Editing Pierre Monteux (section)

===The Met and Boston===
[[File:Farrar-Homer-Martinelli-Caruso.jpg|thumb|left|Singing under Monteux at the Met: clockwise from top l. [[Geraldine Farrar]], [[Louise Homer]], [[Giovanni Martinelli]] and [[Enrico Caruso]]]]
After the outbreak of the First World War Monteux was again conscripted into the army, serving as a private in the 35th Territorial Regiment,<ref>Stravinsky, p. 61</ref> with which he saw action in the trenches at [[Battle of Verdun|Verdun]], Soissons and the Argonne. He later described much of this period as one of "filth and boredom", although he formed a scratch band to divert his fellow soldiers.<ref name="Canarina48">Canarina, p. 48</ref> After just over two years on active service he was released from military duties after Diaghilev prevailed on the French government to second Monteux to conduct the Ballets Russes on a North American tour.{{refn|group=n|Canarina speculates that Diaghilev's efforts may have been aided by the fact that Monteux's old friend Cortot was Minister of Culture in the government.<ref name="Canarina48"/>}} The tour took in fifty-four cities in the US and Canada. In New York in 1916 Monteux refused to conduct Nijinsky's new ballet ''Till Eulenspiegel'' as the music was by a German – [[Richard Strauss]] – so a conductor had to be engaged for those performances.<ref>Buckle, p. 316</ref> At the end of the tour Monteux was offered a three-year contract to conduct the French repertoire at the [[Metropolitan Opera]] in New York, and received the permission of the French government to remain in the US.<ref>Canarina, p. 51</ref>

At the Met (as the Metropolitan Opera is generally called), Monteux conducted familiar French works such as ''[[Faust (opera)|Faust]]'', ''[[Carmen]]'' and ''[[Samson and Delilah (opera)|Samson and Delilah]]'', with singers including [[Enrico Caruso]], [[Geraldine Farrar]], [[Louise Homer]] and [[Giovanni Martinelli]].<ref>Canarina, p. 54</ref> Of his first appearance, ''[[The New York Times]]'' said, "Mr. Monteux conducted with skill and authority. He made it evident that he had ample knowledge of the score and control of the orchestra&nbsp;– an unmistakably rhythmic beat, a sense of dramatic values."<ref>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1917/11/18/102375488.pdf "'Faust' Revival is Welcomed at Opera"], ''The New York Times'', 18 November 1917</ref>
Monteux conducted the American premieres of Rimsky-Korsakov's ''[[The Golden Cockerel]]'',<ref>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1918/03/07/118137843.pdf "Fantastic 'Coq d'Or' a Hit at Premiere"], ''The New York Times'', 7 March 1918</ref> and [[Henri Rabaud]]'s ''[[Mârouf, savetier du Caire]]''.<ref>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1917/12/20/96281561.pdf "'Marouf,' Opera of the Orient, Sung; American Premiere of Rabaud's Fairy Comedy of "Arabian Nights'"], ''The New York Times'', 20 December 1917</ref> The American premiere of ''Petrushka'', in a new production by, and starring, [[Adolph Bolm]], was in an unusual opera-ballet double bill with ''[[La traviata]]''.<ref>Hunker, James Gibbons [https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1919/02/07/97069703.pdf "Opera; 'Traviata' and 'Petrushka'"], ''The New York Times'', 7 February 1919</ref> Monteux's performances were well received, but, though he later returned to the Met as a guest, opera did not loom large in his career. He said, "I love conducting opera. The only trouble is that I hate the atmosphere of the opera house, where only too often music is the least of many considerations, from staging to the temperaments of the principal singers."<ref name=times102/> Nor was he drawn to further engagements as a ballet conductor: "it offers special problems of fitting in with the dances and the dancers, most of whom, I'm sorry to say, seem to have musical appreciation confined to an ability to count beats."<ref name=times102/> Nonetheless he occasionally conducted ballet performances, and even in his concert performances of the ballet scores he had conducted for Diaghilev he said he always had the dancers in his mind's eye.<ref>Monteux (1965), pp 53–54</ref>
[[File:Monteux-family.jpg|thumb|Germaine, Denise and Pierre Monteux, circa 1919]]
In 1919 Monteux was appointed chief conductor of the [[Boston Symphony Orchestra]].<ref>Canarina, p. 65</ref> The orchestra was going through difficult times; its conductor, [[Karl Muck]], had been forced by anti-German agitation to step down in 1917.<ref>Jacobs, p. 159</ref> [[Henry Wood|Sir Henry Wood]] turned down the post,<ref>Jacobs, pp. 159–160</ref> and despite press speculation neither [[Sergei Rachmaninoff]] nor [[Arturo Toscanini]] was appointed.<ref>Canarina, pp. 61–62</ref> At least twenty-four players of German heritage had been forced out with Muck, and orchestral morale was low.<ref name=c66>Canarina, pp. 66–69</ref> Shortly before Monteux took up the conductorship the autocratic founder and proprietor of the orchestra, [[Henry Lee Higginson]], died.<ref>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1919/11/16/112644382.pdf "Maj. H.L. Higginson, Boston Banker, Dies; Founder of Symphony Orchestra"], ''The New York Times'', 16 November 1919</ref> He had steadfastly resisted [[Trade union|unionisation]], and after his death a substantial minority of the players resumed the struggle for union recognition. More than thirty players, including two important principals, resigned over the matter.<ref name=c66/> Monteux set about rebuilding the orchestra, auditioning players from all kinds of musical background, some of whom had not played symphonic music before. By the end of his first season he had restored the orchestra to something approaching its normal complement.{{refn|group=n|Before the resignations there were 96 players; by the end of Monteux's first season numbers had risen from 61 players to 88.<ref>Canarina, p. 69</ref>}} He trained the orchestra to a high standard; according to the critic [[Neville Cardus]], Monteux's musicianship "made the Boston Symphony Orchestra the most refined and musical in the world."<ref name=cardus>Cardus, Neville, "Pierre Monteux: Appreciation", ''[[The Guardian]]'' 2 July 1964, p. 6</ref>

Monteux regularly introduced new compositions in Boston, often works by American, English and French composers.<ref>Canarina, pp. 70–71</ref> He was proud of the number of novelties presented in his years at Boston, and expressed pleasure that his successors continued the practice.<ref>Monteux (1965), p. 113</ref> He was dismayed when it was announced that his contract would not be renewed after 1924. The official explanation was that the orchestra's policy had always been to appoint conductors for no more than five years.<ref name=c76/> It is unclear whether that was genuinely the reason. One suggested possibility is that the conductor chosen to replace him, [[Serge Koussevitzky]], was thought more charismatic, with greater box-office appeal.<ref name="Reputations – Pierre Monteux"/> Another is that the primmer members of Boston society disapproved of Monteux's morals: he and his second wife had gradually drifted apart and by 1924 he was living with Doris Hodgkins, an American divorcée, and her two children.<ref name=c76>Canarina, pp. 76–81</ref> They were unable to marry until 1928, when Germaine Monteux finally agreed to a divorce.<ref>Canarina, p. 100</ref>{{refn|group=n|Doris Hodgkins (1894–1984) studied at the [[New England Conservatory of Music]] and met Monteux when she sang (alto) in the chorus with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.<ref>Obituary: Doris Hodgkins Monteux, 89, Singer and Music Memoirist. ''The New York Times'', 23 March 1984</ref>}}