Hephzibah Tintner

Hephzibah Tintner was born in Perth in 1970. Her father was Georg Tintner, a well known Austrian conductor and she was named after Hephzibah Menuhin, sister of Yehudi Menuhin. After leaving school early to study full time ballet, she was awarded the inaugural Janet Vernon Scholarship and attended the Australian Ballet School. She went on to dance with the Israel Ballet in Tel Aviv, the National Theatre in Prague, and as a soloist at the Deutsches Nationaltheater in Weimar. Desiring a change from ballet, Hephzibah trained as an actor at the Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Conservatorium in Leipzig, and then worked in theatre and film in Germany, including creating two roles with director Leander Haussman. In 1997, she studied opera direction at the Hanns Eisler Conservatorium in Berlin. Hephzibah assisted a number of high profile productions including Die Verurteilung des Lukullus(Staatsoper, Berlin) and Elektra (Sydney Festival). Hephzibah died from cancer on 21 June 2001 at 30 years of age.