Wagner Society
in NSW Inc
In Memoriam - Carlo Cillario Died 13 December 2007 , Aged 92
Society Member Richard Mason forwarded an obituary from The Daily Telegraph on the death of Maestro Cillario that has prompted your Editor to compile a longer tribute to one of Sydney 's most important musical figures.
‘Cillario conducted the première of Fran co Zeffirelli's famous production of Tosca at Covent Garden in 1964; crowds of people had queued for five days to see Maria Callas who, at the end of that opening night, took 27 curtain calls in an ovation that lasted 40 minutes…. Cillario's conducting career, which had begun as a child prodigy violinist in Argentina , took him to Glyndebourne in 1961…to Barcelona in 1970 for Montserrat Caballe's first Norma, and, in 1985, to the Met in New York …. [You can see a snippet of this production at Youtube - http://youtube.com/watch?v=hmBld82t6xg&feature=related ) Editor]
‘In the meantime he had carved out a remarkable niche in Sydney , building what eventually became known as Opera Australia. There, although his preference was for Wagner, he inevitably became known for his interpretation of the great Italian repertory. Cillario's Australian debut came in 1966, when he conducted Tosca with Tito Gobbi at the Adelaide Festival. He returned to the country in 1968 with a run of Tannhauser in Canberra . It was in Australia , with its emerging arts scene and free from some of the drama, prima donnas and politics of the northern hemisphere's opera world, that Cillario spent most of the rest of his career. He saw the company through various artistic and financial crises, eventually retiring to Bologna after a star-studded farewell performance in 2003.
‘Despite his serene appearance, on occasion Cillario's Latin temperament and emotions would come to the fore. His shouting during rehearsals became famous in the Australian musical world; so too were his actions to denote his displeasure, such as holding his nose and pulling a mock lavatory chain, or removing his shoe to smell it. But former colleagues recalled his love of the sense of ensemble among artists. ‘Most mornings he could be found in the theatre pit or in a dressing room, playing chamber music with members of the orchestra or sitting in on a coaching session, making suggestions about technique, repertoire and career path,' recalled Moffatt Oxenbould, who was Opera Australia's artistic director for 15 years.'
In an extensive obituary in The Sydney Morning Herald of 19 December 2007, Oxenbould noted that: ‘ Over the years he had different titles and responsibilities - principal conductor, musical director, musical adviser, music consultant and principal guest conductor. Whatever the title, his was the most constant and enduring musical influence on the company's first half-century.
‘He regretted that he did not conduct Mozart operas as often as he would have liked, but was proud that his time here included performances of most of the Wagner operas.
‘Cillario once told me: ‘Throughout my life I dedicated my work to honour the composers and not myself.' I know this to be true. His contribution to opera in Australia was immense, and his passion, enthusiasm and overwhelming love of music-making, combined with a secure respect for the crafts of the lyric stage, will live on'.'
In his December 20, 2007 obituary for The Australian, Stephen Hall (titled ‘Opera conductor a humble wizard in Oz' ) wrote: ‘Cillario's first rehearsal with it in 1968 on the stage of the Elizabethan Theatre in Sydney 's Newtown was almost a fiasco. From the podium, with all musicians able to hear, he screamed at me: ‘You promised me an orchestra!' His meaning was very clear.
‘Cillario's sense of humour was put to the test during one of his early performances in Australia of Tannhauser. At that time we only had a chorus of 24, but encouraged by Cillario they managed to sound like 64. We had resisted using a prompter's box; Cillario insisted that Bill Reid, one of our staff conductors, sit beside him in the pit to cue the singers. All went well until the entrance of the guests, when Cillario's trousers became adrift from his braces. ‘Billone! (Big Bill!),' he muttered. ‘Aiuto (Help!).' Bill did his best to pull up Cillario's trousers with his right hand, while continuing to cue the stage with his left.
‘Somehow, during the applause for the chorus, order was restored and Cillario's trousers firmly secured. Many a conductor I worked with would have been mortified by such an occurrence. Cillario merely got the giggles, and continued to joke about it years later. He could always see the funny side.'
In a web post, Bardassa (not otherwise identified) in the On Stage (And Walls) Melbourne website, recalled of Cillario, that in ‘ 2000 he was coaching at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and had requested the overture and waltz from Siegfried Wagner's Der Barenhauter . It was laying about in the vault of a publisher's archive in Hamburg and was proving difficult to trace and because I was the publisher's agent I received a phone call from him in which he explained that as a young man he had seen Siegfried Wagner (who died in 1930) conduct and that that was part of his developing fascination with being a conductor himself.
‘Later, watching him conduct Tristan in 1990 he was still an amazing 'shouter' of instructions, right up the final dress (‘I did not say vibrato' he yelled during a luscious moment of Tristan - but e [sic] was right, the strings tightened up instantly and began to cut like ice).
‘Even though he was in his 70s then he would take the tram back to where he was staying after conducting a Tristan and I (taking the same tram) had a couple of great chats with him about the score. I wrote a couple of things into my Tristan score after one of these midnight rides. Things like the great build up to Isolde's entrance in the last act where the crescendo becomes almost an earthquake.'
In her Monday, 24 December 2007 obituary for The Independent, Elizabeth Forbes recalled that Cillario ‘also conducted several Wagner operas, including Die Walkre [sic] with Rita Hunter as Brnnhilde [sic] and, at a revival, Alberto Remedios as Siegmund) and Das Rheingold, as well as Tristan und Isolde and Die Meistersinger, the latter apparently a huge success. In 2003 Cillario conducted a farewell concert in Sydney, then retired.'
Finally a reminiscence from Australian conductor, music educator and ABC presenter, Graham Abbott's blog of Tuesday , 18 December 2007 , ‘ My own dealings with him were very small compared to many, but no less memorable. In about 1978 or 1979 he conducted a concert with the orchestra at the Sydney Conservatorium. It was during my undergraduate days and I played viola in the orchestra then. The program was music one would not normally have associated with him: Mozart Symphony no 33, Schumann Cello Concerto and Shostakovich Symphony no 5. It was inspiration for young musicians that I can only aspire to nowadays. He conducted the two symphonies from memory and frequently demonstrated details of articulation to us on his violin. It was an awesome experience and I felt the orchestra played miraculously under him. He didn't miss a thing. He laughed, he screamed, he cajoled, he pouted, he sang… He did all that in the rehearsals, too! '
If you would like to read the full obituaries and reminiscences they may still be available at the following websites:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/obituaries/maestro-nurtured-australian-opera/2007/12/18/1197740267378.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22949968-5013575,00.html
http://onstagemelbourne.blogspot.com/2007/12/when-i-wrote-for-inpress-regular.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/carlo-felice-cillario-opera-conductor-766766.html
http://grahamabbott.artsblogs.com/blog/blog.asp?archive=m2007128666
[Editor]
This page updated:
31-Mar-2008
© Wagner Society in NSW Inc 2004
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