Boris Goldovsky
Encyclopedia
Boris Goldovsky (June 7, 1908 - February 15, 2001) was a Russian conductor and broadcast commentator, active in the United States
. He has been called an important "popularizer" of opera in America. As an opera producer, conductor, impresario
, and broadcaster he was prominent within the American operatic community between 1946 and 1985.
to a well established Jewish musical family. His father was a lawyer, his mother the well-known concert violinist Lea Luboschutz, and several relatives were accomplished musicians, including his pianist uncle, Pierre Luboshutz, his first teacher. After the Russian Revolution, his family lost their wealth and he became, at the age of nine, his mother's accompanist, to secure more food for the family.
era, he and his mother travelled to Europe
, leaving the Soviet Union
. Goldovsky studied with Artur Schnabel
in Berlin beginning in 1924 and then with Ernő Dohnányi
in Budapest
beginning in 1924. He gained fluency in several languages, a gift that served him well as a translator of opera in his later career. He moved to Philadelphia in 1930 where his mother taught at the Curtis Institute and where he became a conducting student of Fritz Reiner
and later Reiner's assistant. It was under Reiner that his love and training in opera began. According to U.S. immigration records, he was inspected and detained at Ellis Island
twice: once in October 1925 for an irregularity with his visa and once in late July 1932 on suspicion that he might be an illegally contracted labourer; both situations were resolved rather quickly resolved and he was permitted to continue by rail to Pennsylvania. Goldovsky moved to Cleveland in 1936 to become assistant to Artur Rodziński
, music director of the Cleveland Orchestra
. Then he moved again to Boston in 1942, where he became director of the opera department at the New England Conservatory of Music
. The same year, he was named director of the opera department at the Tanglewood Music Center
in the Berkshires by Serge Koussevitsky, a position he held through 1962. Koussevitsky had become well acquainted with the Goldovsky family in Russia long before their immigration to the USA.
. Sarah Caldwell
became Goldovsky's assistant at Tanglewood and in Boston, and worked with him for several years.
In January 1945, Goldovsky began the New England Opera Theater
(later known as the "Goldovsky Opera Theater") under the sponsorship of the New England Conservatory. The operation became independent and moved to New York in the 1950s and enjoyed four decades of touring during which young singers were trained for operatic careers. Many of them went on to sing at the Metropolitan Opera
and other leading houses. He disbanded the company upon his retirement in 1985.
During the New York
Metropolitan Opera
's tour visit to Boston in around 1946, Goldovsky participated in a promotional opera quiz event. His encyclopedic knowledge led Texaco
to offer him a weekend job as master of ceremonies covering the intermission periods of the Texaco-sponsored Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts
. The sponsor agreed to pay for weekly travel to New York. He quickly became known across the United States for his Saturday radio commentary.
In 1953 he wrote Accents on Opera, a series of essays, sponsored by the Metropolitan Opera Guild and published in New York by Farrar, Straus & Young. In 1954 he received a Peabody Award
for Outstanding Contribution to Radio Music. His most popular book, My Road to Opera, is an anecdote-filled autobiography.
In the late 1970s, he began again to teach at the Curtis Institute, from where he retired in 1985.
He has been credited in several recordings, including a Boston Symphony Orchestra
recording of Wagner's "Lohengrin", conducted by Erich Leinsdorf
. Famous associates include Mario Lanza
, Leonard Bernstein
and Mary Beth Peil
.
He died in Brookline, Massachusetts
, aged 92, in 2001.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. He has been called an important "popularizer" of opera in America. As an opera producer, conductor, impresario
Impresario
An impresario is a person who organizes and often finances concerts, plays or operas; analogous to a film producer in filmmaking, television production and an angel investor in business...
, and broadcaster he was prominent within the American operatic community between 1946 and 1985.
Early life
He was born in MoscowMoscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
to a well established Jewish musical family. His father was a lawyer, his mother the well-known concert violinist Lea Luboschutz, and several relatives were accomplished musicians, including his pianist uncle, Pierre Luboshutz, his first teacher. After the Russian Revolution, his family lost their wealth and he became, at the age of nine, his mother's accompanist, to secure more food for the family.
