Jürgen Flimm (; 17 July 1941 – 4 February 2023) was a German theatre and opera director, theatre manager, and academic teacher. Flimm was first active in drama, and made the Thalia Theater in Hamburg one of the most successful German theatres when he managed it from 1985 to 2000. He was general manager of the Salzburg Festival and RuhrTriennale festivals, and intendant of the Berlin State Opera from 2010 to 2018. He directed internationally, including Beethoven's Fidelio at the Metropolitan Opera, the 2000 Ring cycle production at the Bayreuth Festival, and the 2002 world premiere of Friedrich Cerha's Der Riese vom Steinfeld at the Vienna State Opera.
Life and career
Flimm was born in Gießen on 17 July 1941, but grew up in Cologne in a Protestant physician's family. a small stage in a basement with an associated acting school. Flimm directed operas <!-- by Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Verdi, Gounod, Stravinsky, Franz Schreker and others--> at La Scala in Milan, the Royal Opera House in London,<!--the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Berlin State Opera, the Zurich Opera--> and the Vienna State Opera. In summer 2000, he directed a new production of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen for the Bayreuth Festival, in sets by Erich Wonder and conducted by Giuseppe Sinopoli. His first production at the Berlin State Opera was Verdi's Otello in 2001, conducted by Daniel Barenboim.
Flimm was a professor at the University of Hamburg, and also taught at Harvard University and the New York University. staging operas such as Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea and Purcell's King Arthur. He initiated a Young Directors Project at the festival that made promising new directors internationally known, such as Alvis Hermanis. He engaged to direct Hofmannsthal's Jedermann, modernising the traditional festival feature. He managed the house during the long period of restoration, along with Daniel Barenboim as Generalmusikdirektor. After the reopening in 2017, he retired in 2018. on 4 February 2023 at age 81.
Films
- ' (1979, TV film)
- Through Roses (1997)
- Käthchens Traum (2004, TV film)