Klaus Bertisch
Master Research

Klaus Bertisch studied English and German language and literature, theory of education and art education in Frankfurt. He was a dramaturg with Frankfurt Opera. He subsequently worked with the Siemens Cultural Program in Munich and for opera houses and festivals in Germany, France, Belgium and Austria.

As Head of Dramaturgy he worked for Dutch National Opera from 1990 to 2018. He has worked widely as a dramaturg with Pierre Audi (in Amsterdam, Brussels, Salzburg Festival, at the Ruhrtriennale and in Madrid), and with Willy Decker in Dresden (Der Ring des Nibelungen), for Salzburg Festival (Die tote Stadt and La traviata) and for the Liceu, Barcelona (Death in Venice).

Other credits as a dramaturg away from Amsterdam include L’Étoile at Berlin State Opera for Dale Duesing, Così fan tutte at the Bolshoi in Moscow and Semele in Karlsruhe for Floris Visser. With Christof Loy he worked recently on Ariodante for the Salzburg Festival and in Amsterdam on La forza del destino and Tannhäuser.

Bertisch has also directed different projects, often in collaboration with director Marcel Sijm, and has staged recitals of songs to texts by Rilke, Heine, Goethe and Mörike with singers such as Marlies Petersen, Olaf Bär and Mojca Erdmann. He directed Die lustige Witwe and The Gamblers at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw.

He has been a lecturer in theatre studies at the University of Amsterdam and taught at the International Opera Studio Nederland. He has contributed to numerous books and journals, and published the collection Schwanenmärchen, a book about stage director Ruth Berghaus, and the first German biography on the Dutch composer Leo Smit Unerhörtes Talent. Today he is a freelance dramaturg, director and writer.