Berlin busts a DDR music director

The Berlin Staatsoper has commissioned a bust for its resplendent foyer of an Austrian conductor who made his career behind the Iron Curtain.

Otmar Siutner, from Innsbruck, took up a popst as principal conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden in 1960, switching to the Berlin State Opera in East Berlin from 1964 until the Wall came down.

To do so, he needed to show subservience to the Communist regime and its spy culture. Suitner made himself fairly inconspicuous and stayed out of trouble. He made some very fine recordings that were released on Deutsche Grammophon. He became quite popular in Japan.

Suitner died in 2010.

Now he has been busted.

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