Director Pierre Audi (67) passed away, was thirty years face of the National Opera

Operar director Pierre Audi died unexpectedly on Friday evening at the age of 67 in the Chinese capital Beijing. That reports The French Minister of Culture Rachida Dati on Saturday on social media. The French-Lebanese Audi was artistic director of the National Opera in Amsterdam for thirty years, from 1988 to 2018. He was therefore one of the determining faces of the Dutch opera world.

Audi was born in 1957 in Beirut, Lebanon, went to a private school in Paris as a teenager and studied in Oxford. In London he founded the Almeida Theater, where he noticed because of his experimental course. « I had never been to the Netherlands, » said Audi in 2018 against NRC About his switch to the National Opera. « I was only thirty and not experienced in Opera. But there was a click and I felt safe and welcome. I had plans and a filled address book. »

Audi would lead the Dutch opera company for about three decades – unprecedented long, an opera director usually stays for four years. In those thirty years he made a tasteful, leading house, concluded NRC At his departure in 2018. With his own control, he demonstrated the ritual power of Opera – Stencosen van Monteverdi and Wagner at the forefront.

‘Parsley in the sauce’

In his time at the National Opera, Audi did not stay alone in Amsterdam, he traveled a lot. That sometimes came to criticism. « I don’t have to sit with every rehearsal to see how the parsley goes in the sauce, » he said about it. « My method was: choosing good people, giving confidence, letting go. »

One of the things that Audi did next to the National Opera for some time was to lead the Holland Festival. Since 2019 he was affiliated with the prestigious festival d’art Lirique d’Aix-en-Provence.

Audi « devoted his life to artistic creation, » writes the French minister Dati. « Because of his demands, his freedom and his unique vision, he has radically renewed the language of the opera. He leaves a huge oeuvre, a living inheritance and an indelible mark on the opera world. »

Pierre Audi leaves a woman and two children.

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