Wolfgang Rennert

Wolfgang Rennert (1 April 1922 – 24 March 2012) was a German conductor. He focused on opera, at the Frankfurt Opera, Staatsoper Berlin, Mannheim National Theatre and the Semperoper, among others. Regarded as a specialist in Mozart, Wagner and Strauss, he was a guest conductor at international opera houses including the Royal Opera House in London, the San Francisco Opera and the Dallas Opera.

Career

Born in Cologne, Rennert was the youngest son of the district school councillor Alfred Traugott Rennert (born 1879) and Adelheid Rennert, née Nettesheim.[1] The eldest of his brothers, Günther Rennert, became an opera director. Wolfgang Rennert completed his training at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, studying conducting with Clemens Krauss and composition with Johann Nepomuk David.[1] In 1947 he started as a répétiteur at the Opernhaus Düsseldorf. From 1950 to 1953 he was principal conductor and Kapellmeister at the Opernhaus Kiel; until 1967 he was principal conductor and deputy general music director of the Frankfurt Opera, and then principal conductor of the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz in Munich. In the 1968/69 season, Hans Pischner engaged him for the first time as guest conductor at the Staatsoper Berlin in East Berlin, and from 1972 onwards, with an extended contract, as musical director there.[2] Until the end of the 1970s, Rennert worked in Berlin with stage directors such as Ruth Berghaus, Erhard Fischer, Harry Kupfer and Luca Ronconi.[2] He conducted new productions of works including Weber's Oberon, Verdi's Falstaff and Othello, Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, Richard Strauss' Salome, and Alban Berg's Wozzeck.[1] After the German reunification, he conducted at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden until the mid-1990s.

From 1980 to 1985 he was general music director and opera director at the Mannheim National Theatre. As a specialist in Richard Strauss, Mozart and Wagner, he received engagements from abroad, including the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, the San Francisco Opera and the Dallas Opera.[2] In the 1970s and 1980s, he conducted extensively in Italy. He was principal guest conductor in Copenhagen starting in 1985 and in Lisbon in the 1990s. In 1991 he began a fruitful musical working phase as a permanent guest conductor of the Semperoper in Dresden, where his last productions were Mozart's Don Giovanni and Die Zauberflöte in 2008.[2]

Memorial for Wolfgang Rennert and family

He died in Berlin and was buried in the Dorotheenstadt Cemetery.

Recordings

Rennert recorded Kurt Weill's Die Dreigroschenoper with members of the Frankfurt Opera in 1969.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Wolfgang Rennert. Munzinger Biographien (in German). Retrieved 12 October 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Dirigent Wolfgang Rennert gestorben". Die Welt (in German). 27 March 2012. Retrieved 12 October 2018.
  3. ↑ Weill, Members Of The Frankfurt Opera, Frankfurt Opera Orchestra*, Wolfgang Rennert – The Threepenny Opera. Discogs. Retrieved 12 October 2018.
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