BIOGRAPHY

Jürgen Flimm

Jürgen Flimm was born in Giessen. He studied theater science, literature and sociology at the University of Cologne. After working as a freelance director, he took over the artistic directorship of the Cologne Theater in 1979. In 1985 he moved to the Thalia Theater Hamburg, which he made one of Germany’s most successful theaters during his directorship, both artistically and with a sound financial basis. Among his most important productions in Hamburg were plays by Chekhov (Platonov, 1989; Uncle Vanya, 1995; Three Sisters, 1999), Ibsen (Peer Gynt, 1985; The Wild Duck, 1994), Schnitzler (Flirtation, 1988; The Vast Domain, 1995) and Shakespeare (Hamlet, 1986; Twelfth Night, 1991; King Lear, 1992; As You Like It, 1998). Jürgen Flimm’s first opera production was Luigi Nono’s Al gran sole carico d’amore in 1978 in Frankfurt. Three years later he staged Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann at the Hamburg Staatsoper and in 1990 Così fan tutte in Amsterdam. For this production he worked for the first time with Nikolaus Harnoncourt, who has been Flimm’s most important artistic partner ever since. In past years Jürgen Flimm has worked at La Scala Milan, the Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Berlin Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Zurich Opera House as well as at the Vienna Staatsoper and the Hamburg Staatsoper, staging works by Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Verdi, Gounod and Stravinsky, among others. In the summer of 2000 he directed a new production of Wagner’s Ring cycle at the Bayreuth Festival. At the Metropolitan Opera he directed Fidelio in 2000 and Salome in 2003. In June 2002, he staged the world premiere of Friedrich Cerha’s Der Riese vom Steinfeld at the Vienna Staatsoper. Jürgen Flimm first worked at the Salzburg Festival in 1987, directing Raimund’s Der Bauer als Millionär. In subsequent years he directed Nestroy’s Das Mädl aus der Vorstadt (1989), Hofmannsthal’s Der Schwierige (1991), Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea (1993), Purcell’s King Arthur (2004) and Mozart’s Lucio Silla (2006). Jürgen Flimm was a professor at the University of Hamburg and is a member of the Academies of the Arts in Hamburg, Munich, Berlin and Frankfurt; he holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Hildesheim. He has received many awards including the Medal for the Arts and Sciences of the Free Hanseatic City of Hamburg, the Konrad Wolf Prize of the Academy of the Arts in Berlin, the German Federal Cross of Merit as well as the Austrian Cross of Honor for Arts and Science. From 1999 to 2003 Flimm was president of the German Stage Association and from 2002 to 2004 director of drama at the Salzburg Festival. From 2005 to 2008 he directed the RuhrTriennale. Since October 2006 Jürgen Flimm has been Artistic Director of the Salzburg Festival. In the autumn of 2010 he will take up the position of Artistic Director of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin.