Michael Temme was born in the northern German town of Hannover. At the Musikhochschule in Hannover he majored in music and theatre arts, and at the age of 23 became an Assistant Stage Director at the Opera in Essen.
During this time, he also assisted with productions in Buenos Aires, San Francisco, Lyon, Milan, the Festival in Orange, and in many cities throughout Germany.
In 1973 he signed a contract with the Hagen Opera as Stage Director, and directed his first productions.
From 1975 to 1978 he was Chief Stage Director at the Municipal Theatre in Dortmund. More than 90 guest engagements have taken him to cities including Augsburg, Bern, Bremerhaven, Dortmund, Essen, Giessen, Hagen, Hamburg, Kaohsiung (Taiwan), Kaiserslautern, Krefeld, Linz, Lübeck, Marseille, Saarbrücken, San Juan (Puerto Rico), Wellington (New Zealand), and Vienna.
In 1982 he joined the faculty of the opera department of the University of Detmold. In 1988 he was Chief Stage Director of the Bayreuth International Youth Festival.
From 1988 to 1991 he was Chief Stage Director at the Opera in Essen. 2000 and 2001 he participated with productions of "Le nozze di Figaro" and "La finta giadiniera" at Sylvia Anderson's BASOTI opera workshop in San Francisco.
In 1989 he became a full professor of opera stage direction at the University for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, retiring in October, 2009, in order to devote himself to professional productions in Europe, Asia and America.
He worked among others with the following conductors: Yoram David, Barbara Day-Turner, Cord Garben, Gerhard Geist, Anton Guadagno, Theodor Guschelbauer, Michael Halász, Joachim Harder, Will Humburg, Ingo Ingensand, Gustav Kuhn, Matthias Kunzsch, Diego Masson, Robert Maxym, Leo Plettner, Peter Sommer, Heinz Wallberg, Matthias Weigmann, Bruno Weil, Roman Zeilinger; and designers: Roland Aeschlimann, Gerard Howland, Walter Jahreis, Ottowerner Meyer, Thomas Pekny, Kurt Pint, Wolfram Scarlicki, Hans Schavernoch, Harald Thor, Christoph Wagenknecht, Sascha Weig.