Michael Leinert


Michael Leinert is a well-known stage director, dramaturg, editor and author. His father, Friedrich Leinert was a respected composer, conductor and Professor of Music in Hannover; Michael Leinert's mother was an operatic and concert singer.

Studies and first engagement

Michael Leinert studied Music at the University for Music in Detmold, German Literature and History of the Arts at the University of Munich. His teachers of Drama and Opera Direction were Professor August Everding, Professor Heinz Arnold and Professor Götz Friedrich. In 1970 he became a Dramaturg and director for drama and opera at the Theater of Kiel. Following this appointment, came further engagements as Dramaturg and stage director at the Staatstheater Braunschweig, the Hamburgische Staatsoper and at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich. From 1983-1985 he was Oberspielleiter at the Landestheater Coburg. In 1985, Michael Leinert became the personal assistant of General-Intendant Tobias Richter at Theater Bremen.

Artistic Director and General Manager

In 1988 he was appointed Artistic Director and General Manager of Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern and from 1991-1999 he was the Artistic Director and General Manager of the Staatstheater Kassel. In autumn 1999 Leinert started his position as Chefdramaturg and stage director of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf-Duisburg.
Since 2007 he lives with his wife, the well-known opera singer and Professor of Voice Susan Owen-Leinert in Memphis Tennessee.

International engagements

Michael Leinert has been invited to direct plays and operas in Germany, Italy, Denmark, Russia, United States and Cyprus. He created and directed the first Cypriote Opera "Manoli" by Vassos Arghyrides and Giorgos Neophytou, also the world premiere of Ingomar Gruenauer's Amleth und Fengo in Heidelberg and Jürg Baur's first chamber opera, in Düsseldorf, 2005.
At Florida’s Palm Beach Opera, Leinert directed successfully Samson et Dalila, Richard Wagner's Der Fliegende Holländer and Tannhäuser in 2002.
With great acclaim from International press, he directed in 2002 at the National Theatre of Cyprus in Nicosia the World Premiere of the Greek translation of Goethe's FAUST by the famous poet Nikos Kazantzakis.
At the Chamber Opera of Hamburg he directed Donizetti's Il Borgomastro di Saardam, Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, Giovanni Paisiello's Il barbiere di Siviglia and Richard Wagner's Das Liebesverbot.
In March 2006 he produced successfully the opera Hamlet by Ambroise Thomas at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Düsseldorf - Duisburg.
In March 2007 he was the stage director oft the play Don Juan by Molière with The Cyprus Theatre Organisation THOC in Nicosia / Cyprus.

Successful productions

Michael Leinert's greatest international achievements as a director are:
Don Giovanni, Der Ring des Nibelungen, Tristan und Isolde, Tannhäuser, Der Fliegende Holländer, Wozzeck, Tosca, La Bohème, Madama Butterfly, Il tabarro, Gianni Schicchi, Manon Lescaut, Rigoletto, Jenůfa, Sibelius': The Maiden in the Tower and Rachmaninov's Francesca da Rimini, Pagliacci, Cavalleria rusticana and Ernst Krenek's Orpheus und Eurydike.
Leinert's stage direction of Ján Cikker's Das Erdbeben in Chile got the rating: "Best production of the month" from the opera magazine Orpheus International. For his stage direction of Leoncavallo's Pagliacci at the Opera house of Halle he received a nomination in the magazine Opernwelt Year Book 1994/95 for his "expressive stage direction".

Theatre and drama

Michael Leinert produced many theatre plays, such as from Friedrich Schiller, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Witold Gombrowicz, Jean Racine and Molière among others.
His production of Nikolaj V. Koljada's monodrama Die Amerikanerin was successfully premiered in Germany, Russia and in Greek translation at .
Leinert was the initiator of the , promoted by Sir Peter Ustinov and Professor August Everding.1150 plays were submitted from 29 European countries.

Contemporary music theatre

He performed also successfully experimental authors and modern music composers as Mauricio Kagel, John Cage, Bent Lorentzen, :de:Wilfried Hiller|Wilfried Hiller, Hans - Joachim Hespos, György Ligeti, Jörg Wyttenbach, Manfred Trojahn, Dieter Schnebel, Manfred Niehaus, :de:Marc Neikrug|Marc Neikrug, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Hans Jürgen von Bose ; among others.

Translations and Composer's Biography

Leinert translated Jean Sibelius' Maiden in the tower into the German language as well as Gaetano Donizetti's Il pazzi per progetto and Tom Johnson's The four note opera.
He has written and directed many Radio Plays, several opera libretti and three musical plays for children.
His biography of the German Romantic Composer Carl Maria von Weber is published in the fifth edition by the well-known Rowohlt Verlag and has been translated into Swedish and Chinese.

The Spohr Society of the United States

Together with Susan Owen-Leinert he founded the Spohr Society of the United States of America and edited the first complete and critical edition of Louis Spohr’s Lieder in 12 vols. with the publisher Dohr in Cologne, Germany.
Michael Leinert has taught as a Guest Professor of Opera History and Opera Literature and Drama at the Universities of Bremen, Braunschweig, Hamburg and Munich. At Robert-Schumann-Hochschule Düsseldorf he gave lessons in stage direction for the Opera Department. He was one of the directors of the Memphis Opera & Song Academy at the University of Memphis, Tennessee, USA, a summer academy for singers.

The Chamber Opera of Memphis

Michael Leinert was for many years the Artistic Director of several Studios for Contemporary Experimental Music Theatre in Germany, for example in Kiel, where he was also the Director of "Musica nova" ; later in Braunschweig, Coburg, at the Hamburgische Staatsoper, at the Bayerische Staatsoper Munich and in Bremen. In Memphis, Tennessee, he founded together with his wife, Prof. Susan Owen-Leinert, the Chamber Opera of Memphis, a forum for contemporary Music Theater.

Libretti by Michael Leinert (A selection)