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," reports The New York Times:
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.
Rudel's conducted until 2010. His last appearance with the Met was conducting Samson et Dalila in Montclair, NJ, in 2005. Frederica von Stade writes:
I am sad that another one of our greats has gone to heaven but he had a long life of musical gift and I am so grateful that I was able to know and work with him.I met Julius when he and Tommy Martin and Otto Guth used to come to the Mannes College of Music and help us put our opera scenes with a budget of about $50! To have these great men give of their time and expertise was the gift of a life time and we knew it. I auditioned for City Opera and was lucky enough to perform Il Ritorno d'Ullise there and see so many wonderful productions, especially Pelleas and Melisande which I will never forget with Pat Brooks and Richard Stilwell.
I even made a film with Julius about a visit to Austria. He created the entire musical repertoire and we had the best time working on it and putting it together. He was one of those magic men that music just flowed out of him. It was like a culmination of talent and training that one really sees that also was very much a part of my early training. These amazing musicians with Julius at the top of the list exhibited a training that was from another world and another time, very much affected by World War II and it was a privilege to have been able to work with him.
Rudel conducted the San Francisco Opera nine times between 1979 and 1999; his last appearance was in Manon, with Ruth Ann Swenson and Jerry Hadley.
San Francisco Opera General Director David Gockley said "Julius was the consummate man of the theater. He was a wonderful and versatile conductor, but it was his theatrical instincts and keen eye that made him a great conductor for opera. He was constantly seeing to it that the music was the great motivator for everything theatrical.”