Caspar Richter

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Caspar Richter
Bespectacled man with neat, short, greying hair and beard, and receding hairline.
Caspar Richter c. 2000
Born(1944-09-16)16 September 1944
Lübeck
Died2 February 2023(2023-02-02) (aged 78)
OccupationConductor
Organizations

Caspar Richter (16 September 1944 – 2 February 2023) was a German conductor. He worked from 1969 at the

Volksoper. He was co-founder and chief conductor of the Vereinigte Bühnen Wien from 1987 for 23 years, focused on the production of new musicals such as Elisabeth and German premieres of popular musicals such as A Chorus Line
.

Life and career

Caspar Richter was born in

Bach's works, and learned to play piano and organ.[3] His organ teacher, Georg Goebel), introduced him to the works of Olivier Messiaen.[3] He played the piano at a dancing bar in Travemünde on weekends.[3]

Richter studied at the

Musikhochschule Hamburg,[3][4] besides conducting composition, piano and percussion.[1][3] As a student, he founded an ensemble for contemporary music,[3][5] and was assistant to the choral conductor Helmut Franz.[3]

Berlin

In 1969

Die lustige Witwe,[2] staged by August Everding with Gwyneth Jones and René Kollo in the leading roles,[5] and Offenbach's Die Banditen.[2] He also conducted the RIAS-Jugendorchester for several years.[5]

Vienna

Richter followed Maazel to the Vienna State Opera in 1982,[4] where he conducted a few operas, Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Alban Berg's Wozzeck,[6] and many ballets including Prokofiev's Romeo und Julia and Josephs Legende by Richard Strauss[1] in 1982, in 1983 Baier's Die Puppenfee, Tchaikovsky's Dornröschen and Schwanensee, in 1984 Der Nussknacker, and in 1987 De Falla's Der Dreispitz.[6]

Richter first conducted at the

Hänsel und Gretel and Puccini's Der Mantel and Gianni Schicchi. He led operettas including Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss and Orpheus in der Unterwelt.[7]

In Vienna, he was a co-founder of the orchestra of the Vereinigte Bühnen Wien,[8] focused on musicals, and conducted it for 23 years.[8] The orchestra served the Theater an der Wien, the Raimund Theater and the Ronacher.[8] According to his obituary in Wiener Zeitung, the classically trained Richter saw no fundamental difference between "light music" and complex classical music as long as works met his standards.[1] They performed the world premieres of first Freudiana in 1990, Elisabeth, Mozart!, Wake Up [de] in 2002 and Rebecca,[8][9] and the premieres in German of A Chorus Line,[8] Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera[4] and Romeo et Juliette.[8] He also conducted the orchestra for the world premiere of Gottfried von Einem's Tulifant [de] at the Ronacher in 1990, and took Elisabeth on a tour to Japan.[8] He conducted contemporary classical music.[5] by composers such as Antonio Bibalo, Boris Blacher, Luigi Dallapiccola, Hans Werner Henze and Aribert Reimann.[1]

Later years

After retiring from the Vereinigte Bühnen Wien, Richter became chief conductor of the Oper Brünn and honorary conductor of the Brünn State Philharmonic.[1]

He performed the world premiere of Joe Zawinul's First Symphony at the Brucknerfest in Linz. He recorded the complete orchestral works by Erich Wolfgang Korngold with the Bruckner Orchestra Linz.[1]

Richter died on 2 February 2023.[5][1]

Awards and honors

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Baumgartner, Edwin (3 February 2023). "Nachruf - Caspar Richter gestorben". Wiener Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 18 January 2024.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Im Gedenken an Caspar Richter". Deutsche Oper Berlin (in German). 2 February 2023. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Kähler, Jutta (2019). "Von Lübeck in die Welt: Caspar Richter" (PDF). Lübeckische Blätter [de] (in German). No. 184. pp. 26–28. Retrieved 18 January 2024.
  4. ^ a b c d e "Die Deutsche Musical Akademie trauert um Caspar Richter". Deutsche Musical Akademie (in German). 2 February 2023. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Hanssen, Frederik (3 February 2023). "Dirigent Caspar Richter ist tot: Stilistisch grenzenlos". Der Tagesspiegel (in German). Retrieved 18 January 2024.
  6. ^ a b "Vorstellungen mit Caspar Richter" (in German). Vienna State Opera. 2023. Retrieved 21 February 2024.
  7. Volksoper
    . February 2023. Retrieved 21 February 2024.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g "Ehemaliger VBW-Musikdirektor Caspar Richter 78-jährig gestorben". Der Standard (in German). APA. 3 February 2023. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  9. ^ "Einstiger VBW-Musikdirektor Caspar Richter gestorben: Der Dirigent, der den Stil der Wiener Musicals maßgeblich prägte, wurde 78 Jahre alt". Kurier. 3 February 2023.

External links

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