Tragic incident in the Munich National Theater: Stefan Soltesz collapses while conducting an opera and dies a little later. The Bavarian State Opera is horrified.
The conductor Stefan Soltesz collapsed during a performance at the Munich National Theater and then died. With horror and great sadness, the Bavarian State Opera announces the death of the 73-year-old, a spokesman said. The incident happened on Friday evening while Soltesz was conducting the comic opera "The Silent Woman".
"I am deeply saddened by the news of the collapse and death of Stefan Soltesz," said director Serge Dorny, according to the spokesman. "We are losing a gifted conductor. I am losing a good friend. My thoughts are with his wife Michaela."
Soltesz, born in Hungary, studied conducting, composition and piano at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. After positions as conductor in Vienna and Graz and as musical assistant to Karl Böhm, Christoph von Dohnányi and Herbert von Karajan at the Salzburg Festival, positions followed as conductor at the Hamburg State Opera, the Deutsche Oper Berlin and as general music director at the Braunschweig State Theater. From 1992 to 1997 he was chief conductor of the Flemish Opera in Antwerp/Gent, from 1997 to 2013 general music director of the Essen Philharmonic and artistic director of the Aalto Music Theater, as the Bavarian State Opera further announced. In addition, many guest conductors have been added.
