Opera director Graz Schmid changed to Semperoper Dresden

The contract with Schmid (42) should run until 2030. Theiler’s contract expires with the 2023/24 season. Wolfgang Roth remains the commercial director of the Saxony state theaters, as he was called. Born in Switzerland, she has worked as the main theater performer at the Saxon Opera from the 2010/11 season, and from 2012 also as personal assistant to director Ulrich Hessler. After their deaths, she was part of the interim general manager as of July 2012.

The initiative came from the Ministry of Culture in Saxony. Schmid put himself on a research committee set up by the board of directors. The Search Committee and Board of Directors voted unanimously in their favour. Commercial Director Ruth’s contract runs until 2028.

The Swiss had studied musicology and business administration in her native Bern and Rome. She also dedicated herself to classical singing and gained experience in theater at Stadttheater Bern. After positions in orchestral management at the Basel sinfonietta and in marketing at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, she went to Biel Solothurn, the oldest Baroque theater in Switzerland, as a musical theater in 2005. In 2007 she moved to the theater an der Vienna as a theater act for opera and concerts . In the 2015/2016 season, Schmid succeeded Elisabeth Sobotka as artistic director of the Graz Opera. Then Sobotka moved to the top of the Bregenz Festival.

Saxony’s Culture Minister Barbara Klipsch (CDU) said, among other things, that she was very happy to have Schmid back in Dresden “and that we were able to draw her into the State Opera as a new generation director. She has convinced us with her inner connection and commitment to Semperoper that his preeminent position and tradition will lead them into a future.” promising.”

Schmid himself said that returning to Semperoper “makes her very happy. Music and theater are a conversational art form and I hope that what I experienced in Semperoper becomes a theme among the people. And so I want a program for the coming years that on the one hand, reflects and continues the exciting and changing history of the local opera house and the local opera house, On the other hand, he faces the new audience, forgotten and rarely played, but also not afraid of fame and popularity. . . ”

Bonin Graz spoke of a “special change in leadership”. Look at this step not only with tears, but also with a laughing eye, because the Graz once again proved to be an excellent pavement for the road to world-famous places.

The future management of the Graz Opera will have to be decided soon. A tender will be launched in the summer of 2021, which means the decision on new hires from the 2023/24 season could be made at the start of 2022.