Jean-Pierre Ponnelle Explained

Jean-Pierre Ponnelle
Image Upright:1.2
Birth Date:19 February 1932
Birth Place:Paris, France
Death Place:Munich, Bavaria, Germany
Spouse:Margit Saad (1957–1988)
Occupation:
  • Opera director
  • Scenic designer
  • Costume designer

Jean-Pierre Ponnelle (pronounced as /fr/; 19 February 1932 – 11 August 1988) was a French opera director, set and costume designer.

Biography

Ponnelle was born in Paris. He studied philosophy, art, and history there and, in 1952, began his career in Germany as a theatre designer for Henze's opera Boulevard Solitude. He was greatly influenced by the work of art director Georges Wakhévitch who also designed sets and costumes for the theatre, the ballet, and the opera.

In 1962, Ponnelle directed his first production of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde in Düsseldorf. His production of that work at the Bayreuth Festival in 1981 was widely praised as one of the most aesthetically beautiful in its history.

His work throughout the world included stage productions at the Metropolitan Opera and the San Francisco Opera, and filmed versions of operas such as Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia conducted by Claudio Abbado with Hermann Prey in 1972, Puccini's Madama Butterfly in 1974 conducted by Herbert von Karajan with Plácido Domingo, Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro conducted by Karl Böhm with Hermann Prey in 1976, Rossini's La Cenerentola conducted by Claudio Abbado with Frederica von Stade in 1981, Verdi's Rigoletto conducted by Riccardo Chailly with Luciano Pavarotti in 1983, and Mozart's Così fan tutte conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt with Edita Gruberová in 1988. His 1969 production of Mozart's then neglected La Clemenza di Tito for the Cologne Opera helped re-establish this work in the repertory. Ponnelle also was a frequent guest at the Salzburg Festival.[1]

His productions were often controversial. In 1986, Verdi's Aida at the Royal Opera House, in which he replaced the usual ballet dancers with young boys, was soundly booed and never revived, though Donizetti's Don Pasquale earlier at the same theatre had been a triumph, as were his interpretations of well-known works.[2] [3] [4]

He died in Munich in 1988 of a pulmonary embolism following a tragic fall into the orchestra pit during rehearsals for a production of Bizet's Carmen with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Zubin Mehta. His son is the orchestra conductor Pierre-Dominique Ponnelle and his nephew is Jean Pierre Danel.

Video recordings

Bibliography

External links

Notes and References

  1. http://www.salzburgerfestspiele.at/dieinstitution/geschichte/ Salzburg Festival website (in English)
  2. Pfaff, San Francisco Chronicle: "Welcome as it may be to find Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's infamous 1975 Eurotrash production of the work, presented as "The Steersman's Dream", (which held the War Memorial stage for three of the company's five presentations of the piece) banished, presumably forever, it can still be a strain to discern Dutchman.
  3. Porter, Andrew, The Times: "Only in recent years have directors taken it upon themselves to rewrite Wagner's stage actions, to intervene, to move from simplification to new invention. Ponnelle's idea at Bayreuth, in 1981, was that Isolde should not appear in Act Three but be an off-stage voice sounding in Tristan's mind"
  4. Chatfield-Taylor, p. 63: "Some critics felt that there was...perversity in Ponnelle's conception of (Rigoletto) as a flashback that begins with Gilda already dead, lying on the floor during the Prelude".

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Jean-Pierre Ponnelle".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.