Lehnhoff, Nikolaus
Lehnhoff, Nikolaus
Lehnhoff, Nikolaus, German opera director; b. Hannover, May 20, 1939. He attended the univs. of Munich and Venice. After gaining experience as an asst. stage director at the Berlin Deutsche Oper, the Bayreuth Festival, and the Metropolitan Opera in N.Y., he staged his first opera, Die Frau ohne Schatten, at the Paris Opéra in 1972. In 1975 he produced Elektra at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. His mounting of the Ring cycle at the San Francisco Opera (1983-85) and at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich (1987) were notably successful. His stagings of Kát’a Kabanová (1988) and Jenůfa (1989) at the Glyndebourne Festival were outstanding. In 1989 he produced Salome at the Metropolitan Opera. He staged Idomeneo at the Salzburg Festival in 1990. In 1991 he produced Elektra in Leipzig. After staging The Makropulos Affair at the Glyndebourne Festival in 1995, he produced Palestrina at London’s Covent Garden in 1997. Lehnhoff places great importance upon his collaborations with the finest designers. He is the author of Es war einmal (Munich, 1987).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire