Background
POUNTNEY, David was born on September 10, 1947 in Oxford. Son of E. W. Pountney and D. L. Byrt.
POUNTNEY, David was born on September 10, 1947 in Oxford. Son of E. W. Pountney and D. L. Byrt.
Saint John"s College Choir School, Cambridge, Radley College, and Saint John"s College Cambridge.
Foreign the retired football player of the same name, see Dave Pountney
He has directed over ten world premieres, including three by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies for whom he wrote the librettos of The Doctor of Myddfai, Mr Emmet Takes a Walk and Kommilitonen! His first major breakthrough came in 1972 with his production of Káťa Kabanová for the Wexford Festival. From 1975 to 1980, he was the Director of Productions at Scottish Opera, and, from 1982 to 1993, Director of Productions at English National Opera, where he directed over twenty operas. From 1993 to 2004, he worked as a free-lance director at the Zurich Opera, the Vienna State Opera, the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, and other houses in America, Japan, and the United Kingdom.
He has also directed at De Nederlandse Opera and Opera Australia.
In December 2003 he became the Intendant of the Bregenz Festival, a post he holds until 2014. In April of that year he was named head of the Welsh National Opera with his appointment as chief executive and artistic director to begin in September 2011.
He has worked as a librettist for Sir Peter Maxwell Davies on The Doctor of Myddfai, Mr Emmet Takes a Walk and Kommilitonen!, and has translated opera librettos into English from Russian, Czechoslovakian, German, and Italian. He wrote the libretto for, and will direct, Elena Langer"s opera Figaro Gets a Divorce, which will be premiered at the Welsh National Opera in February 2016.
Pountney is a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (a French civilian honor), and a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (Commander of the Order of the British Empire).
Janáček cycle: Jenůfa, From the House of the Dead, The Makropulos Case, Káťa Kabanová, and The Cunning Little Vixen (Scottish Opera, in collaboration with the Welsh National Opera)
Toussaint (by David Blake. 1977, English National Opera, premier)
Rusalka (English National Opera)
Osud (English National Opera)
The Midsummer Marriage (English National Opera)
Doktor Faust (English National Opera)
Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (English National Opera)
Königskinder (English National Opera)
Hänsel und Gretel (English National Opera)
The Adventures of Mr Broucek (English National Opera)
The Fairy Queen (English National Opera)
Julietta (Opera North)
The Greek Passion (Bregenz Festival)
Masquerade (Nielsen) (Bregenz Festival, and also Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in Fall 2005)
Der Kuhhandel (Bregenz Festival and Opera North)
Macbeth (Zurich Opera) (2001).
Married Jane R. Henderson in 1980.