Biography
Immediately after completing his philosophy studies in Geneva, Tobias Richter obtained his first engagement: as assistant director at Grand Théâtre de Genève. He spent several years of apprenticeship as assistant to Götz Friedrich. After the position was assumed by August Everding, he went over to the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, where he collaborated with Jean-Pierre Ponnell. He launched his stage director’s career in 1980, working, for example, in Lyon, Paris, Aix en Provence, Naples, Verona and Venice. He is the author of a documentary film about Karl Richter made for ZDF. In 1982 Tobias Richter became commissary intendant at the State Theatre in Kassel. In 1985 he assumed the position of general intendant in Bremen.
Since 1996 he has worked as the general intendant of Deutsche Oper am Rhein, where his productions have included the operas La nozze di Figaro, Don Pasquale, Così fan tutte, Orpheus in the Underworld, The White Lady and Strauss’ Capriccio. Tobias Richter pays great attention to promoting young artists. He has been a participant in intensive exchange programmes with opera houses, among them Paris’ Opéra-Comique and Teatro La Fenice in Venice. In 1998 he became a professor at the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf. In the spring of 2003 he was awarded the Chevalier de l´Ordre des Arts et des Lettres de la Republique Francaise. Tobias Richter has regularly collaborated with leading art designers creating sets for opera stages (Markus Lüpertz, Jörg Immendorf and Arlbert Oehlen, to name just three.).