Götz Friedrich

Götz Friedrich (August 4, 1930 in Naumburg, Germany – December 12, 2000 in Berlin, Germany) was a German opera and theatre director. He was a student and assistant of Walter Felsenstein at the Komische Oper Berlin in (East) Berlin, where he went on to direct his early productions. He first came to international prominence with a controversial 1972 production of Wagner's Tannhäuser at Bayreuth. He defected to the West whilst working on a productio... more

Götz Friedrich (August 4, 1930 in Naumburg, Germany – December 12, 2000 in Berlin, Germany) was a German opera and theatre director. He was a student and assistant of Walter Felsenstein at the Komische Oper Berlin in (East) Berlin, where he went on to direct his early productions. He first came to international prominence with a controversial 1972 production of Wagner's Tannhäuser at Bayreuth. He defected to the West whilst working on a production of Jenufa in Stockholm later the same year. From 1972-81 he was principal director at the Hamburg State Opera. Between 1977 and 1981 he was also director of productions at the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden in London, where he staged the first British performances of the three-act completion of Berg's Lulu. In 1981 he took up the post of general director of the Deutsche Oper Berlin where he stayed until his death in 2000, staging productions across the whole of the operatic repertoire. He was partciularly known for his productions of... less