The sudden death of the conductor Stefan Soltesz (1949-2022) causes bewilderment. He died at the age of 73. The Bavarian State Opera announced the sad news “with horror and great sadness” on its website. The Austrian musician of Hungarian origin suffered a breakdown on Friday evening (July 22) while conducting ‘The Silent Woman’ by Richard Strauss (1864-1949) at the Munich National Theater. He died that same evening. “Our thoughts are with his wife Michaela,” it continues.
Serge Dorny (60), director of the Bavarian State Opera, expressed his grief on Twitter. “I am deeply saddened by the news of the collapse and passing of Stefan Soltesz,” he wrote. “We are losing a gifted conductor. I am losing a good friend. My thoughts are with his wife Michaela.”
Stefan Soltesz was, among other things, permanent conductor at the Hamburg State Opera and the Deutsche Oper Berlin. In the 1980s and 90s he was general music director at the Braunschweig State Theater and later chief conductor at the Flemish Opera in Antwerp and Ghent. From 1997 to 2013 Soltesz was artistic director at the Aalto Theater in Essen. He has also made guest appearances at opera houses around the world.
