First and Lasting Impressions: Julius Rudel Looks Back on a Life in Music

by Julius Julius Rudel, Rebecca Paller

Overview

The long-awaited memoir of Julius Rudel, the legendary opera conductor and arts administrator, gives insight into his ground-breaking repertory choices and his collaborations with Beverly Sills, Plácido Domingo, and others.

As a seventeen-year-old Jewish boy, Julius Rudel escaped from Austria after the Nazi invasion and moved to New York, where he began his career as an unpaid musical assistant and worked his way up through the ranks of the newly formed New York City Opera, being named in 1957 as the company's general director and principal conductor. Later, he became the first artistic director of the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.
In his twenty-two-year leadership of New York City Opera, Rudel challenged audiences with new and unusual repertoire — including fifteen world premieres and three seasons consisting entirely of American operas — turning the popularly priced "People's Opera" intothe most influential and daring opera company in the United States.

Rudel writes in detail of his unusual repertoire choices and of the political battles behind New York City Opera's move to Lincoln Center in 1966, and hereminisces about his legendary collaborations with Beverly Sills (on Handel's Giulio Cesare and Donizetti's "Three Queens") and Plácido Domingo (on Ginastera's Don Rodrigo) — and about his work with other extraordinary talents including Norman Treigle, Phyllis Curtin, William Ball, Frank Corsaro, Tito Capobianco, Leopold Stokowski, Leonard Bernstein, Harold Prince, and Gian Carlo Menotti.

First and Lasting Impressions givesa rare personal look into Julius Rudel's career as a conductor and administrator during the glory years of New York City Opera.

Julius Rudel was general director and principal conductor of New York City Opera from 1957to 1979, and since that time has been a frequent guest conductor at the Metropolitan Opera and many of the world's other great opera houses.

Rebecca Paller, a curator at the Paley Center for Media in New York, has written about the arts for publications including Opera News, Opera, Vogue, Playbill, Symphony, and American Theatre.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781580464345
Publisher:	BOYDELL & BREWER INC
Publication date:	03/01/2013
Series:	Eastman Studies in Music Series
Pages:	241
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.00(d)

Table of Contents

Foreword ix

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction 1

1 Early Life in Vienna and the Shadow of the Swastika 4

2 "The People's Opera" Takes Flight: The Early Years of New York City Opera 24

3 The Flying Baton: A Company in Transition 37

4 A Lighter Muse: Broadway Musicals 51

5 Brush Up Your Shakespeare and Return to Vienna 58

6 Inheriting the Wind 64

7 All-American 71

8 Intermezzo: The Company Way 86

9 Politics and Acoustics: The Move to Lincoln Center 91

10 Tintinnabulation: Don Rodrigo and a Young Star Named Domingo 101

11 A Summer Idyll: The Magic of Caramoor 105

12 Giulio Cesare and the Sills Phenomenon 108

13 The Kennedy Center: From Concept to Opening 125

14 Glory Days 135

15 Jon Vickers: The Third Time Was Not the Charm 151

16 Reversal of Fortune 154

17 Life after New York City Opera 171

Appendix: The Three American Seasons of New York City Opera 177

Index 181

Editorial Reviews

Julius Rudel has a great tale to tell. . . . Any reader with an interest in Rudel, in New York City Opera, or in the running of an opera company will devour it cover to cover.

OPERA NEWS - Fred Cohn

He looks back at his career with a good humour which suggests how he survived. . . . He and his co-author write engagingly. . . . Interesting for most opera-lovers, and, for those with transatlantic [i.e., American] viewpoints, fascinating.

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE - Michael Scott Rohan

Highly informative, entertaining . . . autobiography by conductor Rudel and a biography in his words of the New York City Opera. . . . A loving memoir, brutally frank, but never vindictive. Powerful, even emotional working associations with great artists: Norman Treigle, Beverly Sills, Phyllis Curtin, John Alexander, Richard Cassilly, and dozens more. . . . A most humane gentleman.

AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE - Charles H. Parsons

In his remarkable career at New York City Opera, Julius Rudel enriched and enlarged the lives of music-loving New Yorkers. This book, coauthored with Rebecca Paller, is a fascinating account of how his devotion to music — music, not marketing — helped shape an era. I am particularly happy to have Maestro Rudel's version of his long and complicated working relationship with Beverly Sills. —

Brian Kellow

Julius Rudel offers us direct insight into his rise through the ranks to become the director of one of America's most vibrant cultural institutions in the twentieth century, the New York City Opera. Evident on nearly every page is that same abiding dedication, guiding spirit, and bold imagination that helped to transplant a largely foreign art form and root it deep in America's artistic soil. This book will prove fascinating to opera singers, lovers of opera, especially American opera, not to mention interested teachers, pianists, voice coaches, orchestra and choral conductors. —

Michael V. Pisani

In his remarkable career at New York City Opera, Julius Rudel enriched and enlarged the lives of music-loving New Yorkers. This book, coauthored with Rebecca Paller, is a fascinating account of how his devotion to music -- music, not marketing -- helped shape an era. I am particularly happy to have Maestro Rudel's version of his long and complicated working relationship with Beverly Sills. --Brian Kellow, features editor, Opera News

Julius Rudel offers us direct insight into his rise through the ranks to become the director of one of America's most vibrant cultural institutions in the twentieth century, the New York City Opera. Evident on nearly every page is that same abiding dedication, guiding spirit, and bold imagination that helped to transplant a largely foreign art form and root it deep in America's artistic soil. This book will prove fascinating to opera singers, lovers of opera, especially American opera, not to mention interested teachers, pianists, voice coaches, orchestra and choral conductors. --Michael V. Pisani, Vassar College

He looks back at his career with a good humour which suggests how he survived. . . . He and his co-author write engagingly. . . . Interesting for most opera-lovers, and, for those with transatlantic [i.e., American] viewpoints, fascinating. BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE [Michael Scott Rohan]

Julius Rudel has a great tale to tell. . . . Any reader with an interest in Rudel, in New York City Opera, or in the running of an opera company will devour it cover to cover. OPERA NEWS [Fred Cohn]

Highly informative, entertaining . . . autobiography by conductor Rudel and a biography in his words of the New York City Opera. . . . A loving memoir, brutally frank, but never vindictive. Powerful, even emotional working associations with great artists: Norman Treigle, Beverly Sills, Phyllis Curtin, John Alexander, Richard Cassilly, and dozens more. . . . A most humane gentleman. AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE [Charles H. Parsons]

From the Publisher