Gotz Friedrich was born in Germany. From 1981 until his death in 2000 he was the general director of the Deutsche Oper Berlin. He has directed scores of productions for all leading opera houses around the world including Der Ring des Nibelungen, Tannhauser, Parsifal (Wagner), Lulu, Wozzeck (Berg), Moses un Aron (Schonberg), Fidelio (Beethoven), Yevgeny Onegin (Tchaikovsky), Boris Godunov (Mussorgsky), Die Frau ohne Schatten (R. Strauss), La forza del destino, Otello (Verdi), Oedipus (Rihm), Katja Kabanova (Janacek), Oedipe (Enescu) and many others. He worked regularly at the Vienna Staatsoper, La Scala in Milan, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Bavarian Staatsoper in Munich, the Bayreuth and the Salzburg festivals as well as the opera houses of Zurich, Washington, Tokyo, Stockholm, Helsinki, Los Angeles, Chicago and many others.

At the Israeli Opera he directed:
Luisa Miller (2013) revived by Gerlinde Pelkowski
Mattheus Passion (2002)
Un ballo in maschera (2000) Deutsche Oper Berlin tour
Samson et Dalila (1998)