Rolf Liebermann

Rolf Liebermann (Zurich, 1910 – Paris, 1999) was a Swiss composer who was better known as the director of opera houses than as an author. His significance lies in combining legal training and music criticism with decisive institutional work for staged music in the second half of the 20th century.

He studied law at the University of Zurich and took music lessons at the José Berr Conservatory in the same city. Between 1937 and 1938 he worked in Vienna as private secretary and musical assistant to his conducting teacher, Hermann Scherchen. Back in Switzerland he worked as a music critic and trained in composition, particularly in twelve-tone technique, with Wladimir Vogel in Ascona. He then held radio posts: producer at the Zurich studio from 1945 to 1950, and head of the Beromünster station until 1957.

In 1957 he was appointed music director of the NDR in Hamburg and, two years later, general director of the Hamburg State Opera. From there he turned the theatre into one of the centres of contemporary opera, with numerous world premieres. He then directed the Paris Opera from 1973 to 1980 and returned to Hamburg from 1985 to 1988. During his years in management he composed very little until the early 1980s.

As a composer he achieved international recognition with his operas and, more strikingly, with the Concierto para orquesta de jazz y orquesta sinfónica, an early attempt to bring the two worlds together, and with Concert des échanges for machines. His twelve-tone writing was free and individual, with a predilection for bitonality and certain tonal references. His legacy is divided between composition and the transformation of European operatic life.