Luc Bondy, Swiss opera, theatre director, dies of pneumonia at age 67

World-renowned director Luc Bondy (Wikipedia photo)

BERLIN – Luc Bondy, a Swiss opera, theatre and film director who staged productions on renowned stages across Europe and the United States, has died. He was 67.

The Odeon Theatre in Paris, where Bondy last worked, announced his death Saturday, saying he died of pneumonia.

The New York Metropolitan Opera, in an obituary on its homepage, wrote that Bondy’s direction “was notable for its psychological insight, clarity, and vivid theatricality.”

Bondy staged celebrated productions at the world’s leading opera houses including Milan’s La Scala, the Paris Opera and the Salzburg Festivals.

His career also spanned decades of theatre productions in Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, London and elsewhere in Europe.

The Odeon Theatre praised Bondy for his “creative genius, erudition, his love for the actors and the audience, his humanity and his liberty.”