(Credit: Eduard Straub / Theater Museum Düsseldorf)

Kurt Horres former General Manager of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein passed away on January 2, 2023 in Düsseldorf.

Horres born in 1932, grew up in Düsseldorf and went on to study German, theater, and art history in Cologne followed by attending the Robert Schumann Hochschule. His first professional engagement was with the Komische Oper Berlin as an assistant director, in what was then East Berlin.

Horres worked as a director in Wuppertal, Cologne, Bonn and as head director at the Lübeck theaters. After 11 years as opera director at the Wuppertal theaters, he moved to the Staatstheater Darmstadt and Hamburg State Opera.

In 1986, Horres became the General Manager of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein. During his service the company performed approximately 60 opera productions under his directorship with circa 20 being 20th-century works. He managed to maintain the artistic level of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein and social relevance through budget and social constraints. Horres stayed in this position until 1996.

The current general manager at the Deutsche Opera am Rhein general manager Christoph Meyer remembered Horres by saying, “with great artistic passion, Kurt Horres worked above all as a pioneer of modernism, who firmly believed in the future of the art form of opera and repeatedly convinced the audience of its relevance. He will be remembered at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein as one of their defining personalities.”