Erich Kleiber - notes

Conductor, born in Vienna, Austria. He studied in Prague, and the age of 33 became director of the Berlin State Opera, holding this post for 12 years until forced by the Nazis to leave Germany. In 1938 he became a citizen of Argentina. After the war he was again appointed director of the Berlin State Opera, until his resignation in 1955. His son, Carlos Kleiber (1930–2004), was also a conductor.

Born in Vienna, Kleiber studied in Prague. In 1923, after conducting a stirring performance of Beethoven's Fidelio at the Berlin State Opera, he became that institution's music director.

He was known for his interpretations of the standard symphonic and operatic repertoire, as well as for championing new works. When Berg's second opera Lulu was branded Entartete Musik (degenerate music) by the Nazi Party, Kleiber resigned from his post at the Berlin Opera in protest.

Later he moved to Buenos Aires, where he worked at the Colón Theater, becoming its music director.

After World War II, he was offered his old position at the Berlin State Opera, which was now in the Russian zone of the city, but after discovering that the Communists were no more to his taste than the Nazis had been, he resigned without having conducted a single performance.

His son, Carlos Kleiber, was himself a world-renowned conductor.

notes

^ Kleiber also repudiated his contract with la Scala operas in Milan in April of 1939, saying that "...[since] la Scala is denied for Jews...both as a Christian and an artist, I can no longer cooperate."