Word: conductor
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Died. Fausto Cleva, 69, Trieste-born conductor associated with New York's Metropolitan Opera for the past half-century; of a heart attack suffered while conducting Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice; in Athens. Cleva's career got off to an auspicious start when the maestro who was scheduled to lead a 1920 performance in Ravenna, Italy, of Puccini's The Girl of the Golden West suddenly quit; the opera manager asked where he could find a substitute at the last minute. "Here's your man," said Puccini, pointing to 18-year-old Cleva...
Died. Yuri F. Faier, 81, chief conductor of the Bolshoi Ballet Orchestra from 1924 to 1963; in Moscow. While they showered Faier with bravos from Manhattan to Moscow, audiences were largely unaware that a congenital affliction had left the conductor almost totally blind, able to see only dim silhouettes. After joining the Bolshoi as a violinist, Faier memorized dozens of scores and choreographies until he knew just where each dancer should be at any point in any ballet. The portly maestro with perfect pitch was able to coordinate the orchestra precisely with the onstage movements of the dancers...
Died. Bernhard Paumgartner, 83, Austrian conductor-musicologist and one of the world's foremost authorities on Mozart; in Salzburg. Paumgartner had served only the first five of his 47 years as head of Salzburg's famed Mozarteum (conservatory) when in 1922 he joined Richard Strauss, Director Max Reinhardt and Librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal in organizing the Salzburg Festival. Before he began his eleven years as the festival's president in 1960, Paumgartner proved eminently resourceful. Once, while recording Don Giovanni, he went so far as to slap a soprano in order to evoke a properly furious scream...
...beamed, mugged and moved her chaotic voice through the narrator's role in Tubby the Tuba. The Boston audience loved it and gluttonously demanded an encore. Reverting to her metier by wheeling out a cartful of bottles, the obliging Julia rapidly concocted a cocktail and served it to Conductor Arthur Fiedler precisely on time with the orchestra's final tonic chord...
...from all over the U.S. and, this year, Japan and Canada. It may not match the luxurious silkiness of the Philadelphia Orchestra, but then it has no strings attached. Drawn from 300 to 400 auditioners a year, the orchestra is a crisp, vibrant sounding ensemble that can give its conductor just about anything he wants. What Boudreau wants is as much style and excitement in an electronic-and-live composition as in a Richard Rodgers medley, and he invariably gets...