The Bayerische Staatsoper has announced the death of conductor Stefan Soltész, 73. The conductor collapsed and subsequently died last night during a performance of the Strauss opera Die Schweigsame Frau at Munich’s National Theater.
« I am deeply saddened by the news of Stefan Soltesz’s collapse and passing, » Intendant Serge Dorny said. « We lose a gifted conductor. I lose a good friend. My thoughts are with his wife Michaela. »
Born in Hungary, Soltesz studied conducting, composition and piano at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. After stints as a conductor in Vienna and Graz and as musical assistant to Karl Böhm, Christoph von Dohnányi and Herbert von Karajan at the Salzburg Festival, he said he was conductor of the Hamburg State Opera, the Deutsche Oper Berlin and general music director at the Braunschweig State Theater.
From 1992 to 1997, he was chief conductor of the Flemish Opera in Antwerp/Ghent, and from 1997 to 2013 he was general music director of the Essen Philharmonic and artistic director of the Aalto Music Theater.
