Julius Rudel (6 March 1921 – 26 June 2014) was an Austrian-born American opera and

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, ...

conductor. He was born in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

and was a student at the city's Academy of Music. He immigrated to the United States at the age of 17 in 1938 after the country was annexed by Germany. He studied conducting at the

Mannes College of Music The Mannes School of Music (), originally called the David Mannes Music School and later the Mannes Music School, Mannes College of Music, the Chatham Square Music School, and Mannes College: The New School for Music, is a Music school, music con ...

in New York City. After completing his music studies, he joined the

New York City Opera The New York City Opera (NYCO) is an American opera company located in Manhattan in New York City. The company has been active from 1943 through its 2013 bankruptcy, and again since 2016 when it was revived. The opera company, dubbed "the peopl ...

. He died on 26 June 2014 at the age of 93.

Career

After 1944, Rudel began a 35-year career with the

that continued until 1979. After rising to Principal Conductor and General Director in 1957, he brought the company international acclaim with his innovative programming (including three seasons of all-American operas in 1958, 1959, and 1960), and formed a partnership with

Beverly Sills Beverly Sills (born Belle Miriam Silverman; May 25, 1929July 2, 2007) was an American operatic soprano whose career peak was between the 1950s and 1970s. Although she sang a repertoire from Handel and Mozart to Puccini, Massenet and Verd ...

, who became the leading soprano of the NYCO. He led the company to its new home at the New York State Theater in

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 ...

, where it opened in February 1966 with

Alberto Ginastera Alberto Evaristo Ginastera (; April 11, 1916June 25, 1983) was an Argentine composer of classical music. He is considered to be one of the most important 20th-century classical music, 20th-century classical composers of the Americas. Biography G ...

's ''

Don Rodrigo ''Don Rodrigo'' is an opera in three acts by Alberto Ginastera, the composer's first opera, to an original Spanish libretto by Alejandro Casona. Ginastera composed the opera on commission from the Municipality of the City of Buenos Aires, Argen ...

'', in which he cast an unknown 25-year-old tenor,

Plácido Domingo José Plácido Domingo Embil (born 21 January 1941) is a Spanish opera singer, conductor, and arts administrator. He has recorded over a hundred complete operas and is well known for his versatility, regularly performing in Italian, French, ...

. In 1953, he conducted the

Naumburg Orchestral Concerts Naumburg () is a town in (and the administrative capital of) the district Burgenlandkreis, in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, Central Germany. It has a population of around 33,000. The Naumburg Cathedral became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2018. ...

, in the Naumburg Bandshell, Central Park, in the summer series. Rudel was a National Patron of Delta Omicron, an international professional music fraternity. In 1979, Julius Rudel became the music director of the

Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra is an American symphony orchestra located in Buffalo, New York led by Music Director JoAnn Falletta. Its primary performing venue is Kleinhans Music Hall, which is a National Historic Landmark. Each season it ...

. Though faced with many financial constraints, Rudel's tenure was marked with emphasis on the classical repertoire as well as gala performances with

and Plácido Domingo. Rudel also took the BPO on a West Coast tour and made a commemorative recording with CBS Masterworks of music for the holiday season. In 2009 he was honored by the US

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the feder ...

for his many contributions to opera. He died in Manhattan on 26 June 2014.

Recordings

Audio * Floyd: ''The Sojourner and Mollie Sinclair'' (Neway, Treigle; 1963) iveVAI * Handel: ''Giulio Cesare'' (Sills, Wolff, Forrester, Treigle; 1967)

RCA Victor RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic ...

* Ginastera: ''Bomarzo'' (Novoa; 1967)

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

* Massenet: ''Manon'' (Sills, Gedda, Souzay, Bacquier; 1970)

Westminster Westminster is the main settlement of the City of Westminster in Central London, Central London, England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, ...

* Offenbach: ''Les contes d'Hoffmann'' (Sills, Marsee, Burrows, Treigle; 1972) Westminster * Donizetti: ''Anna Bolena'' (Sills, Verrett, Burrows, Plishka; 1972) Westminster * Bellini: ''I puritani'' (Sills, Gedda, L.Quilico, Plishka; 1973) Westminster * Boito: ''Mefistofele'' (Caballé, Domingo, Treigle; 1973)

EMI EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...

* Massenet: ''Thaïs'' (Moffo, Carreras, Bacquier, Díaz; 1974) RCA * Charpentier: ''Louise'' (Sills, Gedda, van Dam; 1977) EMI * Lehár: ''Die lustige Witwe'': excerpts (Sills, H.Price, Titus; 1978) EMI * Massenet: ''Cendrillon'' (Welting, von Stade, Gedda; 1978) CBS * Verdi: ''Rigoletto'' (Sills, Kraus, Milnes, Ramey; 1978) EMI * Weill: ''Der Silbersee'' (Grey; 1980) Nonesuch Video * Donizetti: ''Roberto Devereux'' (Sills, Marsee, J.Alexander, Fredricks; Capobianco, 1975) iveVAI * Verdi: ''La traviata'' (Sills, H.Price, Fredricks; Capobianco, 1976) iveVAI * Massenet: ''Manon'' (Sills, H.Price, Fredricks, Ramey; Capobianco, 1977) iveParamount * Saint-Saëns: ''Samson et Dalila'' (Verrett, Domingo, Brendel; Joël, 1981) iveKultur * Giordano: ''Andrea Chénier'' (Tomowa-Sintow, Domingo, Zancanaro; Hampe, 1985) iveKultur

References

Notes Sources *Morgan, Brian (2006), ''Strange Child of Chaos: Norman Treigle'' iUniverse, 2006. *Rudel, Julius; Rebecca Paller (2013), ''First and Lasting Impressions: Julius Rudel Looks Back on a Life in Music''. University of Rochester Press.

External links

* * Duffie, Bruce
Interview with Julius Rudel
1 November 1982 (Published in the "Massenet Newsletter" in July 1983)
National Endowment for the Arts Opera Honors, 2009: Julius Rudel
on nea.gov/honors

* Stevenson, John, Artist Biography on allmusic.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Rudel, Julius 1921 births 2014 deaths American conductors (music) American male conductors (music) Jewish emigrants from Austria after the Anschluss to the United States Jewish American classical musicians Grammy Award winners Mannes School of Music alumni Musicians from Vienna 21st-century American Jews

Career

Recordings

See also

References

External links