Jonas Kaufmann’s wife is staging Magic Flute in Salzburg

Jonas Kaufmann’s wife is staging Magic Flute in Salzburg

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norman lebrecht

March 03, 2021

Christiane Lutz is making her way in the opera world with a new production at the Salzburg Landestheater.

She has a low alto voice.

 

Comments

  • John Borstlap says:

    What an incredible coincidence that her husband is a well-known singer.

    • Wolfgang says:

      Unfair comment. She was already an accredited stage director when they met.

    • Jon says:

      She has been directing operas since 2005, long before she married Kaufmann, so it is just possible that she was employed to direct an opera because she is a professional opera director.

    • FanofJohn says:

      Dear John, I have always been an admirer of your brilliant work. Unfortunately you have published less and less in the last 5 to 10 years! I think it would be really cool if you sit down again for the next few years and create something lasting. Don’t let yourself be distracted by the nice wife of a good-looking singer – or by the upper arms of an organist!

    • difference says:

      I mean, people in the same industry get married all the time. The difference is that, in contrast to Netrebko/Eyvasov, Alagna/Kurzak, etc. Kaufmann is not insisting that his wife direct him in any new productions he does. She’s likely benefitted from increased exposure due to her association, but she’s also paid her dues and has been doing solid work in the German-speaking regions for quite some time. This is not the ridiculous conflict of interest or lowering of standards that we see when the Netrebkos’s agent insists that a theater has to hire the pairing Netrebko/Eyvasov if they want to get Netrebko to participate.

      • John Borstlap says:

        “I mean, people in the same industry get married all the time.”

        It looks as if marrying only once is far from enough.

        From Wilde’s play ‘The Importance of being Earnest’:

        Algernon: Is marriage so demoralising as that?
        Lane (the butler): I believe it is a very pleasant state, sir. I have had very little experience of it yself up to the present. I have only been married once.

    • Pete says:

      Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous (Einstein). And in this music world there are many gods,some of them not really anonymous.

      • John Borstlap says:

        Purposeless or unintentional coincidence is a Western invention; the Chinese oracle book I Ching claims it is through coincidence that God intervenes into the world.

    • doofus1714 says:

      Dear JB.
      one of the know-nothing trolls on this blog, but you have an awfully lot of good company here.
      bravo.

  • HermantheGerman says:

    John Borstlap‘s letter is ridiculous as it plays right into the intentions of Norman. The Landestheater is not the Salzburg Festival, and Frau Lutz is director; not a singer. You always complain about too few women in the arts in Germany. Here is one, so leave her alone.

  • RW2013 says:

    It’s very German to have to explain your productions.

    • Petros LInardos says:

      For many of us that’s the only chance to make even the slighted bit of sense. A very slight chance. This is general remark, not about Ms. Lutz, whose work I am unfamiliar with.

    • Thomas Schulze says:

      But listen to what she says and what the conductor says about Mozart’s music. It all sounds very naive to me!

      • RW2013 says:

        The last conductor that said anything that spoke to me was Harnoncourt.

        • Petros LInardos says:

          Whether one agreed with him or not, Harnoncourt was always very interesting to listen to, on and off podium.
          Pappano is a pretty good speaker about opera.

  • George says:

    This has nothing to do with Jonas Kaufmann. She has been directing productions for years.

  • Maria says:

    Ich möchte korrigieren es ist einfach lächerlich

  • Inaustria says:

    What does her “low alto voice” have to do with her staging? Im sure the singers will be able to hear her during rehearsals.

  • Roda says:

    Just the headline speaks for itself : J K’s wife is staging… It is not her name there. Let’s be honest, she may be a good professional but the moment she became Kaufmann’s girl and then wife, she risked she would be covered in his shadow. And maybe, it does help being in the known. Her father was famous, so is her partner so she probably has had more chances of being engaged as a director than some unknown student from music schools,however talented.

  • Jonathon says:

    What a pathetic article….and an offensive one at that. ‘JONAS KAUFMANN’S WIFE IS STAGING MAGIC FLUTE IN SALZBURG’ I suppose you are trying to make some sort of point with a heading like that, but what exactly? She’s an opera director doing her job, one which she has been doing for many years. More importantly she has a name….Christiane Lutz…or is she nothing more than Jonas Kaufmann’s wife as far as you are concerned?

  • Bloom says:

    She is still Jonas Kaufmann s wife , presented as such in the Ganz Privat doc, distributed worldwide, on Amazon Prime . Very privately. Or maybe she is the wife Christiane Kaufmann only in the so “privaaaaat” documentary and , oh my, the director Christiane Lutz in Salzburg. What a piece of hypocrisy. She is who she is, a global opera star s wife AND an opera director who, for better or worse, is enjoying much more notoriety now.

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