esrosedotblog

SARAH

We thought of Sarah Caldwell just the other day.

We were listening to some opera on the FM and her name came up.

We used to subscribe to Sarah's Boston Opera Company and went to maybe four or five operas a year at whatever theater she was able to get for the production.

She eventually 'bought' an old movie palace on Tremont Street in Boston and year after year we would watch the small improvements grow until they started to go the other way. Little by little, the building crumbled under the weight of age and Sarah's struggle to keep a budget going.

Sarah was BIG. I mean in every way. She had a big heart and was a big innovator of opera production.

She was also big physically; round not tall. When the lights went down and she rose up on the pit podium, she was immense.

She was eccentric. I remember rather greasy, unkempt hair and a big smile.

We knew guys who worked with her in the office and in the chorus. They all loved (and were scared of) her.

Sarah went to the Phillipines; a bad move. But, by this time, the company she founded in Boston had foundered.

Sad to say, Sarah Caldwell died yesterday.

Sarah Caldwell, First Woman to Conduct at the Met, Dies at 82

Of course, it being the NYTimes, her Met conducting is the headline.

But, to us, it was her years in Boston that were the great years.

Read the obit. It is a great tribute to a one-of-a-kind woman.