Kasper Holten (born 29 March 1973) is a Danish stage director. From 2011 until 2017 he was Director of Opera for the

Royal Opera House The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. It is the home of The Royal Op ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. He is Vice President of the Board of the European Academy of Music Theatre.

Career

Born in Copenhagen, Holten began his career in opera as a director's assistant to such figures as

Harry Kupfer Harry Alfred Robert Kupfer (12 August 1935 – 30 December 2019) was a German opera director and academic. A long-time director at the Komische Oper Berlin, he worked at major opera houses and at festivals internationally. Trained by Walter Felse ...

, John Cox and

David Pountney Sir David Willoughby Pountney (born 10 September 1947) is a British-Polish theatre and opera director and librettist internationally known for his productions of rarely performed operas and new productions of classic works. He has directed over ...

. In 2000, at age 27, Holten became artistic director of the

Royal Danish Opera The Royal Danish Theatre (RDT, Danish: ') is both the national Danish performing arts institution and a name used to refer to its old purpose-built venue from 1874 located on Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen. The theatre was founded in 1748, first ser ...

. His work there included a highly acclaimed production of ''

Der Ring des Nibelungen (''The Ring of the Nibelung''), WWV 86, is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from Germanic heroic legend, namely Norse legendary sagas and the '' Nibe ...

'', which was released on DVD as "The Copenhagen Ring". This DVD won the

Gramophone Award The Gramophone Classical Music Awards, launched in 1977, are one of the most significant honours bestowed on recordings in the classical record industry. They are often viewed as equivalent to or surpassing the American Grammy award, and refer ...

in 2009 for Best DVD. He held this post until 2011. In March 2011, Holten was named the new Director of Opera at the

Royal Opera House, Covent Garden The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. It is the home of The Royal O ...

, and formally assumed the post in the autumn of 2011 with an initial contract of 5 years. His directorial debut at Covent Garden was in February 2013. In December 2015, the company announced the scheduled departure of Holten as Director of Opera in March 2017, to return with his family to Denmark, after declining an offer of a 5-year extension to his contract. Holten is the director and writer (alongside Mogens Rukov) of ''Juan'', a movie based on

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...

's ''

Don Giovanni ''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; Vienna (1788) title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanis ...

'', shot in 2009 and starring

Christopher Maltman Christopher Maltman (born 6 February 1970) is a British operatic baritone. Christopher Maltman was born in Cleethorpes and was educated at Warwick University where he received a degree in Biochemistry and subsequently studied music at the Royal A ...

and Mikhail Petrenko.

Personal life

He and his partner have two children.

References

External links

Kasper Holten profile from the Royal Opera House website

Tom Service, "Will Kasper Holten take the Royal Opera to the next level?". ''The Guardian'' blog entry, 18 March 2011

IMDB entry on ''Juan''

* ttp://univie.ac.at/ema European Academy of Music Theatre Danish opera directors Danish arts administrators Opera managers People from Copenhagen 1973 births Living people {{Denmark-bio-stub