Word: solti
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Among the three international superstars of conducting, Sir Georg Solti and Leonard Bernstein are almost overly familiar to audiences in the U.S. Herbert von Karajan is a more remote, elusive figure. In 1955 he was appointed conductor for life of the Berlin Philharmonic, one of the finest orchestras in the world. In the years since, he has exercised complete control over its rehearsals, working conditions, personnel and guest artists. Today he can say: "I cannot now blame anybody else for not getting the results I want. No excuses. If it's wrong, it's entirely my fault...
...Georg Solti, the Paris Opéra's principal guest conductor, led Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro. A light had been glaring in his eyes all evening and, leaning away to avoid it, he had already broken two batons. Then, early on in Act III, he stabbed himself in the temple with the point of his third baton. Blood poured down into his right eye, dripping onto the score and music desk. Onstage, Count Almaviva was alone, plotting revenge against his uppity manservant, Figaro. Solti went on beating time with his right hand and sopping...
Hand Cranks. Finally, the Count's aria ended. Solti scurried to the conductor's dressing room. It was an opportune moment to abandon the podium, because the opera had moved into a recitative section. Thus while Figaro was discovering that he was the long-lost son of two people he could live without, Solti was holding cold compresses to his head. Like the seasoned pros they are, the members of the orchestra began the subsequent sextet by themselves. His arms beating as he ascended into view, Solti returned to his place. His wound turned out to be minor...
Many in the audience were not aware of Solti's dilemma. That cannot be said for what happened at La Scala's first night in Washington. The audience filed into the Kennedy Center Opera House to find the pit raised to the level of the stage. "I've never seen that before," said an usher in response to a ticket holder's question. No one had. The pit had been elevated for a rehearsal that afternoon and the hydraulic lift had stuck. While the audience-including Vice President and Mrs. Nelson Rockefeller and Mrs. Giovanni Leone...
Presiding over an obviously recharged Paris Opéra orchestra, Solti made his first appearance in an American opera house since 1963-64. His Figaro had a spacious relaxation not always heard in his work with the Chicago Symphony. His handling of the surprising events that constitute the wondrous finale of Act II was but one of his many lessons of the evening in how to pace an opera...