Alberto Erede

Who was Alberto Erede?

Alberto Erede was an Italian conductor, particularly associated with operatic work.

Born in Genoa, Erede studied there before studying in Milan, then with Felix Weingartner at Basle, and after this with Fritz Busch at Dresden. He made his debut in Turin in 1935, conducting Der Ring des Nibelungen. He also conducted at the Salzburg Festival. Fritz Busch invited him to Glyndebourne in England, where he conducted several performances before the war. He went back to England after the war, in 1946, to become music director of the New London Opera Company. From 1950 to 1955 he conducted at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York. From 1956 he was at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein and was the musical director there from 1958 to 1962. He conducted Wagner's Lohengrin at Bayreuth in 1968, being the first Italian to appear there since Arturo Toscanini. In 1985 he made guest appearances in Sydney with the Australian Opera; a video recording of Puccini's Tosca, with Erede conducting, was made at the Sydney Opera House during that year.

He died in Monte Carlo in 2001.