Death of Germany’s foremost opera composer
RIPThe Berlin composer Aribert Reimann died yesterday at the age of 88.
He achieved renown with a 1978 opera on Shakespeare’s King Lear, written at the suggestion of the singer Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Further works included The Castle (after Kafka, 1992) and Medea (after Grillparzer, 2010).
His violin concerto has also been extensively performed, and he wrote some fine Lied cycles.
Reimann’s father was director of the Berlin State and Cathedral Choir, his mother was an oratorio singer.
Reimann studied composition with Boris Blacher and Ernst Pepping and wrote an early ballet in 1959 to a libretto by Günter Grass.
Here’s an interview with Bruce Duffie.
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