Marcello Viotti

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Marcello Viotti (born June 29, 1954 in Vallorbe , Switzerland ; † February 16, 2005 in Munich ) was an Italian-Swiss conductor .

Life

Born in French-speaking Switzerland as the son of the Italian blacksmith Valentin Viotti, Marcello Viotti studied singing , piano and cello at the Conservatoire de Lausanne . He then founded a wind ensemble in Geneva , which he already conducted himself. At the beginning of his career he was influenced by Wolfgang Sawallisch , whom he observed conducting as a choir singer.

From 1985 Viotti worked for several years as Kapellmeister at the Turin Opera Teatro Regio . He was then artistic director of the Lucerne City Theater , from 1989 to 1993 general music director of the Bremen Philharmonic State Orchestra and from 1991 to 1995 chief conductor of the Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra , with whom he published a complete recording of Franz Schubert's symphonies. From 1996 to 1999 he worked as one of the three main conductors of the MDR Symphony Orchestra in Leipzig .

From 1998 to 2004 he directed the Munich Radio Orchestra , which he led to international renown. From the 1999/2000 season he celebrated great successes with the orchestra with the concert series Paradisi Gloria , with which, in collaboration with Cardinal Friedrich Wetter, he brought the audience closer to sacred music of the 20th century. With this series, which was due to Viotti's piety, he attracted international attention. He led the ensemble , which was previously often referred to as the salon orchestra , to a high rank. When in 2004 the director of Bayerischer Rundfunk, Thomas Gruber, announced the closure of the radio orchestra for 2006, Viotti resigned from the management under protest.

1999 and 2000 Viotti led the masked ball by Giuseppe Verdi on the floating stage Bregenz . He made regular guest appearances at the Vienna State Opera , where he conducted a total of 15 different operas, but also at many other opera houses such as in Munich , Hamburg , Berlin , Zurich , Brussels , Paris or Milan, as well as in San Francisco and New York , and with the Salzburgers Festival and in the Arena di Verona ( Rigoletto ).

He also conducted the Berlin , Munich and Vienna Philharmonic , the Bamberg Symphony and the great orchestras of Australia and Japan.

A highlight of his career was his appointment as Direttore musicale at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice in January 2002.

In the 2003/04 season alone, he led a. a. New productions of Jacques Fromental Halévy's La juive at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Verdi's Attila and Georges Bizet's Perlenfischer in Venice, Charles Gounod's Roméo et Juliette for the Bavarian State Opera in Munich as well as a Far East tour with the Vienna Philharmonic.

Viotti lived with his wife, the violinist Marie-Laure Viotti, and four children near Saarbrücken in Lorraine, France, and in Munich. The son Lorenzo Viotti (* 1990) also became a conductor, the daughter Milena (* 1988 in Lausanne) has been the 3rd horn player in the Bavarian State Orchestra since the 2010/11 season .

In 2005 Viotti wanted to conduct Verdi's La traviata with Anna Netrebko at the Salzburg Festival . He last directed the premiere of a concert performance of Norma on February 5, 2005 at the Vienna State Opera with Edita Gruberová . On February 10, he collapsed after a stroke while rehearsing with the Munich Radio Orchestra for a concert performance of Jules Massenet's Manon in Munich. It was said that Viotti had to undergo surgery on his carotid artery because of a blood clot. After that, his condition deteriorated rapidly and he died on February 16, 2005.

Ioan Holender , director of the Vienna State Opera, lamented Viotti's death as a "loss for the entire music world".

Viotti was buried on February 23rd in his birthplace Vallorbe near Lausanne.

Honors

literature

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personal data
SURNAME Viotti, Marcello
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian conductor
DATE OF BIRTH June 29, 1954
PLACE OF BIRTH Vallorbe
DATE OF DEATH February 16, 2005
Place of death Munich