Zoltán Peskó (15 February 1937 – 31 March 2020) was a Hungarian conductor and composer who held leading positions at German, Italian and Portuguese opera houses and orchestras, including the

Deutsche Oper Berlin The Deutsche Oper Berlin is a German opera company located in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin. The resident building is the country's second largest opera house (after Munich's) and also home to the Berlin State Ballet. Since 2004, the ...

Teatro Comunale di Bologna The Teatro Comunale di Bologna is an opera house in Bologna, Italy. Typically, it presents eight operas with six performances during its November to April season. While there had been various theatres presenting opera in Bologna since the early ...

La Fenice Teatro La Fenice (; "The Phoenix Theatre") is a historic opera house in Venice, Italy. It is one of "the most famous and renowned landmarks in the history of Italian theatre" and in the history of opera as a whole. Especially in the 19th cen ...

, and

Teatro Nacional de São Carlos The ''Teatro Nacional de São Carlos'' () (''National Theatre of Saint Charles'') is an opera house in Lisbon, Portugal. It was opened on June 30, 1793 by Queen Maria I as a replacement for the Tejo Opera House, which was destroyed in the 1755 ...

. He was a regular conductor at

La Scala La Scala (, , ; officially , ) is a historic opera house in Milan, Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as (, which previously was Santa Maria della Scala, Milan, a church). The premiere performa ...

, where he promoted contemporary opera.

Early life and education

Peskó was born in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

, on 15 February 1937. He graduated from the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in 1962. He went on to study at the

Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia The Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia () is one of the oldest musical institutions in the world, founded by the papal bull ''Ratione congruit'', issued by Sixtus V in 1585, which invoked two saints prominent in Western musical history: Gre ...

in Rome, then learned composition under

Pierre Boulez Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (; 26 March 19255 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war contemporary classical music. Born in Montb ...

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

in the 1960s. He also studied conducting under

Franco Ferrara Franco Ferrara (Palermo, 4 July 1911Florence, 7 September 1985) was an Italian conductor and teacher. Among his many students are various prominent conductors, including Roberto Abbado, Riccardo Chailly, Andrew Davis and Riccardo Muti. Life a ...

, and studied composition under Goffredo Petrassi.

Career

He conducted at the

from 1966 to 1973, was chief conductor of the

until 1976 and musical director of

in Venice until 1977. He was a regular conductor of the RAI Symphony Orchestra in Milan from 1978 to 1992. Peskó first conducted at

in Milan in 1970: Dallapiccola's '' Ulisse'' and Prokofiev's '' L'angelo di fuoco'', directed by Antonello Madau-Diaz. He conducted the first performance in Milan of Mozart's ''

La finta giardiniera ' ("The Pretend Garden-Girl"), Köchel catalogue, K. 196, is an Italian-language opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart wrote it in Munich in January 1775 when he was 18 years old and it received its first performance on 13 January at the in M ...

'' at Piccola Scala, directed by Filippo Crivelli. There he promoted original programming including contemporary stage works such as operas composers of the

Second Viennese School The Second Viennese School () was the group of composers that comprised Arnold Schoenberg and his pupils, particularly Alban Berg and Anton Webern, and close associates in early 20th-century Vienna. Their music was initially characterized by late ...

Kurt Weill Kurt Julian Weill (; ; March 2, 1900April 3, 1950) was a German-born American composer active from the 1920s in his native country, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for hi ...

with

Milva Maria Ilva Biolcati, (; 17 July 1939 – 23 April 2021), known as Milva (), was an Italian singer, stage and film actress, and television personality. She was also known as ''La Rossa'' (Italian for "The Redhead"), due to the characteristic co ...

singing, and music by Aldo Clementi,

Azio Corghi Azio Corghi (9 March 1937 – 17 November 2022) was an Italian composer, academic teacher and musicologist. He composed mostly operas and chamber music. His operas are often based on literature, especially in collaboration with José Saramago a ...

and Franco Donatoni, among others. In 1974, he conducted the Italian premiere of Schoenberg's ''Kol Nidre''. A 1972 conversation of Peskó and

about "Musical Aspects in Today's Musical Theatre" was published in 1978 in the journal ''Tempo''. In 1978, he led Bartók's ''

Bluebeard's Castle ''Duke Bluebeard's Castle'' (, literally ''The Blue-Bearded Duke's Castle'') is a one-act Symbolism (movement), Symbolist opera by composer Béla Bartók to a Hungarian libretto by his friend and poet Béla Balázs. Based on the French folk legen ...

'', staged by

Giorgio Pressburger Giorgio Pressburger (April 21, 1937 – October 5, 2017) was an Italian writer of novels and short stories. Born in Budapest, and saved by Giorgio Perlasca during the Second World War, Pressburger settled in Italy in 1956, where he worked as a ...

