Elke Neidhardt
Encyclopedia
Elke Cordelia Neidhardt AM (born 1941) is a German-Australian actress and opera and theatre director. She has appeared in theatre, television and feature films in Germany, Austria, France and Australia, and has directed operas in Zurich, Amsterdam, Aix-en-Provence, Salzburg, Vienna, Cologne and Australia. She is best known in Australia for directing operas with Opera Australia
, and most particularly for directing the first full modern Australian production of Richard Wagner
's Ring Cycle
, in Adelaide in 2004.
. She graduated from the State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart
, and later directed operas in Zurich, Amsterdam, Aix-en-Provence, Salzburg and Vienna. She married an Australian and moved to Melbourne
. In 1968 she played Dr. Anna Steiner, a German doctor, in some episodes of the television series Skippy the Bush Kangaroo
. Neidhardt then appeared in other Australian television series such as The Link Men
(1970) and Shannon's Mob (1975). She was also in a small number of Australian feature films, including Libido
(1973; in which she appeared nude), Alvin Purple
(1973) and The True Story of Eskimo Nell
(1975). Her last film was Inside Looking Out (1977).
From 1977 to 1990 Neidhardt was the resident director for Opera Australia
. She returned to Germany for six years, working at the Cologne State Opera
and directing three productions of Richard Wagner
's Ring Cycle
.
In 2001 Neidhardt directed the first Australian production of Wagner's Parsifal
, for the State Opera of South Australia
. In 2004 she directed the first full modern Australian production of the Ring Cycle, in Adelaide, which attracted great praise.
Other operas she has directed in Australia or overseas include Don Giovanni
, Tosca
, La traviata
, Salome
, Werther
, Fidelio
, Lohengrin
, Andrea Chénier
, The Flying Dutchman
, I puritani
, La finta semplice
and Tannhäuser
. She has also directed a touring production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream
for the Bell Shakespeare Company
. She has lectured at NIDA
and the Sydney Conservatorium of Music
. In 2006 she was a member of the judging panel for Operatunity Oz
, along with Richard Gill
, Yvonne Kenny
and Antoinette Halloran
.
Neidhardt has a reputation for clashing with the conductors she works with. She is also known for her bluntness and frankness, describing Australian culture as "quite massively behind"; criticising the prudishness of theatrical authorities about things such as nudity; regarding the Sydney Opera House
as "awful to work in"; and criticising the decision not to repeat her 2004 Adelaide production of the Ring Cycle despite its overwhelming success.
Neidhardt was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia
(AM) in the Australia Day
Honours 2011, "for service to the performing arts as an opera director and producer, and through the tuition and mentoring of young emerging artists".
-based lawyer and writer.
Neidhardt had a 35-year relationship with the actor Norman Kaye
, nursing him through the final stages of Alzheimer's disease
until his death in May 2007. He had frequently proposed marriage to her, but she always declined, feeling that marriage was unnecessary.
Neidhardt became an Australian citizen in early 2007.
Opera Australia
Opera Australia is the principal opera company in Australia. Based in Sydney, its performance season at the Sydney Opera House runs for approximately eight months of the year, with the remainder of its time spent in the The Arts Centre in Melbourne...
, and most particularly for directing the first full modern Australian production of Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
's Ring Cycle
Der Ring des Nibelungen
Der Ring des Nibelungen is a cycle of four epic operas by the German composer Richard Wagner . The works are based loosely on characters from the Norse sagas and the Nibelungenlied...
, in Adelaide in 2004.
Career
Elke Neidhardt was born in StuttgartStuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
. She graduated from the State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart
State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart
The State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart is a professional school for musicians and performing artists in Stuttgart, Germany...
, and later directed operas in Zurich, Amsterdam, Aix-en-Provence, Salzburg and Vienna. She married an Australian and moved to Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
. In 1968 she played Dr. Anna Steiner, a German doctor, in some episodes of the television series Skippy the Bush Kangaroo
Skippy the Bush Kangaroo
Skippy the Bush Kangaroo is an Australian television series for children created by John McCallum, produced from 1966–1968, telling the adventures of a young boy and his intelligent pet kangaroo, in the Waratah National Park in Duffys Forest, near Sydney, New South Wales.Ninety-one 30-minute...
