Christopher Nupen, who was raised in Johannesburg, initially pursued a career in broadcasting at BBC Radio in the UK.
Then he switched to television, where he made history by becoming the first to up-close capture performers performing and working backstage.
Christopher Nupen Obituary
Christopher Nupen was a South African-born British filmmaker who specialized in music-related biographical documentaries. He passed away on February 19, 2023.
Double Concerto, his first video for the BBC, included the English Chamber Orchestra, Daniel Barenboim, and Vladimir Ashkenazy.
It has been announced that Christopher Nupen, a pioneer in the field of music documentaries, has passed away.
South African-born Nupen produced more than 75 documentaries about classical music, performers, and composers, introducing a golden generation of artists to the transformative power of music in a genuine and personal way.
On Sunday, the Bafta-winning director’s wife Caroline announced that he had passed away after a protracted illness.
A BBC feature-length autobiographical documentary titled Hearing Through The Lens, released in October 2021, chronicled Nupen’s founding of Allegro Films.
In addition to Sir David Attenborough, David Elstein, Lord Grade, and Melvyn Bragg, it also included narration by Stephen Fry and discussions of a unique episode in the history of music on television. It was directed by Nupen’s stepson Matthew Percival.
It served as the model for several of Nupen’s meticulously studied portrait movies that have come to be considered as classics.
In 1968, he co-founded Allegro Films, the UK’s first independent TV production business, and he continued to pioneer a brand-new type of music cinema by fusing performance with a fly-on-the-wall documentary.