Image: VOLKER Weihbold
The composer, conductor and director Walter Haupt is dead. According to his family, he died on May 17 in Munich at the age of 87.
Together with ORF Upper Austria director Hannes Leopoldseder, he brought the first cloud of sound to Linz in September 1979. The year before he had realized a cloud of sound in Munich with Karl Orff in Munich, in which he had Orff’s composition “Entrata” played by loudspeakers from the church towers. In Linz, recordings of Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony were played from loudspeakers at Pöstlingberg, Freinberg, Auhof and Hummelhof. Instead of 20,000, 100,000 people came to the Donaupark, and the dreaded scandal never materialized.
Haupt was born in Munich in 1935. He studied music and then worked as a jazz pianist. Haupt founded and managed the experimental stage at the Bavarian State Opera, the Marstall. He opened the Olympic Games in Munich in 1972 with a light and hologram show. His opera “Marat” about the French Revolution was performed in front of 150,000 spectators on the Königsplatz. He became internationally known for his so-called clouds of sound. These are multimedia audio and dramas made of fire, water, light and music in the middle of the landscape. They reached an audience of millions.
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: Nachrichten
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
