Hans Neuenfels

Hans Neuenfels (German pronunciation: [hans ˈnɔʏənfɛls]; 31 May 1941 – 6 February 2022) was a German writer, poet, film producer, librettist, theatre director, opera director and theatre manager. As a director, he first focused on drama, staged at prominent houses such as the Vienna Burgtheater, and became a leading exponent of German Regietheater. From 1974, he turned to opera, looking for "the subliminal of the music and the interlinear of the texts", for "surprisingly new, sometimes even disturbingly ambivalent perspectives on the works".

Some of his opera productions caused controversies, such as Verdi's Aida at the Oper Frankfurt in 1980 where he staged the title character as a contemporary cleaning lady. In Mozart's Idomeneo at the Deutsche Oper Berlin in 2006, he was accused of offending Islam, and in Wagner's Lohengrin at the Bayreuth Festival in 2010, he dressed the choir as laboratory rats. He received the Der Faust award for his life's achievements in 2016, and is regarded as one of the most inventive directors of his generation.