Michael Boder has been Musical Director of the Gran Teatro del Liceu in Barcelona since September 2008.
He studied at Hamburg Conservatoire and in Florence, and went on to be Michael Gielen’s assistant at Oper Frankfurt. At the age of 29, he was appointed General Music Director of the Basler Theater, where he conducted a great number of productions, including a cycle of Mozart’s Da Ponte operas directed by Herbert Wernicke. In the same period, he also conducted at the opera houses in Hamburg, Munich, Berlin, Cologne, Zurich and London, focussing on repertoire by Verdi and Puccini.
In 1996, Michael Boder gave his début at the Wiener Staatsoper with a revival of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck. This was followed by performances of Die Frau ohne Schatten, Elektra and Die Meistersinger; new productions of Lulu‚ Jakobsleiter and Gianni Schichi; and world premières of Der Riese vom Steinfeld by Friedrich Cerha and Medea by Aribert Reimann, all at the Wiener Staatsoper.
During this period, Michael Boder conducted a large number of new productions, including Wagner’s Ring Cycle at the Semperoper Dresden (where he also conducted Der Rosenkavalier, Elektra and Die Frau ohne Schatten); Lulu at the Nationaltheater in Munich; Fidelio and Der fliegende Holländer at the National Theatre in Tokyo; Wozzeck, Der fliegende Holländer and Wagner’s Ring Cycle in San Francisco; Aus einem Totenhaus in Cologne; and Chowantschina, Salome, Parsifal and Le grand Macabre in Barcelona. In 2009, he conducted Willy Decker's new production of Moses and Aaron at the der Ruhrtriennale in Bochum.
Alongside repertoire by the Second Viennese School and by Strauss and Wagner, Boder is greatly involved in contemporary opera. He has conducted a large number of world premières, including Das Schloss by Aribert Reimann (Deutsche Oper Berlin), Ubu Rex by Christof Penderecki and Was Ihr wollt by Manfred Trohjahn (Nationaltheater Munich), Faust by Luca Lombardi (Theater Basel), Der Riese vom Steinfeld by Friedrich Cerha (Staatsoper Wien), Phaedra by Hans-Werner Henze, and Faustus - the last night by Pascal Dusapin (Staatsoper Berlin unter den Linden). Most recently, he conducted Aribert Reimann‘s Medea at the Wiener Staatsoper.
Michael Boder is also a well established orchestral conductor. Alongside his concert performances in Barcelona, he works regularly with such ensembles as Berliner Philharmoniker, Königlichen Kapelle Kopenhagen, Gulbenkian Orchester in Lisbon, Ensemble Modern, Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Wiener Symphoniker, Saitokinen Festival Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra and Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. Upcoming engagements include orchestral performances in Vienna, Copenhagen, Weimar, Stockholm, Tokyo, Brussels, Lisbon and Berlin.
Michael Boder is represented by Intermusica.
January 2012 / 410 words. Not to be altered without permission. Please destroy all previous biographical material.
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