Career
In the BolshevikBolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
era, he and his mother travelled to Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, leaving the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. Goldovsky studied with Artur Schnabel
Artur Schnabel
Artur Schnabel was an Austrian classical pianist, who also composed and taught. Schnabel was known for his intellectual seriousness as a musician, avoiding pure technical bravura...
in Berlin beginning in 1924 and then with Ernő Dohnányi
Erno Dohnányi
Ernő Dohnányi was a Hungarian conductor, composer, and pianist. He used the German form of his name Ernst von Dohnányi for most of his published compositions....
in Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
beginning in 1924. He gained fluency in several languages, a gift that served him well as a translator of opera in his later career. He moved to Philadelphia in 1930 where his mother taught at the Curtis Institute and where he became a conducting student of Fritz Reiner
Fritz Reiner
Frederick Martin “Fritz” Reiner was a prominent conductor of opera and symphonic music in the twentieth century.-Biography:...
and later Reiner's assistant. It was under Reiner that his love and training in opera began. According to U.S. immigration records, he was inspected and detained at Ellis Island
Ellis Island
Ellis Island in New York Harbor was the gateway for millions of immigrants to the United States. It was the nation's busiest immigrant inspection station from 1892 until 1954. The island was greatly expanded with landfill between 1892 and 1934. Before that, the much smaller original island was the...
twice: once in October 1925 for an irregularity with his visa and once in late July 1932 on suspicion that he might be an illegally contracted labourer; both situations were resolved rather quickly resolved and he was permitted to continue by rail to Pennsylvania. Goldovsky moved to Cleveland in 1936 to become assistant to Artur Rodziński
Artur Rodzinski
Artur Rodziński was a Polish conductor of opera and symphonic music. He is especially noted for his tenures as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic in the 1930s and 1940s.-Biography:...
, music director of the Cleveland Orchestra
Cleveland Orchestra
The Cleveland Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Cleveland, Ohio. It is one of the five American orchestras informally referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1918, the orchestra plays most of its concerts at Severance Hall...
. Then he moved again to Boston in 1942, where he became director of the opera department at the New England Conservatory of Music
New England Conservatory of Music
The New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, is the oldest independent school of music in the United States.The conservatory is home each year to 750 students pursuing undergraduate and graduate studies along with 1400 more in its Preparatory School as well as the School of...
. The same year, he was named director of the opera department at the Tanglewood Music Center
Tanglewood Music Center
The Tanglewood Music Center is an annual summer music academy in Lenox, Massachusetts, United States, in which emerging professional musicians participate in performances, master classes and workshops designed to provide an intense training and networking experience...
in the Berkshires by Serge Koussevitsky, a position he held through 1962. Koussevitsky had become well acquainted with the Goldovsky family in Russia long before their immigration to the USA.
. Sarah Caldwell
Sarah Caldwell
Sarah Caldwell was a notable American opera conductor, impresario, and stage director of opera.- Life :Caldwell was born in Maryville, Missouri, and grew up in Fayetteville, Arkansas. She was a child prodigy and gave public performances on the violin by the time she was ten years old...
became Goldovsky's assistant at Tanglewood and in Boston, and worked with him for several years.
In January 1945, Goldovsky began the New England Opera Theater
New England Opera Theater
The New England Opera Theatre was an American opera company that was active from 1945 to 1985. Founded by Boris Goldovsky in January 1945, the company was originally based in Boston, Massachusetts. It was initially established under the sponsorship of the New England Conservatory as a training...
(later known as the "Goldovsky Opera Theater") under the sponsorship of the New England Conservatory. The operation became independent and moved to New York in the 1950s and enjoyed four decades of touring during which young singers were trained for operatic careers. Many of them went on to sing at the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
and other leading houses. He disbanded the company upon his retirement in 1985.
During the New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
's tour visit to Boston in around 1946, Goldovsky participated in a promotional opera quiz event. His encyclopedic knowledge led Texaco
Texaco
Texaco is the name of an American oil retail brand. Its flagship product is its fuel "Texaco with Techron". It also owns the Havoline motor oil brand....
to offer him a weekend job as master of ceremonies covering the intermission periods of the Texaco-sponsored Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts
Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts
The Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts are a regular series of weekly broadcasts on network radio of full-length opera performances. They are transmitted live from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City...
. The sponsor agreed to pay for weekly travel to New York. He quickly became known across the United States for his Saturday radio commentary.
