Opera Scotland

Gerd Albrecht Suggest updates

Born Essen, 19 July 1935.

Died Berlin, 2 February 2014.

German conductor.

Gerd Albrecht had a particularly strong reputation in contemporary opera. He also had an extensive career as an orchestral conductor in Copenhagen, Prague and Tokyo. Although he rarely worked in Britain, he twice visited the Edinburgh Festival.

He spent most of his career under contract to a succession of German opera houses. He began as a repetiteur, rehearsing and conducting first at Stuttgart, then Mainz. His first posts as Music Director were in Lübeck then Kassel. He also conducted at the Berlin Deutsche Oper, leading their Salome in Edinburgh in 1975. His most important operatic post was from 1988 to 1997, when he was Generalmusikdirector at the Hamburg State Opera, bringing them to the 1983 Edinburgh Festival, when he conducted the Zemlinsky double-bill.

He conducted the premiere and recording of Lear (Reimann), with Dietrich-Fischer Dieskau in the title role.