David Pountney
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David Pountney (born 10 September 1947) is a British theater and opera director. He has a reputation for staging rarely-performed operas.
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[edit] Biography
Pountney was born in Oxford and educated at St John's College, Cambridge. From 1975 to 1980, he was the Director of Productions at Scottish Opera, and, from 1982 to 1993, Director of Productions at English National Opera, where he directed over twenty operas. From 1993 to 2004, he worked as a free-lance director at the Zurich Opera, the Vienna State Opera, the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, and other houses in America, Japan, and the United Kingdom. He has also directed at the Wexford Festival, De Nederlandse Opera and Opera Australia. In December 2003 he became the Intendant of the Bregenz Festival.
He has worked as a librettist for Sir Peter Maxwell Davies on The Doctor of Myddfai and Mr Emmet Takes a Walk, and has translated opera librettos into English from Russian, Czech, German, and Italian.
Pountney lives in France.
[edit] Selected Productions
- Janáček cycle: Jenufa, From the House of the Dead, The Makropulos Case, Káťa Kabanová, and The Cunning Little Vixen (Scottish Opera, in collaboration with the Welsh National Opera)
- Toussaint (by David Blake; 1977, English National Opera, premier)
- Rusalka (English National Opera)
- Osud (English National Opera)
- The Midsummer Marriage (English National Opera)
- Doktor Faust (English National Opera)
- Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (English National Opera)
- Königskinder (English National Opera)
- Hänsel und Gretel (English National Opera)
- The Adventures of Mr Broucek (English National Opera)
- The Fairy Queen (English National Opera)
- Julietta (Opera North)
- The Greek Passion (Bregenz Festival)
- Masquerade (Nielsen) (Bregenz Festival, and also Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in Fall 2005)
- Der Kuhhandel (Bregenz Festival and Opera North)
[edit] Honors
Pountney is a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (a French civilian honor), and a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire).