Arts in 1993. She held her debut in Copenhagen with designs for Wayne Siegel’s multimedia opera Signs of Life in 1994, which was directed by Kasper Bech Holten. Since then Marie í Dali and Kasper Bech Holten have collaborated on numerous opera and musical productions: Bent Sørensen’s Tristan Variations at the Kaleidoskop Theatre in 1996, Mozart’s Don Giovanni at Amager Bio in 1997 and Le nozze di Figaro at Aarhus Sommeropera in 1999, Lars Kilt’s Anatomisk Opera at Den Anden Opera in 1998, John Frandsen’s Vice and Virtue in the Middletime, part 1 at Aarhus Sommeropera in 1998 and Adam and James Price’s musical version of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew at Gladsaxe Theatre in 1999. Furthermore, Marie í Dali has created set design for plays at Odense Theatre, Aarhus Theatre, and Gladsaxe Theatre. During the 2000-2001 season, she held her debut at the Royal Danish Theatre with Tchaikovsky’s Pique Dame, and in 2002 she created set and costume design for Kasper Bech Holten’s staging of Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier in Lyon.
Steffen Aarfing
Trained at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts School of Architecture in Copenhagen. He is one of Danish theatre’s most prolific set designers and sine 1980 he has designed sets and costumes for more than 100 domestic and international productions, frequently engaged at the Royal Danish Theatre, the Betty Nansen Theatre, Aalborg Theatre and many more. He has previously worked with Kasper Bech Holten on Mozart's La clemenza di Tito for the Aarhus Summer Opera, on Donizetti's L’elisir d'Amore for the Icelandic Opera, Verdi's La traviata, Heise's King and Marshall at the National Danish Opera, Wolfgang Reihm's Jacob Lenz at Neue Oper, Vienna, and Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre at the Royal Danish Theatre and in San Francisco. Steffen Aarfing has furthermore created Production Design for Danish filmmaker Ole Bornedal’s grand production of Dina’s Book in collaboration with set designer Marie í Dali.
Jesper Kongshaug
Has performed illuminating magic for theatre, TV, and film for more than 20 years. He is a frequent guest at the Royal Theatre, where he most recently designed the lighting for Mozart's Die Zauberflöte in 1998, Kunzen's Holger the Dane, Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre in 2001, and John Frandsen’s I-K-O-N™ in 2003. From 1993 to 1996, John Kongshaug created lighting design for the National Danish Opera’s staging of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen. Jesper Kongshaug adopts a radical and innovative approach with a great sense of scenic image and style. He embraces a traditional as well as experimental idiom. Jesper Kongshaug made his mark during Copenhagen’s European City of Culture year in 1996 when he created a light installation that stretched all the way from suburban Avedøre to downtown Copenhagen.
Henrik Engelbrecht
Born 1964.
Head of Dramaturgy at the Royal Danish Opera since 2000, responsible for
dramaturgy, both for individual productions and at the institutional level. He
advises the Artistic Director on reperoire and casting and assists composers and
writers on new commissions and he is responsible for the company's outreach and
access programmes. Henrik Engelbrecht graduated from the Royal Academy of Music
in Copenhagen in 1989. From 1992 he worked as music presenter at the Danish
Broadcasting Corporation and was 1997-2000 Head of Opera for DBC. He is the
auther of several book and noumerous articles on music and opera, was for a
number of years a regular writer for Gramophone, and lectures widely on opera at
all levels from universities to public schools.
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The four operas
Das Rheingold
Die Walküre
Siegfried
Götterdämmerung
Articles
Kasper Bech Holten:
The Complex Hero
Kasper Bech Holten:
Siegfried on the
Drawing Board
Gallery
See the photos from Siegfried
Biographies
The Ring Team...
Cast
See the cast
Biographies are available at www.kglteater.dk
Siegfried is sponsored by the Bikuben Foundation
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