Since September 2016, Berthold Warnecke has been the Director of Opera at the Mainfranken Theater Würzburg. Prior to this, he worked from 1998 to 2007 as a music dramaturge and personal assistant to General Music Directors Will Humburg (until 2004) and Rainer Mühlbach at Theater Münster and the Symphony Orchestra Münster. He later served as a music dramaturge at Theater Erfurt from 2007 to 2016. From 2007 to 2018, he was also the Artistic Director of the Schloss Cappenberg Music Festival (with violinist Mirijam Contzen as artistic lead); since 2023, he has served as Artistic Advisor for the newly founded Musiktage Schloss Cappenberg. He has contributed as dramaturge to approximately 120 productions in opera and interdisciplinary projects, collaborating with directors such as Lorenzo Fioroni, Rosamund Gilmore, Jean-Louis Grinda, Michael Hampe, Dietrich Hilsdorf, Stephen Lawless, Guy Montavon, and Gabriele Rech. As Director of Opera in Würzburg, he places particular importance on promoting the younger generation of directors, including Tristan Braun, Magdalena Fuchsberger, Agnessa Nefjodov, Pamela Recinella, Nina Russi, Tomo Sugao, and Martina Veh. Formative experiences include collaborations with renowned figures such as the famous german entertainer Götz Alsmann, directors Katharina Thalbach and Werner Schneyder, pianist and conductor Wayne Marshall, and Katharina Wagner. He shares a close artistic friendship with actor, singer, and director Dominique Horwitz, for whose revues Musik Macht Manipulation (2015), Reformhaus Lutter (2017), Je t’aime. Das spektakuläre Leben des Serge Gainsbourg (2018), and Belle nuit, ô nuit d’amour (2019) he served as the author. Since 2015, he has been a jury member of the Canadian opera program Jeunes Ambassadeurs Lyriques in Montreal. In 2016, he was a guest dramaturge at the Opéra de Nice Côte d’Azur; in autumn 2025, he will make his debut at the Latvian National Opera in Riga. He has also overseen world premieres in opera and concert music by composers such as Azio Corghi, Franz Hummel, Volker David Kirchner, and Alois Bröder. The opera The Wives of the Dead by Alois Bröder, which premiered in Erfurt in 2013, is dedicated to Berthold Warnecke. He studied musicology, German studies, and Romance languages in Münster, as well as in Cremona, Italy, as an Erasmus scholar. In 1999, he received his Ph.D. He has held teaching positions at the University of Münster and the University of Erfurt, and since 2021, he has been a lecturer in Opera Staging Analysis in the makeup department at the Theaterakademie August Everding in Munich. In addition to numerous original contributions – including for Deutsche Oper Berlin and Oper Frankfurt – he has authored several opera translations and the libretto for the children’s opera Siegfried, der kleine Drachentöter. He is co-editor of the publications Der Ring des Nibelungen in Münster. Der Zyklus von 1999 bis 2001 (2001) and Musik und Szene Münster 1992–2004. Musiktheater – Szenische Konzerte – Symphoniekonzerte (2004), both published by agenda Verlag Münster. Berthold Warnecke is the father of two adult children. His partner is the Greek soprano Ilia Papandreou.

 

Photo: Nik Schölzel