Biography
Hans Werner Henze was born on 1 July 1926 in Gütersloh and studied from 1946 with Wolfgang Fortner in Heidelberg, and in 1949 with René Leibowitz in twelve-tone technique. After early positions as a répétiteur in Bielefeld and artistic director of the Wiesbaden ballet, he emigrated to Italy in 1953, first to Ischia and later to Marino near Rome. There he composed many of his best-known operas, from "Boulevard Solitude" (1952) through "Der Prinz von Homburg" (1960) and "Der junge Lord" (1965) to "The Bassarids" (1966); he also wrote ten symphonies, ballets and the oratorio "The Raft of the Medusa" (1968). From 1980 to 1991 he taught composition at the Cologne Musikhochschule and founded festivals such as the Munich Biennale (1988); in 2000 he received the Praemium Imperiale. Henze died on 27 October 2012 in Dresden.
On Stagelog
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