David Pountney
Guest of the OperaBiography
David Pountney became internationally known through his production of Janáček’s Katya Kabanova at the 1972 Wexford Festival. Between 1976–1981, he was Director of Production for Scottish Opera. His productions there featured a Janáček cycle in collaboration with Welsh National Opera. He was Director of Productions at English National Opera, 1982–1992, directing over twenty operas including Rusalka, Osud/The Fate,The Midsummer Marriage, Doctor Faust, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Hansel and Gretel, The Adventures of Mr Brouček andThe Fairy Queen. As a freelance director from 1992 he has worked regularly in Zurich, at the Vienna State Opera, at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich as well as in America and Japan, and in the UK he has a long-standing association with Opera North. Since 2003 he has been Intendant at the Bregenz Festival and since 2011 he has been Chief Executive and Artistic Director of Welsh National Opera. He has directed over ten world premieres, including three by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies for which he also wrote the libreto, and Die Spüren der Verirrten by Philip Glass, which opened the new opera house in Linz in April 2013. He has translated many operas into English from Russian, Czech, German and Italian. His recent productions include Prince Igor (Zurich and Hamburg); Kommilitonen, his third opera written in collaboration with Davies (Juilliard School, New York); Lulu (Welsh National Opera) and Die Zauberflöte (Bregenz Seebühne). His forthcoming productions include Simon Boccanegra for Prague and Weinberg’s The Passenger for Houston. His productions have twice won an Olivier award. David Pountney was made a CBE and a Chevalier of the French Order of Arts and Lettres. In April 2013, he received the Cavalier's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland.
Update: September 2013
Photo: Karl Foster