Werner Hintze

Biography

The author and dramaturg, who grew up in Potsdam and Berlin, studied theatre studies at Humboldt University in Berlin, among others with Rudolf Münz, Joachim Fiebach, Ernst Schumacher and Gerd Rienäcker. After completing his degree, he took up his first engagement in 1985 at Landestheater Halle, subsequently worked at the Sächsische Staatsoper (Semperoper) Dresden, and then became Chief Dramaturg at the Hans-Otto-Theater Potsdam. From 2002 to 2012 he served as Chief Dramaturg of the Komische Oper Berlin. Since 2012, he has been living in Berlin working freelance as a dramaturg, author and university lecturer. He has maintained long-standing and close collaborations with directors such as Peter Konwitschny, Andreas Baumann and Sebastian Baumgarten, and has worked as a guest dramaturg at opera houses in Munich, Hamburg, Dresden, Essen, Copenhagen, Frankfurt am Main, Moscow, Basel, Zurich and elsewhere. He has collaborated regularly with Andreas Homoki since 1998, most recently contributing to Homoki’s acclaimed production of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen at Opernhaus Zürich. Since 1985, he has created—primarily in collaboration with Bettina Bartz—more than 30 German-language text versions of operas by W. A. Mozart, G. F. Handel, Ch. W. Gluck, G. Donizetti, G. Verdi, G. Puccini, D. Auber, G. Bizet, M. Ravel, L. Janáček, A. Dvořák, P. I. Tchaikovsky and N. Rimsky-Korsakov, commissioned by the Komische Oper and other theatres. Many of these versions have been and continue to be taken up by other theatres or presented at festivals. Alongside his theatrical work, Werner Hintze teaches directing, stage design and theatre studies students at various universities in Germany.