Ruth Berghaus

Director and theatre manager, born in Dresden, E Germany. She worked for the theatre and for the musical stage, including opera. She began as a choreographer, working from 1967 with the Berliner Ensemble, of which she became director (1971–7). Later she directed at the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, was responsible for international guest performances, and became known for her unconventional, sometimes provocative, productions. She was married to the composer and conductor Paul Dessau.

Ruth Berghaus (July 2, 1927 – January 25, 1996) was a German choreographer and opera and theater stage director.

Berghaus was born in Dresden and studied Expressionist dance and Dance direction with Gret Palucca there and was an advanced student at the German Academy of Arts in Berlin. From 1951 to 1964 she worked as choreographer on many stages, including the Deutsches Theater Berlin, the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin and the Berliner Ensemble. Her work as a director began with the Die Verurteilung des Lukullus of Paul Dessau and Bertolt Brecht at the Deutsche Staatsoper in 1951.

In 1954, Bergaus married the composer Paul Dessau, whose works for the theater she directed.

From 1980 to 1987 Berghaus worked at the Frankfurt Opera. Her notable productions there included, in 1980 Die Zauberflöte of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 1981 Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail, 1982 Les Troyens of Hector Berlioz (Stage design by Hans-Dieter Schaal), Věc Makropulos of Janáček and Richard Wagner's Parsifal and 1985-87 Der Ring des Nibelungen.

In 1985 in Prague, she directed Alban Berg's Wozzeck and in Dresden, Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke by Siegfried Matthus.

Berghaus died in 1996 in Zeuthen, Berlin due to complications from cancer.