In 1953 he wrote Accents on Opera, a series of essays, sponsored by the Metropolitan Opera Guild and published in New York by Farrar, Straus & Young. In 1954 he received a Peabody Award
Peabody Award
The George Foster Peabody Awards recognize distinguished and meritorious public service by radio and television stations, networks, producing organizations and individuals. In 1939, the National Association of Broadcasters formed a committee to recognize outstanding achievement in radio broadcasting...
for Outstanding Contribution to Radio Music. His most popular book, My Road to Opera, is an anecdote-filled autobiography.
In the late 1970s, he began again to teach at the Curtis Institute, from where he retired in 1985.
He has been credited in several recordings, including a Boston Symphony Orchestra
Boston Symphony Orchestra
The Boston Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1881, the BSO plays most of its concerts at Boston's Symphony Hall and in the summer performs at the Tanglewood Music Center...
recording of Wagner's "Lohengrin", conducted by Erich Leinsdorf
Erich Leinsdorf
Erich Leinsdorf was a naturalized American Austrian conductor. He performed and recorded with leading orchestras and opera companies throughout the United States and Europe, earning a reputation for exacting standards as well as an acerbic personality...
. Famous associates include Mario Lanza
Mario Lanza
right|thumb|[[MGM]] still, circa 1949Mario Lanza was an American tenor and Hollywood movie star of the late 1940s and the 1950s. The son of Italian emigrants, he began studying to be a professional singer at the age of 16....
, Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
and Mary Beth Peil
Mary Beth Peil
Mary Beth Peil is an American actress and singer.-Early life:Born in Davenport, Iowa in 1940, Peil trained as an opera singer at Northwestern University under Lotte Lehmann. There she became a member of the Gamma Phi Beta sorority...
.
He died in Brookline, Massachusetts
Brookline, Massachusetts
Brookline is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States, which borders on the cities of Boston and Newton. As of the 2010 census, the population of the town was 58,732.-Etymology:...
, aged 92, in 2001.
Publications
- Bringing Opera to Life (1968), about operatic acting and stage direction. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
- Bringing Soprano Arias to Life (1973) (with Arthur Schoep). New York: G. Schirmer.
- Touring Opera: a Manual for Small Companies (1975) (with Thomas Wolf, foreword by Sherrill MilnesSherrill MilnesSherrill Milnes is an American operatic baritone most famous for his Verdi roles. From 1965 until 1997 he was associated with the Metropolitan Opera....
). National Opera Association. - My Road to Opera: the Recollections of Boris Goldovsky (1979) Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-27760-4 OCLC: 4516063
- The Indiana University published transcripts of his intermission commentary from the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcastsMetropolitan Opera radio broadcastsThe Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts are a regular series of weekly broadcasts on network radio of full-length opera performances. They are transmitted live from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City...
in 1984. - Some intermission commentary transcripts can be found at http://www.operainfo.org/intermissions/
Students and protégés
- Sarah CaldwellSarah CaldwellSarah Caldwell was a notable American opera conductor, impresario, and stage director of opera.- Life :Caldwell was born in Maryville, Missouri, and grew up in Fayetteville, Arkansas. She was a child prodigy and gave public performances on the violin by the time she was ten years old...
, who became a famous impresario and conductor in her own right - Donald Covert, american conductor.
- Phyllis CurtinPhyllis CurtinPhyllis Curtin is an American classical soprano who had an active career in operas and concerts from the early 1950s through the 1980s. She was known for her creation of new roles such as the title role in the Carlisle Floyd opera Susannah, Catherine Earnshaw in Floyd's Wuthering Heights, and in...
, soprano, who sang at the Metropolitan, New York City Opera, and at leading European venues - Rosalind EliasRosalind EliasRosalind Elias is an American mezzo-soprano, a rich-voiced singer of fine musicianship who enjoyed a long and distinguished career at the Metropolitan Opera.-Life and career:...
, who also sang at the Met and in Europe - Peter Feldman, who performed for radio and television.
- Robert McFerrinRobert McFerrinRobert McFerrin Sr. was the first African-American male to sing at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City...
, the first African-American man to sing at the Metropolitan Opera. - Sherrill MilnesSherrill MilnesSherrill Milnes is an American operatic baritone most famous for his Verdi roles. From 1965 until 1997 he was associated with the Metropolitan Opera....
, baritone, star at the Met, City Opera, and in Europe.