Peter Ebert

Peter Ebert (6 April 1918, Frankfurt am Main, Germany – 25[1] December 2012, Sussex, England) was a German opera director.

In 1933 Carl was invited by the Nazis to take charge of the theatre scene in Berlin, but in a strong political gesture he chose to leave Germany and the family settled in Switzerland.

[citation needed] After two years at Gordonstoun, Peter spent six months apprenticed to a private bank, but then moved to Dartington Hall in Devonshire, where the Elmhirsts were carrying out a major cultural experiment.

At the time of the Dunkirk evacuation during World War II, Ebert was interned in various camps as a "friendly enemy alien" because, at this point, he had not been naturalised.

However, Silvia was forbidden by her parents to see Peter because he was still legally married (albeit separated), he had children, and was German.

[3] Given Glyndebourne's involvement in founding the Edinburgh Festival (Rudolf Bing was its first director), in August Peter went to Scotland to assist on the production of Verdi's Macbeth.

[citation needed] In 1954 Peter Ebert became chief producer at the Staatsoper Hannover in Hanover under Intendant Kurt Ehrhardt, and the family moved there.

Peter stayed six years and learned a large amount of the opera repertoire in a theatre with very high standards.

When Glyndebourne took Le Comte Ory and Falstaff to Paris, Ebert did all the technical and preparatory work as well as the rehearsals.

When La cenerentola went to West Berlin, Peter was in charge of the whole thing as his father fell ill. Later, when his father died, Bernard Levin, the leading critic, wrote an obituary lengthily praising a production of Mozart's Entführung aus dem Serail, not realising it was Peter's.

During those years Peter Ebert had established an international reputation and thereafter worked in America, Canada, South Africa, Italy, Denmark and Germany.

For the next six years Ebert worked as a freelancer, doing productions in Los Angeles, Pretoria, Copenhagen and Basle.

In 1977 he was asked to join Scottish Opera, with which he had been associated (by doing freelance productions), since its foundation by Sir Alexander Gibson in 1962.

Peter Ebert had a very successful and creative three years there before he "resigned...in 1980 in some bitterness over the financing and future artistic policy of the company.

The Scotsman newspaper's obituary notes that "from the outset he was an inspiring figure and as director of productions from 1965 to 1975 he was responsible for a wide variety of operas which included works by Monteverdi to Don Pasquale and Fidelio".

[8] He creating the company's first orchestra, staging Scotland's first-ever Ring cycle and The Trojans, with an excellent cast including Janet Baker.

In addition, it has been noted that: [citation needed] Ebert's great talent in the professional field as a director, lay in his power to create a "perfect whole".