Goldovsky Boris

Goldovsky, Boris, Russian-American pianist, conductor, opera producer, lecturer, and broadcaster, nephew of Pierre Luboshutz; b. Moscow, June 7, 1908. He studied piano with his uncle and took courses at the Moscow Cons. (1918-21). In 1921 he made his debut as a pianist with the Berlin Phil., and continued his studies with Schnabel and Kreutzer at the Berlin Academy of Music (1921-23). After attending Dohnanyi’s master class at the Budapest Academy of Music (graduated, 1930), he received training in conducting from Reiner at the Curtis Inst. of Music in Philadelphia (1932). He served as head of the opera depts. at the New England Cons, of Music in Boston (1942-64), the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood (1946-61), and the Curtis Inst. of Music (from 1977). In 1946 he founded the New England Opera Theater in Boston, which became the Goldovsky Opera Inst. in 1963; he also toured with his own opera company until 1984. He was a frequent commentator for the Metropolitan Opera radio broad-casts (from 1946) and also lectured extensively; he prepared Eng. trs. of various operas.

Writings

Accents on Opera (1953); Bringing Opera to Life (1968); with A. Schoep, Bringing Soprano Arias to Life (1973); with T. Wolf, Manual of Operatic Touring (1975); with C. Cate, My Road to Opera (1979); Good Afternoon, Ladies and Gentlemen!: Intermission Scripts from the Met Broadcasts (1984); Adult Mozart: A Personal Perspective (4 vols., 1991-93).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire