Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1989-0609-543, Bayreuth, Martha Fuchs, Tietjen, Andresen

Heinz Tietjen (24 June 1881 – 30 November 1967) was a German conductor and music producer born in

Tangier Tangier ( ; ; ar, طنجة, Ṭanja) is a city in northwestern Morocco. It is on the Moroccan coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel. The town is the capi ...

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...

Biography

Tietjen was born in

, Morocco. At age twenty-three, he held the position of producer at the

Opera House An opera house is a theatre building used for performances of opera. It usually includes a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and building sets. While some venues are constructed specifically fo ...

Trier Trier ( , ; lb, Tréier ), formerly known in English as Trèves ( ;) and Triers (see also names in other languages), is a city on the banks of the Moselle in Germany. It lies in a valley between low vine-covered hills of red sandstone in the ...

and was appointed its director in 1907, holding the dual roles until 1922. Simultaneously, he was the director at Saarbrücken and Breslau (now

Wrocław Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, rou ...

, Poland) from 1919 to 1922. Tietjen was the director of the

Deutsche Oper Berlin The Deutsche Oper Berlin is a German opera company located in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin. The resident building is the country's second largest opera house (after Munich's) and also home to the Berlin State Ballet. Since 2004, the D ...

between 1925 and 1927, then director of the Prussian State Theatre. Among his productions at this time was the Berlin premiere of

Hans Gál Hans Gál OBE (5 August 1890 – 3 October 1987) was an Austrian composer, pedagogue, musicologist, and author, who emigrated to the United Kingdom in 1938. Life Gál was born to a Jewish family in the small village of Brunn am Gebirge, Low ...

's 1923 opera, '' Die heilige Ente''. From 1931 to 1944, Tietjen served as artistic director at the

Bayreuth Festspielhaus The ''Bayreuth Festspielhaus'' or Bayreuth Festival Theatre (german: link=no, Bayreuther Festspielhaus, ) is an opera house north of Bayreuth, Germany, built by the 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner and dedicated solely to the performa ...

for

Winifred Wagner Winifred Marjorie Wagner ( Williams; 23 June 1897 – 5 March 1980) was the English-born wife of Siegfried Wagner, the son of Richard Wagner, and ran the Bayreuth Festival after her husband's death in 1930 until the end of World War II in 1 ...

with whom he had a romantic liaison. In 1948 he returned to direct the Deutsche Oper Berlin, serving until 1955 when he was appointed manager and artistic director of the new Hamburg State Opera, a job he held until 1959. Heinz Tietjen died in 1967 in

Baden-Baden Baden-Baden () is a spa town in the state of Baden-Württemberg, south-western Germany, at the north-western border of the Black Forest mountain range on the small river Oos, ten kilometres (six miles) east of the Rhine, the border with Fra ...

References

1881 births 1967 deaths 20th-century German people 20th-century German conductors (music) German male conductors (music) General directors of the Berlin State Opera People from Tangier Knights Commander of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany 20th-century German male musicians German expatriates in Morocco {{Germany-conductor-stub