Siegfried Matthus (13 April 1934 – 27 August 2021) was a German composer, conductor, and festival founder and manager. Some of his operas, such as ''

Judith The Book of Judith is a deuterocanonical book included in the Septuagint and the Catholic Church, Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Christian Old Testament of the Bible but Development of the Hebrew Bible canon, excluded from the ...

'', were premiered at the

Komische Oper Berlin The Komische Oper Berlin is a German opera company based in Berlin. The company produces operas, operettas and musicals. The opera house is located on Behrenstraße, near Unter den Linden. Since 2004, the Komische Oper Berlin, along with the Be ...

East Berlin East Berlin (; ) was the partially recognised capital city, capital of East Germany (GDR) from 1949 to 1990. From 1945, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet occupation sector of Berlin. The American, British, and French se ...

. In 1991, he founded the chamber opera festival Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg and directed it until 2018. In 2005, he composed a Te Deum for the reopening of the Dresden Frauenkirche. Matthus is considered one of Germany's most often performed contemporary composers.

Biography

Matthus was born in (now in Ozyorsky District),

East Prussia East Prussia was a Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1772 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 1871); following World War I it formed part of the Weimar Republic's ...

. His father was a farmer and played for entertainment and dancing. His father made sure that the son received piano lessons. In 1944, his parents fled with him to in the Ruppin district. Matthus attended secondary school in

Rheinsberg Rheinsberg () is a town and a municipality in the Ostprignitz-Ruppin district, in Brandenburg, in north-eastern Germany. It is located on lake and the river Rhin, approximately north-east of Neuruppin and north-west of Berlin. History Freder ...

, followed by studies at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin. After graduating, he continued his studies in composition with Rudolf Wagner-Régeny and

Hanns Eisler Hanns Eisler (6 July 1898 – 6 September 1962) was a German-Austrian composer. He is best known for composing the national anthem of East Germany, for his long artistic association with Bertolt Brecht, and for the scores he wrote for films. The ...

, and was shortly thereafter made the youngest composer in residence in the history of the

Walter Felsenstein Walter Felsenstein (30 May 1901 – 8 October 1975) was an Austrian theater and opera director. He was one of the most important exponents of textual accuracy, productions in which dramatic and musical values were exquisitely researched and b ...

Stage works

Matthus composed more than a dozen stage works. The opera ''Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke'' (''Cornet Christoph Rilke's song of love and death '') after

Rainer Maria Rilke René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was an Austrian poet and novelist. Acclaimed as an Idiosyncrasy, idiosyncratic and expressive poet, he is widely recognized as ...

was completed in 1983, first performed in Dresden in 1985, and performed also by the Glyndebourne Touring Opera in 1993. The opera ''Graf Mirabeau'' (1987–88) is set during the French Revolution. It was commissioned for the 200th anniversary of

Bastille Day Bastille Day is the common name given in English-speaking countries to the national day of France, which is celebrated on 14 July each year. It is referred to, both legally and commonly, as () in French, though ''la fête nationale'' is also u ...

and enjoyed simultaneous productions in both East and West Germany as well as

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

, the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and France. The opera was recorded by the

Berlin State Opera The Staatsoper Unter den Linden ( State Opera under the Lime Trees), also known as the Berlin State Opera (), is a listed building on Unter den Linden boulevard in the historic center of Berlin, Germany. The opera house was built by order of P ...

. Other opera recordings include his

Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

-based "opera vision" ''

'' (1984) by Komische Oper Berlin and ''Der letzte Schuss'' with the

Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra The Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra (''Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin'') is a German symphony orchestra based in Berlin. In Berlin, the orchestra gives concerts at the Konzerthaus Berlin and at the Berliner Philharmonie. The orchestra has a ...

. In 2003 he composed music for both a ballet and an opera adaptation of Michael Ende's ''

The Neverending Story ''The Neverending Story'' () is a fantasy novel by German writer Michael Ende, published in 1979. The first English translation, by Ralph Manheim, was published in 1983. It was later adapted into a film series and a television series. Plot T ...

''.

Orchestral music

Matthus was a prolific composer of works for orchestra as well as chamber and recital compositions. In 1979, ''Responso'', a four-movement

symphony A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning c ...

was played by the Dresdner Staatskapelle in front of the UN in New York City with a worldwide broadcast. He enjoyed a close working relationship with conductor

Kurt Masur Kurt Masur (; 18 July 192719 December 2015) was a German Conducting, conductor. Called "one of the last old-style maestros", he directed many of the principal orchestras of his era. He had a long career as the Kapellmeister of the Leipzig Gewand ...

who presented many world premieres of his music. Masur also conducted what Matthus called "the commission of my life", a

Te Deum The ( or , ; from its incipit, ) is a Latin Christian hymn traditionally ascribed to a date before AD 500, but perhaps with antecedents that place it much earlier. It is central to the Ambrosian hymnal, which spread throughout the Latin ...

