The horn is for boys”, her schoolteacher told her, and so he suggested that she learn the flute or the oboe.
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Julius Rudel, the Austrian-born conductor who raised the New York City Opera to a venturous golden age with highbrow music for the masses and a repertory that, like him, bridged the Old and New Worlds, died on Thursday at his home in New York. He was 93.
His death, announced by his son Anthony, came eight months after his beloved and financially struggling City Opera filed for bankruptcy and closed its doors.
“I never imagined in my wildest dreams that I would outlive the company,” he told The New York Times shortly afterward.
Mr. Rudel was the maestro and the impresario, the principal conductor and the director of City Opera for 22 years (1957-79), working in the orchestra pit while running the company on shoestring budgets, signing contracts, casting productions and nurturing young singers like José Carreras, Plácido Domingo, Sherrill Milnes and Beverly Sills.
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RELATED COVERAGEJulius Rudel, the former general director and principal conductor of the New York City Opera, at his home on Central Park West.Music: Julius Rudel, Still Keeping Tabs on City OperaMARCH 17, 2010
A Jewish Viennese refugee from Hitler who fled to New York with his family in 1938, he joined the company in 1944, soon after its inception. He went on to preside over sweeping changes, reflecting his belief that the company should emphasize contemporary and American operas and musicals alongside the traditional European repertory — that it should entertain the wider public and not just opera lovers.
You know the oboe player’s favorite line from Shakespeare, right? “Two reeds or not two reeds…”
