Jean-Pierre Ponnelle

Jean-Pierre Ponnelle (19 February 1932 – 11 August 1988) was a French opera director, set and costume designer. Ponnelle was born in Paris. He studied philosophy, art, and history there and, in 1952, began his career in Germany as a theatre designer for Henze's opera Boulevard Solitude. He was greatly influenced by the work of art director Georges Wakhévitch who also designed sets and costumes for the theatre, the ballet, and the opera.

In 1962, Ponnelle directed his first production of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde in Düsseldorf. His production of that work at the Bayreuth Festival in 1981 was widely praised as one of the most aesthetically beautiful in its history.

His work throughout the world included stage productions at the Metropolitan Opera and the San Francisco Opera; productions for television (Puccini's Madama Butterfly in 1974 notable for performances by Mirella Freni and the young Plácido Domingo); and filmed versions of operas such as Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro conducted by Karl Böhm. His 1969 production of Mozart's then neglected La Clemenza di Tito for the Cologne Opera helped re-establish this work in the repertory. Ponnelle also was a frequent guest at the Salzburg Festival.His productions were often controversial. In 1986, Verdi's Aida at the Royal Opera House, in which he replaced the usual ballet dancers with young boys, was soundly booed and never revived, though Donizetti's Don Pasquale earlier at the same theatre had been a triumph, as were his interpretations of well-known works.He died in Munich in 1988 of a pulmonary embolism following a tragic fall into the orchestra pit during rehearsals for a production of Bizet's Carmen with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Zubin Mehta. His son is the orchestra conductor Pierre-Dominique Ponnelle and his nephew is Jean Pierre Danel.