. Neidhardt then appeared in other Australian television series such as The Link Men
The Link Men
The Link Men was an Australian television series shown in 1970.The series was the first drama series made in-house by the Nine Network as part of an attempt to rival the cop shows produced by Crawford Productions such as Homicide and Division 4. The Link Men starred Kevin Miles, Bruce Montague and...
(1970) and Shannon's Mob (1975). She was also in a small number of Australian feature films, including Libido
Libido (1973 film)
Libido is a 1973 Australian drama film comprising 4 segments written and directed as independent stories, but screened together as one piece, exploring a common theme of instinctive desire and contemporary sexuality.John B...
(1973; in which she appeared nude), Alvin Purple
Alvin Purple
Alvin Purple was a 1973 Australian comedy film starring Graeme Blundell, written by Alan Hopgood and directed by Tim Burstall.It received largely negative reviews from local film critics. Despite this it was a major hit with Australian audiences...
(1973) and The True Story of Eskimo Nell
The True Story of Eskimo Nell
The True Story of Eskimo Nell is a 1975 Australian comedy film produced, directed, and written by Richard Franklin, and starring Max Gillies as Deadeye Dick and Serge Lazareff as Mexico Pete...
(1975). Her last film was Inside Looking Out (1977).
From 1977 to 1990 Neidhardt was the resident director for Opera Australia
Opera Australia
Opera Australia is the principal opera company in Australia. Based in Sydney, its performance season at the Sydney Opera House runs for approximately eight months of the year, with the remainder of its time spent in the The Arts Centre in Melbourne...
. She returned to Germany for six years, working at the Cologne State Opera
Cologne Opera
The Cologne Opera refers both to the main opera house in Cologne, Germany and to its resident opera company.-History of the company:...
and directing three productions of Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
's Ring Cycle
Der Ring des Nibelungen
Der Ring des Nibelungen is a cycle of four epic operas by the German composer Richard Wagner . The works are based loosely on characters from the Norse sagas and the Nibelungenlied...
.
In 2001 Neidhardt directed the first Australian production of Wagner's Parsifal
Parsifal
Parsifal is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner. It is loosely based on Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, the 13th century epic poem of the Arthurian knight Parzival and his quest for the Holy Grail, and on Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval, the Story of the Grail.Wagner first conceived the work...
, for the State Opera of South Australia
State Opera of South Australia
State Opera of South Australia is a professional opera company in Adelaide, South Australia, established in 1976. Each year, the State Opera presents at least three major operatic productions at the Adelaide Festival Theatre as well as producing or supporting other smaller productions in The Opera...
. In 2004 she directed the first full modern Australian production of the Ring Cycle, in Adelaide, which attracted great praise.
Other operas she has directed in Australia or overseas include Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
, Tosca
Tosca
Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900...
, La traviata
La traviata
La traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on La dame aux Camélias , a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The title La traviata means literally The Fallen Woman, or perhaps more figuratively, The Woman...
, Salome
Salome (opera)
Salome is an opera in one act by Richard Strauss to a German libretto by the composer, based on Hedwig Lachmann’s German translation of the French play Salomé by Oscar Wilde. Strauss dedicated the opera to his friend Sir Edgar Speyer....
, Werther
Werther
Werther is an opera in four acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Édouard Blau, Paul Milliet and Georges Hartmann based on the German epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe....
, Fidelio
Fidelio
Fidelio is a German opera in two acts by Ludwig van Beethoven. It is Beethoven's only opera. The German libretto is by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly which had been used for the 1798 opera Léonore, ou L’amour conjugal by Pierre Gaveaux, and for the 1804 opera Leonora...
, Lohengrin
Lohengrin (opera)
Lohengrin is a romantic opera in three acts composed and written by Richard Wagner, first performed in 1850. The story of the eponymous character is taken from medieval German romance, notably the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach and its sequel, Lohengrin, written by a different author, itself...
, Andrea Chénier
Andrea Chénier
Andrea Chénier is a verismo opera in four acts by the composer Umberto Giordano, set to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica. It is based loosely on the life of the French poet, André Chénier , who was executed during the French Revolution....
