The conscience of City Opera
mainJulius Rudel, who was chief executive and principal conductor of New York City Opera for 22 years, died this morning, eight months after the company he loved vanished int bankruptcy. He was 93.
Rudel joined City Opera in 1944 and was in charge from 1957 to 1979. José Carreras, Plácido Domingo and Beverly Sills got their New York breaks under his baton. He was also the inaagural music director of the Kennedy Center in Washington from 1971 to 1975.
Full obituary here.
Why was he unknown, except by reputation, in the UK?
He wasn’t. He conducted Handel’s Samson, a revival of Andrea Chenier chiefly remembered for Domingo rushing off-stage to throw up in the middle of the Improviso on the first night, and a Fledermaus revival, all at Covent Garden in the 1980s…
I remember Samson at ROH. Vickers. Inimitable.