Peter Konwitschny

Peter Konwitschny (born 21 January 1945 in Frankfurt am Main) is a German opera and theatre director.

Peter Konwitschny grew up in Leipzig, where his father Franz Konwitschny was principal conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. After an aborted study of physics, he studied theatre direction from 1965 until 1970 in Berlin.

In the 1970s, Konwitschny worked as an assistant director with Ruth Berghaus at the Berliner Ensemble. From 1980 onwards he chiefly worked as a free-lance director. During this period he directed both opera and theatre productions in Berlin, Halle, Greifswald and . From 1986 until 1990 he was chief director of the Landestheater Halle. His Handel productions Rinaldo, Aci, Galatea e Polifemo and Tamerlano, as well as Rigoletto and Carmen received high acclaim.

Even though Konwitschny had already directed operas in West Germany (Bluebeard's Castle, Kassel, 1987, and Fidelio, Basel, 1989), it was only after the fall of the Berlin Wall, that his international career took off. After Puccini and Rossini operas in Graz, Leipzig and Basel, Konwitschny turned to Wagner: Parsifal (1995, Bavarian State Opera), Tannhäuser (1997, Dresden Semperoper), Lohengrin (1998, Hamburg State Opera), Tristan und Isolde (1998, Bavarian State Opera), and a highly acclaimed Götterdämmerung (2000, Staatsoper Stuttgart).

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