An Italian maestro dies, at 89
mainThe death is reported of Alberto Zedda, long-standing conductor of the Rossini Festival at Pesaro and an international authority on Handel, Bellini and Donizetti.
As a young man, he was thrown out of La Scala by Herbert von Karajan. He went on to conduct at all the major Italian opera houses, including La Scala, as well as Covent Garden,Vienna, Paris, the Mariinsky, San Francisco and Los Angeles. He was an irrepressible enthusiast for Rossini and worked closely with Claudio Abbado on the new editions.
Alberto Zedda died yesterday in Pesaro.
He wasn’t only an enthusiast, but a great scholar for Rossini’s oeuvre and the entire proto-romantic italian opera. Fantastic teacher and passionate conductor, he will be missed for his knowledge of taste and style.
Blomstedt, Haitink, von Dóhnanyi and Previn are now the only great conductors left from the 1920’s.
I met him in Pesaro in the late 90’s when I working on a project for the Fondazione. He led a student workshop on Viaggio which was illuminating. A fine conductor and scholar. His recent La gazza ladra recording is wonderful – he will be missed.
There are far more important things to say about this great maestro, musicologist and wonderful communicator of the greatness of Rossini than that when young he was excluded from (a closed rehearsal at) La Scala by Karajan. This K. business continues to be your unhelpful obsession.
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