Editing Dimitri Mitropoulos (section)

== Life and career ==

Mitropoulos was born in Athens, the son of Yannis and Angelikē (Angeliki) Mitropoulos. His father owned a leather goods shop in downtown Athens.  He was musically precocious, demonstrating his abilities at an early age. From the ages of eleven to fourteen, when Mitropoulos was in secondary school, he would host and preside over informal musical gatherings at his house every Saturday afternoon. His earliest acknowledged composition – a sonata for violin and piano, now lost – dates from this period. His opera Soeur Béatrice, based on the play by [[Maurice Maeterlinck]], premiered in 1919.<ref name=":0" />

He studied music at the [[Athens Conservatoire]] as well as in Brussels and Berlin, with [[Ferruccio Busoni]] among his teachers.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Dimitri Mitropoulos {{!}} Greek conductor {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Dimitri-Mitropoulos |access-date=3 March 2023 |website=Encyclopædia Britannica |language=en}}</ref> In 1921 he conducted the inaugural music of the Bavarian Socialist Republic. From 1921 to 1925 he assisted [[Erich Kleiber]] at the [[Berlin State Opera]] and then took a number of posts in Greece. At a 1930 concert with the [[Berlin Philharmonic]], finding that his soloist was sick, he played the solo part of [[Prokofiev]]'s [[Piano Concerto No. 3 (Prokofiev)|Piano Concerto No. 3]] and conducted the orchestra from the keyboard, becoming one of the first to do so.<ref name=lebrecht>{{cite book |last1=Lebrecht |first1=Norman |title=The Maestro Myth |url=https://archive.org/details/maestromythgreat00lebr |url-access=registration |date=1992 |publisher=Birch Lane Press (Carol Publishing Group) |location=New York |isbn=1-55972-108-1 |page=[https://archive.org/details/maestromythgreat00lebr/page/259 259]}}</ref>

=== United States ===
Mitropoulos made his U.S. debut in 1936 with the [[Boston Symphony Orchestra]], and he later settled in the country, becoming a citizen in 1946. From 1937 to 1949 he served as principal conductor of the [[Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra]] (forerunner of today's Minnesota Orchestra).<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Legacy of Minnesota Orchestra Music Directors - Minnesota Orchestra |url=https://www.minnesotaorchestra.org/stories/a-look-back-the-legacy-of-minnesota-orchestra-music-directors/ |access-date=13 March 2024 |website=minnesotaorchestra.org }}</ref>

{{external media|float=right|width=250px|audio1=Mitropoulos conducting [[Prokofiev]]'s ''[[Lieutenant Kijé Suite]]'', Op. 60 with the [[New York Philharmonic]] in 1956, [https://archive.org/details/PROKOFIEVLieutenantKijeSuite-Mitropoulos/03.+III.+Kij%C3%A9's+Wedding+(Allegro).mp3 '''on archive.org''']|audio2=Mitropoulos conducting his orchestral transcription of [[J.S. Bach]]'s [[Great Fantasia and Fugue in G minor, BWV 542]] with the [[Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra]] in 1942, [https://archive.org/details/J.S.BACH-OrchestralTranscriptions-NEWTRANSFER/19.Bach-mitropoulos-FantasiaAndFugueInGMinor.mp3, '''on archive.org''']}}

In 1949 Mitropoulos began his association with the [[New York Philharmonic]]. He was initially co-conductor with [[Leopold Stokowski]] and became the sole music director in 1951. Mitropoulos recorded extensively with the Philharmonic for [[Columbia Records]] and sought to reach new audiences in the city through appearances on television and by conducting performances at the [[Roxy Theatre (New York City)|Roxy Theatre]], a popular movie theatre in 1950–51.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dimitri Mitropoulous {{!}} Music Director, 1949–58 |url=https://www.nyphil.org/about-us/artists/dimitri-mitropoulous/ |access-date=13 March 2024 |website=www.nyphil.org }}</ref> He expanded the Philharmonic's repertoire, commissioning works by new composers and championing the symphonies of [[Gustav Mahler]]. In 1955, Philharmonic's performance under Mitropoulos at the [[Odeon of Herodes Atticus]] was the main event of the inaugural edition of [[Athens Festival]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=greekfestival |title=History |url=https://aefestival.gr/history/?lang=en |access-date=13 March 2024 |website=Athens Epidaurus Festival }}</ref> In 1958, he was succeeded as the Philharmonic's conductor by a protégé, [[Leonard Bernstein]]. In January 1960, he guest conducted the Philharmonic in a performance of Mahler's [[Symphony No. 5 (Mahler)|Fifth Symphony]], which was recorded.