, The Flying Dutchman
The Flying Dutchman (opera)
Der fliegende Holländer is an opera, with music and libretto by Richard Wagner.Wagner claimed in his 1870 autobiography Mein Leben that he had been inspired to write "The Flying Dutchman" following a stormy sea crossing he made from Riga to London in July and August 1839, but in his 1843...
, I puritani
I puritani
I puritani is an opera in three acts by Vincenzo Bellini. It was his last opera. Its libretto is by Count Carlo Pepoli, based on Têtes rondes et Cavaliers by Jacques-François Ancelot and Joseph Xavier Saintine, which is in turn based on Walter Scott's novel Old Mortality. It was first produced at...
, La finta semplice
La finta semplice
La finta semplice , K. 51 is an opera buffa in three acts for soloists and orchestra, composed in 1769 by then 12-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by the court poet Marco Coltellini based on an early work by Carlo Goldoni...
and Tannhäuser
Tannhäuser
Tannhäuser was a German Minnesänger and poet. Historically, his biography is obscure beyond the poetry, which dates between 1245 and 1265...
. She has also directed a touring production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play that was written by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta...
for the Bell Shakespeare Company
Bell Shakespeare Company
Bell Shakespeare is an Australian theatre company specialising in the works of William Shakespeare. It was founded in 1990 by John Bell..Bell Shakespeare is Australia's only national touring theatre company. Its current practice is to tour three mainstage productions to each Australian state in...
. She has lectured at NIDA
National Institute of Dramatic Art
The National Institute of Dramatic Art is an Australian national training institute for students of theatre, film, and television, based in the Sydney suburb of Kensington. It is supported by the federal Office for the Arts, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. NIDA is located adjacent...
and the Sydney Conservatorium of Music
Sydney Conservatorium of Music
The Sydney Conservatorium of Music is one of the oldest and most prestigious music schools in Australia...
. In 2006 she was a member of the judging panel for Operatunity Oz
Operatunity Oz
Operatunity Oz was a 2006 talent search, and accompanying four-part television documentary by Simon Target, in which Opera Australia conducted a nationwide search to find someone in Australia without professional opera experience, who could be coached to sing in a staged opera — Verdi's...
, along with Richard Gill
Richard Gill (conductor)
Richard James Gill OAM is an Australian conductor who has earned awards for his work. He conducts choral, orchestral and operatic works, and has been involved in music training and education...
, Yvonne Kenny
Yvonne Kenny
Yvonne Kenny AM is an Australian soprano, particularly associated with Handel and Mozart roles.Born in Sydney, she first studied at the University of Sydney in science, hoping to become a biochemist, but decided to pursue a career in music instead...
and Antoinette Halloran
Antoinette Halloran
-Education:Antoinette Halloran is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts where she won the Mabel Kent Scholarship and completed a Diploma of Arts ; she has an Honours Degree in Music from the University of Melbourne. In 1993 she studied at the New England Conservatory in Boston.-Career:In...
.
Neidhardt has a reputation for clashing with the conductors she works with. She is also known for her bluntness and frankness, describing Australian culture as "quite massively behind"; criticising the prudishness of theatrical authorities about things such as nudity; regarding the Sydney Opera House
Sydney Opera House
The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in the Australian city of Sydney. It was conceived and largely built by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, finally opening in 1973 after a long gestation starting with his competition-winning design in 1957...
as "awful to work in"; and criticising the decision not to repeat her 2004 Adelaide production of the Ring Cycle despite its overwhelming success.
Neidhardt was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia
Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...
(AM) in the Australia Day
Australia Day
Australia Day is the official national day of Australia...
Honours 2011, "for service to the performing arts as an opera director and producer, and through the tuition and mentoring of young emerging artists".
Personal life
In 1967 Neidhardt married Christopher Muir, an Australian television director. They had a son, Fabian, before divorcing in 1977. Fabian Muir is now a MunichMunich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
-based lawyer and writer.
Neidhardt had a 35-year relationship with the actor Norman Kaye
Norman Kaye
Norman James Kaye was an Australian actor and musician. He was best known for his roles in the films of director Paul Cox.Kaye was born in Melbourne and educated at Geelong Grammar School...
, nursing him through the final stages of Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...
until his death in May 2007. He had frequently proposed marriage to her, but she always declined, feeling that marriage was unnecessary.
Neidhardt became an Australian citizen in early 2007.