Director Jürgen Flimm has died

He directed all over the world
Director Jürgen Flimm has died

Jürgen Flimm was 81 years old.

© Emily Wabitsch / DPA

He did opera, theatre, film and television: Jürgen Flimm was, among other things, director of the Hamburg Thalia Theater and the Berlin State Opera Unter den Linden. Now the important director has died.

The director and director Jürgen Flimm is dead. He died on Saturday at the age of 81, as the Berlin State Opera Unter den Linden announced. First of all, the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger” reported about it.

Born on July 17, 1941 to a Protestant family of doctors, Flimm studied theater studies, German and sociology in Cologne. He began his directing career in 1968 as an assistant to Fritz Kortner and Claus Peymann at the Munich Kammerspiele. As a theater director he earned merits in Cologne from 1979 to 1985. As artistic director from 1985 to 2000, he made Hamburg’s Thalia Theater the most visited stage in Germany.

Flimm was “art-loving, sly and in love with the public”

Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz paid tribute to Flimm. “Whether theatre, opera, TV or cinema – Jürgen Flimm has renewed and shaped the stages as a director and artistic director – in Hamburg, the Ruhr area, Salzburg, Bayreuth, Berlin,” wrote the SPD politician on his Twitter account. “His big heart, his confidence and his fine sense of humor will now be missed.”

Berlin’s Senator for Culture Klaus Lederer wrote on Twitter: “Although at home artistically all over the world and professionally connected to many German stages, he always radiated the open and humorous nature of his Rhenish homeland. It was precisely his humor and his openness that made Jürgen Flimm in my early years as a senator to a close adviser and good friend.”

The manager of the Thalia Theater in Hamburg, Joachim Lux, spoke of a passionate theater person. “Jürgen Flimm was one of the outstanding directors of the republic, art-loving, sly and in love with the public,” Lux told the dpa in Hamburg. Flimm headed the Hamburg theater from 1985 to 2000. “He threw himself in front of his Thalia like a lion whenever it was necessary, and that was not uncommon. In Cologne as well as in Hamburg, he repeatedly made artists possible who even outshone his own considerable fame – that includes size.”

Hamburg’s Senator for Culture, Carsten Brosda, described Flimm as a theater legend. “Jürgen Flimm not only shaped the Thalia Theater. Also as President of the Theater Association and on many stages, he left important artistic marks with irrepressible creativity and captivating storytelling. He will be missed!”, tweeted the SPD politician.

Jürgen Flimm worked in Berlin, New York, London, Vienna

Flimm directed the Ruhrtriennale and the Salzburg Festival (2006-2010). From 2010 to 2018 he was director of the Berlin State Opera Unter den Linden. He has worked at La Scala in Milan, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden London, the Vienna State Opera, the Metropolitan Opera New York and the Bayreuth and Salzburg Festivals, among others.

He received mixed reactions with his Bayreuth “Ring des Nibelungen”, as did his collaboration with Nikolaus Harnoncourt on Henry Purcell’s “King Arthur” in Salzburg. He was celebrated undividedly in New York with Beethoven’s “Fidelio”, which was named the best opera production of the year by the “New York Times”.

He was also a director in film and television productions and also worked as an actor.

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