for the reopening of the Dresden Frauenkirche after restoration, broadcast live on 11 November 2005. His works are featured on more than twenty recordings by several of Germany's leading symphony orchestras and chamber music ensembles. His 1975 Cello Concerto and his Second Symphony were recorded in 1978 by cellist Josef Schwab and the orchestra of the Komische Oper, conducted by the composer. A reviewer described the works as "deeply honest, uncompromising though highly communicative". For the occasion of his 70th birthday in 2004, a recording combined three concertos with orchestra recorded earlier with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Saarbrücken: the 1982 Concerto for Trumpet and Percussion, the 1994 ''Manhattan Concerto'', and ''Der Wald'' (The forest), a 1984 percussion concerto. On 25 January 2009,

Leon Botstein Leon Botstein (born December 14, 1946, in Zürich, Switzerland) is a Swiss-born American conductor, educator, historical musicologist, and scholar serving as the President of Bard College. Biography Botstein was born in Zürich, Switzerland, ...

conducted ''Responso'' at the

Avery Fisher Hall David Geffen Hall is a concert hall at Lincoln Center on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. The 2,200-seat auditorium opened in 1962, and is the home of the New York Philharmonic. The facility, designed by Max Abramovitz, was o ...

, New York City, with the American Symphony Orchestra.

Festival

In 1991, Matthus founded the Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg festival. He was its artistic director until 2018.Komponist Siegfried Matthus gestorben
(in German) FAZ 30 August 2021 He was an honorary citizen of

Personal life

Since 1957, Matthus was married to the singer Helga Matthus. They had a son, (born 1964), and lived in , part of Wandlitz, near Berlin. Matthus died in his home on 27 August 2021 at the age of 87 after a protracted illness.

Compositions

Source: Matthus composed more than 600 works. His oeuvre includes 14 operas, over 60 large orchestral works, numerous chamber music, ballet scenes and film music.

Opera

* 1960–63 ''Lazarillo von Tormes'' * 1966/67 ''Der letzte Schuss'' (''The Last Shot'') * 1971 ''Noch einen Löffel Gift, Liebling?'' (''Another Spoonful of Poison, Darling?'') (Comic crime opera by Peter Hacks after the comedy ''Risky Marriage'' by Saul O'Hara) * 1972–74 ''Omphale'' (text by Hacks) * 1974 ''Mario the Magician'' * 1983/84 ''Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke'' (''Cornet Christoph Rilke's song of love and death '') (text after

) * 1982–84 ''

'' (after the play by Friedrich Hebbel) * 1987/88 ''Graf Mirabeau'' * 1990 "Judith" American Premiere at the Santa Fe Opera * 1990/91 ''Desdemona und ihre Schwestern'' (''Desdemona and her Sisters'') (text after Christine Brückner) * 1998 ''Farinelli oder die Macht des Gesanges'' (''Farinelli or The Power of Singing'') * 1998/99 ' (libretto by Thomas Höft) * 2003 ''Die unendliche Geschichte'' (after Michael Ende's ''

'' commissioned by the Department for Culture of Rhineland-Palatinate, libretto by Anton Perrey) * 2007: ''Cosima'', reconstruction of an opera fragment by

Friedrich Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher. He began his career as a classical philology, classical philologist, turning to philosophy early in his academic career. In 1869, aged 24, Nietzsche bec ...

* 2019: ''Effi Briest'', after the novel by

Theodor Fontane Theodor Fontane (; 30 December 1819 – 20 September 1898) was a German novelist and poet, regarded by many as the most important 19th-century German-language Literary realism, realist author. He published the first of his novels, for which he i ...

commissioned by Staatstheater Cottbus, to a libretto by

Awards

* 1972 and 1984 National Prize of the GDR, 2nd class * 1979

Patriotic Order of Merit The Patriotic Order of Merit (German: ''Vaterländischer Verdienstorden'', or VVO) was a national award granted annually in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). It was founded in 1954 and was awarded to individuals and institutions for outstanding ...

in bronze * 1984 honorary citizen of the city of

* 1995/96 Prize of the International Theater Institute Berlin * 1998 Prize of the Association of German Critics * 2000 Officer's Cross of the

Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (, or , BVO) is the highest state decoration, federal decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. It may be awarded for any field of endeavor. It was created by the first List of president ...

* 2007 Renaming of the new event hall in the port village of Rheinsberg to the "Siegfried-Matthus-Arena" * 2014 Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany

References

External links

*
Siegfried Matthus
at

Breitkopf & Härtel Breitkopf & Härtel () is a German Music publisher, music publishing house. Founded in 1719 in Leipzig by Bernhard Christoph Breitkopf, it is the world's oldest music publisher. Overview The catalogue contains over 1,000 composers, 8,000 works ...

Siegfried Matthus
at Interklang, a publisher for the works of Matthus (in German) *
Entries for recordings by Siegfried Matthus
on

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Matthus, Siegfried 1934 births 2021 deaths People from Ozyorsky District, Kaliningrad Oblast Musicians from East Prussia German opera composers German male opera composers German opera directors Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin alumni Members of the Academy of Arts, Berlin Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany