Giuseppe Sinopoli Dies at 54

BERLIN, 21 April 2001 - The Italian conductor and composer Giuseppe Sinopoli died after suffering a heart attack while conducting a performance of Verdi's Aida at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin last night.

Born in Venice in 1946, Sinopoli studied music with Franco Donatoni, Bruno Maderna and Karlheinz Stockhausen. He also studied psychiatry and was in fact a physician.

Giuseppe Sinopoli conducted leading orchestras in Europe and America, was a regular at major opera houses and festivals including Bayreuth, and was most recently musical director of the princely Dresden Staatskapelle orchestra. An unusual talent and very much a special case, Sinopoli was best known for his controversial and thought-provoking interpretations of the repertoire. A stunning example is a recording of Wagner overtures released with the Staatskapelle Dresden on Deutsche Grammophon (CD 449165-2 - unavailable in the US). Giuseppe Sinopoli was scheduled to conduct Wagner's Ring cycle at the 2001 Bayreuth Festival.

The Italian maestro is the fifth conductor to die on the podium after Joseph Keilberth (1968), Dimitri Mitropoulos (1960), Eduard van Beinum (1959), and Felix Mottl (1911).



Photo: Tanja Niemann / DGG