BERLIN — Marcello Viotti, who conducted at many of the world's leading opera houses and rose to become the music director of the storied La Fenice Theater in Venice, has died after falling into a coma. He was 50.
The conductor died at a Munich clinic Wednesday night [February 16] after spending days in a coma, his agent, Paul Steinhauer said Thursday. He reportedly suffered a stroke during rehearsals last week in the German city for Jules Massenet's Manon.
Viotti — who conducted at New
York's Metropolitan Opera, the Vienna State Opera and
Paris's Opéra-Bastille among others — had been music director at La Fenice since 2002. He took charge as reconstruction of the theater was nearing completion after a devastating 1996 fire.
"With Marcello Viotti, we have lost a great conductor, a participant in the artistic rebirth of La Fenice and a friend who played a decisive role in the cultural life of our city with professionalism, energy and elegance," a statement from the theater said.
Viotti also was chief conductor of the Munich Radio Orchestra, run by broadcaster Bayerische Rundfunk, from 1998 until the end of last year, when he resigned in protest to plans for eventually shutting down the ensemble. The broadcaster's manager, Thomas Gruber, praised "his ability to transmit to others and share with them his passion and enthusiasm for life and art."
Viotti gave his last public performance on February 5, when he conducted Vincenzo Bellini's Norma at the Vienna State Opera.
This spring, he was due to conduct a new production of Richard Wagner's Parsifal in Venice. He also was scheduled to conduct La traviata at the Salzburg Festival in Austria.
Viotti, who shared his time between Venice and his home in Petite Rosselle, France, was born in the Swiss town of Vallorbe on June 29, 1954.
He studied piano, cello and singing at the Lausanne Conservatory, and made his conducting debut in Geneva with a wind ensemble that he had founded.
Viotti's career was launched when he won first prize at the Gino Marinuzzi conducting competition in Italy in 1982. He rose to prominence as chief conductor of the Turin Opera.
He also served as artistic director of the Lucerne Stadttheater in Switzerland and led orchestras in the German cities of Saarbrücken, Leipzig and Bremen.
Viotti once described his task as "bringing out the nuances together with the singer — finding something for every sentence, every word ... because opera is made for people, people with their very own, personal possibilities."
"We are only the mailmen," he said of the conductor's job. But "we have great letters to deliver."
In Munich, Viotti directed a successful concert cycle named "Paradisi Gloria," devoted to 20th-century choral music.
At La Fenice, his productions included Giuseppe Verdi's La traviata, Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos and Massenet's Thaïs and Le roi de Lahore. The latter was the last opera he directed there.
"Thanks to him we have been able to do extensive projects ... and he has also created concerts of Mozart, Rossini, Wagner, Bizet, his versatility having no limits," said Sergio Segalini, the Fenice Theater Foundation's artistic director.
Viotti made his debut at the Met in 2000 with Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly. He later returned to the New York opera house for La Bohème, La traviata, Fromental Halévy's La Juive and, late last year, Giuseppe Verdi's Aida.
He also was scheduled to conduct a revival of Verdi's I vespri siciliani at the Met last fall, but his staff said at the time that he canceled his Vespri appearances on the advice of his doctors following surgery.
"I am so sad to tell you that it is finished. That's it," Viotti's brother, Silvio, wrote in a message posted on the conductor's Web site. "Marcello has finished his journey on this earth. I don't know what to say."
Viotti also is survived by his wife and four children.
Bayerische Rundfunk said Viotti was to be buried in his Swiss hometown.
