Jiří Kout (born 26 December 1937) is a Czech conductor who currently works as both chief conductor of the and as a director of the
Theater St. Gallen
The Theater St. Gallen is a performing arts center for opera, musical, ballet, and theatre in St. Gallen, Switzerland, and considered to be the oldest professional theatre in Switzerland. It is a Swiss heritage site of national significance.
Al ...
.
Coming from the eastern surroundings of Prague, Kout experienced the Soviet influence early on when he worked as a conductor in
Plzeň
Plzeň (; German and English: Pilsen, in German ) is a city in the Czech Republic. About west of Prague in western Bohemia, it is the Statutory city (Czech Republic), fourth most populous city in the Czech Republic with about 169,000 inhabita ...
at the
Divadlo Josefa Kajetána Tyla and was banned from performing there for four years. In 1977, he took advantage of a business trip to the West to leave the Czech Republic permanently.
Kout's career began in 1976 with a position at the
Deutsche Oper am Rhein
The Deutsche Oper am Rhein (German Opera on the Rhine) is an opera company based in Düsseldorf and Duisburg. The opera also has an associated classical ballet company. Axel Kober has been its Music Director since 2009. The resident orchestra, th ...
(in
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...
and
Duisburg
Duisburg () is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine and the Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruhr Region, Duisburg is the 5th largest city in Nor ...
).After that he became General Music Director a
Saarbrücken Opera House where he conducted Wagner´s Ring cycle (1996-1990). At the
Deutsche Oper Berlin and the
Leipzig Opera
The Leipzig Opera (in German: ) is an opera house and opera company located at the Augustusplatz and the Inner City Ring Road at its east side in Leipzig's district Mitte, Germany.
History
Performances of opera in Leipzig trace back to Singspi ...
he spontaneously stood in for ailing colleagues and thereby obtained further engagements. He became famous with his interpretations of the works of
Leoš Janáček (such as his rehearsal of ''
Jenůfa'').
When Kout was able to return to Prague after the fall of the
Iron Curtain
The Iron Curtain was the political boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. The term symbolizes the efforts by the Soviet Union (USSR) to block itself and its s ...
, he also returned to the desk of the
Czech Philharmonic
The Česká filharmonie (Czech Philharmonic) is a symphony orchestra based in Prague. The orchestra's principal concert venue is the Rudolfinum.
History
The name "Czech Philharmonic Orchestra" appeared for the first time in 1894, as the title ...
.
Jiří Kout
on Czech Opera
From 2006 to 2013, Kout headed the Symfonický orchestr hlavního města Prahy FOK.
References
External links
Jiří Kout 80
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kout, Jiri
1937 births
Living people
Czech conductors (music)
Male conductors (music)
Musicians from Prague
21st-century conductors (music)
21st-century Czech male musicians