Rudolf Hartmann

German opera director and administrator; b. Ingolstadt, Oct. 11, 1900; d. Munich, Aug. 26, 1988. He was trained in stage design in Munich and was a student of Berg-Ehlert in Bamberg. He was an opera director in Altenburg (1924–27), Nuremberg (1928-34; 1946-52), the Berlin State Opera (1934–37), and the Bavarian State Opera in Munich (1937–44); from 1952 to 1967 he was the Bavarian Staatsintendant. He was especially known for his staging of works by Richard Strauss, and was chosen to stage the premieres of Strauss’s Friedenstag (Munich, 1938) and Capriccio (Munich, 1942); he also directed the official premiere of Strauss’s Der Liebe der Danae (Salzburg, 1952). In his stagings, he fused the best of traditional elements with contemporary stage practices. He publ. an autobiography as Das gelie