His tail coat, his score and his glasses were still arranged in a box.
On Saturday December 17, the German conductor and musical director of Hessian theater studies, Christophe Stiller, died at the age of 53.
That same evening he was to conduct a performance of
Hänsel and Gretel
by Engelbert Humperdinck, which he had already given two weeks earlier.
The establishment announced that he had died suddenly, without specifying the causes of his death.
The musicians, who were finally led by another conductor called in as reinforcements, learned of his death at the end of the evening.
The State Theater of Hesse-Wiesbaden, the main theater in the state capital for which Stiller worked for more than 25 years, pays tribute to the
"reliability"
and
"musical expertise"
of this
"true father figure for many many singers
.
The conductor had joined this institution of 600 employees in 1997, after studying at the Cologne Music Conservatory.
During all these years spent in Wiesbaden, he gave more than 500 performances, held the position of director of studies and became the first contact for conductors and production teams.
He was also the musical director of the Chors der Stadt Wiesbaden, a concert choir which accompanied the Staatstheater and its opera choir in an annual symphony concert
.
“With him, the house loses a pillar that provided artistic inspiration and organizational support to many employees every day.
We are sad”,
laments the house, by way of conclusion.