, with Éva Marton and Kolos Kováts, coupled with Camillo Togni's ''Blaubart'', staged by Maria Francesca Siciliani. In 1979, Peskó conducted Beethoven's '' Christus am Ölberge'' with the RAI Orchestra. He conducted three works by Stravinsky in 1982, the centenary of his birth: '' The Flood'', ''

Renard Renard may refer to: Engineering and design * Renard series, a system of preferred numbers divided into intervals from 1 to 10, and with 5, 10, 20 or 40 steps Fictional characters and art *Reynard, anthropomorphic fox of European folklore *Ren ...

'' and '' Mavra'', directed by

Peter Ustinov Sir Peter Alexander Ustinov (16 April 192128 March 2004) was a British actor, director and writer. An internationally known raconteur, he was a fixture on television talk shows and lecture circuits for much of his career. Ustinov received #Awa ...

. He also conducted one Verdi opera at La Scala, ''

Luisa Miller ''Luisa Miller'' is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play '' Kabale und Liebe'' (''Intrigue and Love'') by the German dramatist Friedrich von Schiller. Verdi's initial idea f ...

'' in 1989, with

Katia Ricciarelli Katiuscia Maria Stella "Katia" Ricciarelli (; born 16 January 1946) is an Italian soprano and actress. Early life and career Born in Rovigo, Veneto, to a very poor family, Ricciarelli struggled during her younger years. She studied at the Be ...

in the title role. Peskó was the

Generalmusikdirektor A music director, musical director or director of music is a person responsible for the musical aspects of a performance, production, or organization. This would include the artistic director and usually chief conductor of an orchestra or concert ...

of the

Deutsche Oper am Rhein The Deutsche Oper am Rhein (German Opera on the Rhine) is an opera company based in Düsseldorf and Duisburg. The opera also has an associated classical ballet company. Axel Kober has been its music director since 2009. The resident orchestra, t ...

, based in Düsseldorf and Duisburg, from 1996 to 1999. His major programmes there included Verdi's '' La traviata'' and ''

Otello ''Otello'' () is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on William Shakespeare, Shakespeare's play ''Othello''. It was Verdi's penultimate opera, first performed at the La Scala, Teatro alla Scala, M ...

'', Wagner's ''

Tristan und Isolde ''Tristan und Isolde'' (''Tristan and Isolde''), WWV 90, is a music drama in three acts by Richard Wagner set to a German libretto by the composer, loosely based on the medieval 12th-century romance ''Tristan and Iseult'' by Gottfried von Stras ...

'', and Mozart's ''

Così fan tutte (''Women are like that, or The School for Lovers''), Köchel catalogue, K. 588, is an opera buffa in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It was first performed on 26 January 1790 at the Burgtheater in Vienna, Austria. The libretto was written ...

''. There, he also conducted contemporary music, such as the German première of Giorgio Battistelli's ''Prova d’Orchestra'' (''Orchesterprobe''). Peskó then served as chief conductor of the , the orchestra of the

in Lisbon, from 2001 to 2004. Among the highlights at the theatre was a performance of Tchaikovsky's rarely performed opera '' The Enchantress'' in a collaboration with the

Mariinsky Theatre The Mariinsky Theatre (, also transcribed as Maryinsky or Mariyinsky) is a historic opera house in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Opened in 1860, it became the preeminent music theatre of late 19th-century Russia, where many of the stage masterpieces ...

, staged by

David Pountney Sir David Willoughby Pountney (born 10 September 1947) is a British-Polish theatre and opera director and libretto, librettist internationally known for his productions of rarely performed operas and new productions of classic works. He has di ...

. A review of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' noted that Peskó's "conducting responded keenly to the flow of the drama, and the Sao Carlos orchestra rose to the challenge of the unfamiliar score". His tenure with the orchestra ended acrimoniously, with Peskó alleging that they had not paid him, while the orchestra claimed he had breached his contract by not spending sufficient time each year in Portugal. The labour court found in Peskó's favour, ordering the orchestra to pay him, but this decision was later overturned and the ruling against Peskó in favour of the orchestra was confirmed at the Supreme Court of Justice in 2013. He was chief conductor of the Pannon Philharmonic in

Pécs Pécs ( , ; ; Slovak language, Slovak: ''Päťkostolie''; also known by #Name, alternative names) is List of cities and towns of Hungary#Largest cities in Hungary, the fifth largest city in Hungary, on the slopes of the Mecsek mountains in the c ...

from 2009 to 2011. He made many recordings and lectured at the Musikhochschule Berlin. In 2012, he suffered a stroke that left him unable to continue conducting. Peskó died in Budapest on 31 March 2020 at the age of 83.Elhunyt Peskó Zoltán világhírű magyar karmester

Early life and education

Career

References

External links