Death of Met’s principal tuba, 92
mainHerbert Wekselblatt, who played 35 seasons in the Met Opera orchestra and pushed through the concept of blind auditions, will have a funeral on Thursday in Valhalla, New York.
Details here.
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I looked forward to his performances in Wagner operas especially. Beautiful tone, elegant phrasing, I never noticed a missed note.
Paywall!!
How appropriate that his funeral is in a place called Valhalla!
There are a number of cemeteries there. It’s named Valhalla because Xavier Reiter, the principal horn player of the Met back in the 1890’s, owned a farm there and advocated for the name. How fitting that Mr. Wekselblatt should be laid to rest there.
The Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, NY, just north of New York City, is also the final resting place of – among many others – Sergei Rachmaninoff, former RCA head David Sarnoff, Geraldine Farrar, Anna Moffo, Emanuel Feuermann, Robert Merrill and Beverly Sills.
That puts Mr. Wekselblatt in very good company, indeed.
RIP. I was fortunate to see him in Gotterdammerung his last season with the MET.