Heinz Rückert

Heinz Rückert (17 December 1904 – 14 February 1984 ) was a German opera director. He was one of the co-founders of the Halle Georg Friedrich Handel Renaissance.

Life Born in Darmstadt, Rückert grew up in a musical family and came into contact with the music of Johann Sebastian Bach at an early age. Kutscher also brought him into contact with the repertoire of Handel, which experienced its renaissance in Göttingen in the 1920s.

In 1927, Kutscher placed him with the director Georg Hartmann, under whom he was to become assistant director in Dessau. In addition, he took part in performances at the . a course of study established for the first time in Germany. Among his students were Klaus Harnisch, Reinhard Schau and Stephan Stompor. He then became opera director at the newly built Theater des Friedens in Halle. He built up a Handel collective, for which he brought the conductor Horst-Tanu Margraf and the stage designer Rudolf Heinrich to Halle. From 1952 he regularly directed the Handel Festival, Halle, starting with Händel's Alcina. He became known for his method of through-texting, which he first tested in Handel's Deidamia in 1954. In Halle, he was largely responsible for the Handel renaissance of the 1950s.

As a representative of music theatre, he was brought to Berlin in 1955 by Walter Felsenstein. He was there until 1958 engaged as director and head of the young talent studio at the Komische Oper Berlin. From 1959, Rückert worked at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden. 1964: Handel Prize 1965: Vaterländischer Verdienstorden in Bronze 1979: Ehrenmitglied der Staatsoper Unter den Linden