=== Work in opera ===
In addition to his orchestral career, Mitropoulos conducted opera extensively in Italy, and from 1954 until his death in 1960 was the principal conductor of the [[Metropolitan Opera]] in New York, although the Met never had an official 'principal conductor' title until the 1970s. His musically incisive and dramatically vivid performances of [[Puccini]], [[Verdi]], [[Richard Strauss]] and others remain models of the opera conductor's art. The Met's extensive archive of recorded broadcasts preserves many of these fine performances.

Mitropoulos's series of recordings for Columbia Records with the New York Philharmonic included a rare complete performance of [[Alban Berg]]'s ''[[Wozzeck]]''. Many of these have been reissued by Sony Classics on CD, including most recently his stereo recordings of excerpts from Prokofiev's ''[[Romeo and Juliet (Prokofiev)|Romeo and Juliet]]''. He recorded with the Minneapolis Symphony for [[RCA Victor]] during the 78-rpm era.  He was also represented on the [[Cetra Records]] label, most notably with an early recording of Richard Strauss's ''[[Elektra (opera)|Elektra]]''.

Mitropoulos premiered many contemporary works. Examples include the American premieres of Shostakovich's [[Symphony No. 10 (Shostakovich)|Tenth Symphony]] (1954) and [[Violin Concerto No. 1 (Shostakovich)|First Violin Concerto]] (1956) and the world premieres of Barber's [[Vanessa (opera)|''Vanessa'']] (1958), [[Ernst Krenek]]'s Fourth Symphony (1947), and [[John J. Becker]]'s ''Short Symphony'' (1950).

===Personal life===
Mitropoulos was noted for having an [[eidetic memory]] (which enabled him to conduct without a score, even during rehearsals) and for his monk-like life style due to his deeply religious, [[Greek Orthodox]] beliefs.

Mitropoulos was "quietly known to be homosexual" and "felt no need for a cosmetic marriage".<ref name="horowitz">{{citation |title=Classical Music In America: A History Of Its Rise And Fall |first=Joseph |last=Horowitz |year=2005 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |isbn=0-393-05717-8 |page=[https://archive.org/details/classicalmusicin00jose/page/323 323] |url=https://archive.org/details/classicalmusicin00jose/page/323 }}</ref>  Among his relationships reportedly was one with a young [[Leonard Bernstein]].<ref name="lebrecht" /> Mitropoulos was a close friend and mentor to [[William Bast]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bast |first=William |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jSPuAAAAMAAJ |title=Surviving James Dean |date=2006 |publisher=Barricade Books |isbn=978-1-56980-298-4 |page=275 |language=en}}</ref>

Mitropoulos died in [[Milan]], Italy at the age of 64 of heart failure, while rehearsing Mahler's [[Symphony No. 3 (Mahler)|Third Symphony]] at the [[La Scala]] Opera House. One of his last recorded performances was Verdi's ''[[La forza del destino]]'' with [[Giuseppe Di Stefano]], [[Antonietta Stella]] and [[Ettore Bastianini]] in Vienna on 23 September 1960.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Philharmonic |first=New York |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1tkEAAAAMAAJ |title=Programs |date=1956 |publisher=Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York. |pages=7 |quote=Vienna - Mitropoulos brings excitement to Puccini the most fascinating operatic event in many years - Dimitri Mitropoulos, conductor of the New York Philharmonic-Symphony, conducted for the first time a performance of the Vienna State Opera, and this festive performance was, without exaggeration, the most fascinating evening of musical theatre that we have heard in many years at the Opera.}}</ref> On 31 October 1960, two days before his death, Mitropoulos conducted Mahler's Third Symphony with the [[Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra]]. The performance was recorded and later issued commercially.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Quinn |first=John |date=11 October 2011 |title=Review |url=https://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2011/Oct11/Mahler3_Mitropoulos_ICAC5021.htm |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230603040707/http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2011/Oct11/Mahler3_Mitropoulos_ICAC5021.htm |archive-date=3 June 2023 |access-date=18 October 2023 |website=MusicWeb International }}</ref>

{{external media|float=right|width=250px|audio1=Mitropoulos conducting [[Kodály]]'s ''[[Háry János]] Suite'' with the [[New York Philharmonic]] in 1953 [https://archive.org/details/KodlyHryJnosSuite/03.Iii.Song.mp3 '''On archive.org''']}}