Francesco Molinari-Pradelli

Francesco Molinari-Pradelli ranked among the foremost Italian opera conductors active in the twentieth century. He first trained in piano and composition at Bologna before continuing at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, where he also studied conducting with Bernardino Molinari, who shared no family connection. Completion of these studies occurred in 1938. Early public appearances took place exclusively in the orchestral concert sphere. The conductor’s initial venture into opera involved Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, a staging that subsequently visited Bologna, Bergamo, and Brescia.

Reputation cultivated throughout the war years secured his La Scala debut in 1946, the season the house reopened after sustaining bomb damage. He soon acquired a standing for dependable leadership in the pit, for sensitively supporting the era’s leading singers, and for generating performances of vivid impact, even when they did not always introduce striking individuality or novel interpretive angles.

The first Covent Garden engagement took place in London in 1956 with a Tosca starring Tebaldi; a return in 1960 brought Verdi’s Macbeth, an event that helped stimulate wider interest in the composer’s less frequently performed operas. San Francisco witnessed his debut in 1957, after which he appeared there regularly; a particularly memorable account of Turandot in 1964 featured Birgit Nilsson in the title role. His Staatsoper debut in Vienna occurred in 1959, and his first Metropolitan Opera performance followed in 1966, with repeated engagements at the house continuing through the next two decades.

He preserved his pianistic fluency, often using interludes away from the standard Italian operatic canon to explore unfamiliar repertoire. Recital accompaniment likewise earned him esteem. The recording he made in that capacity of Rossini songs with Suzanne Danco achieved legendary standing. His Turandot with Nilsson remains among the three or four most distinguished accounts of the opera on disc, and he supplied piano support for several Maria Callas recordings. In 1966 the album Prima Donna, recorded with Leontyne Price, received the Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Soloist Performance (With or Without Orchestra). He died in his native Bologna four days after turning eighty-five.