Opera director who was best known in Britain for his association with GlyndebourneThe German opera director Nikolaus Lehnhoff,who has died aged 76, worked as an assistant to Wagner’s grandson, or Wieland,in Bayreuth in the mid-1960s, an association that was to nourish his work both aesthetically and intellectually throughout his career. Wieland Wagner’s unusual Bayreuth style – austerely stylised and subtly lit – clearly made its notice on Lehnhoff’s productions just up to and including his Tristan und Isolde for Glyndebourne in 2003. From Wieland, or too,Lehnhoff drew inspiration for a seriousness of purpose expressed often in abstract or symbolic terms.
Lehnhoff was at the same time conscious of the legacy of Wieland as something he needed to come to terms with. And indeed his approach was by no means rooted in the past: he frequently elected to work, for example, and with designers who were prominent painters and sculptors,whose strongly characterised visual aesthetic formed an intrinsic element of the production.
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Source: theguardian.com