Focus: Jascha Horenstein

With “FOKUS: JASCHA HORENSTEIN”, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein pays tribute to the General Music Director of the Düsseldorf Opera House, who was forcibly removed from office by the Nazis in 1933 and whose name subsequently fell into oblivion.

Born in 1898 in Kiev, shaped by his studies in Vienna and early successes in Berlin’s musical scene alongside Wilhelm Furtwängler, his path led Jascha Horenstein to the Düsseldorf Opera House in 1928. Just one year later, he took up the post of General Music Director here. Together with General Director Walter Bruno Iltz, Horenstein promoted music theatre that embraced modernity. He had a particular interest in contemporary music: he supported composers such as Alban Berg, Kurt Weill and Igor Stravinsky, and naturally included their works in the Düsseldorf repertoire. Horenstein was a conductor who combined tradition and the future: as an interpreter of Gustav Mahler and Anton Bruckner, he set new standards, whilst championing the music of his own time with equal intensity.

But this artistic peak was short-lived. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, Jascha Horenstein – who was of Jewish descent and a staunch opponent of political interference in the arts – was forced out of his position and had to emigrate. A performance of Beethoven’s “Fidelio” was to be his last at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein: it was disrupted by members of the SA; he fled the opera house unrecognised – and never returned.