Christian Kluttig
The Handel interpreter rendered special services to the implementation of Historically informed performance in the Saale city, which made him one of the most important protagonists in this field in the GDR.
[3] From 1961 to 1967, he studied conducting with general music director Rudolf Neuhaus and Horst Förster at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber Dresden.
[4] After he had also undergone piano training in Dresden with Ingeborg Finke-Siegmund,[5] he received his first engagement as solo répétiteur with conducting duties at the Saxon State Opera in 1967.
[6] There, he was active as an opera conductor for the first time with Le postillon de Lonjumeau by Adolphe Adam, Der Freischütz by Carl Maria von Weber and Die Zauberflöte by Mozart.
[4] At the Opera House, he conducted the premiere of the Carl Riha production of Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg with Kammersänger Konrad Rupf as Hans Sachs in 1974.
[5] Thus he directed Ezio (1979), Agrippina (1980), Poro (1981), Alessandro (1983), Floridante (1984), Il pastor fido and Terpsichore (1985), Partenope (1985), Rinaldo (1987), Oreste (1988) and Tamerlano (1990).
[16] Kluttig helped several singers socialised in Leipzig to get engagements in the Saale city, mainly on the recommendation of the singing teacher Helga Forner.
[17] For musicologist Karin Zauft, Kluttig was one of the pioneers of historical performance practice in the GDR[18] The opera ensemble made guest appearances both in the so-called Eastern Bloc (Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary) as well as in the Federal Republic of Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
[6] In Halle, according to Gilbert Stöck, he was also responsible for "two nationally acclaimed productions of contemporary and at the same time socialy critic operas":[21] In 1984, Der Preis by Karl Ottomar Treibmann was staged and in 1986 Candide by Reiner Bredemeyer was premiered.
[22] On the occasion of the Hallische Musiktage, he repeatedly premiered works by foreign composers with the Handel Festival Orchestra, such as in 1980 Avet Terterian's[5] Symphony No.
[25] The declining attendance figures at the Landestheater Halle in the course of the Peaceful Revolution probably ultimately led to the resignation of the Kluttig and Baumann team.
[26] After a guest appearance,[26] he was from 1991 to 1998[27] in succession to James Lockhart Chief Conductor of the Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie and, as it were, Musical Director of the Theater Koblenz.
[33] He also championed Neue Musik,[33] for example, he brought the 1972 Piano Concerto by Manfred Weiss, a work commissioned by the Staatskapelle Dresden[34] (soloist: Gerhard Berge [de]), and in 1983 at the New Gewandhaus together with the Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra[35] Christfried Schmidt's "Munch music" premiered.
Guest conducting engagements took him to the Staatsoper Unter den Linden and Dresden[4] as well as the Landestheater Linz (Serse, 1981) and the Theater Osnabrück (Alcina, 1997).
[38] His tenure included the opening of the Great Hall and the engagement of renowned guest conductors such as Fabio Luisi, Kurt Masur and Herbert Blomstedt.
