A prominent Austrian conductor died on Friday night after collapsing during a performance at Munich’s top opera house.
Stefan Soltesz, 73, was conducting the Richard Strauss opera “The Silent Woman” at the Bavarian State Opera when he suddenly fell from his podium shortly before the end of the first act.
The eminent musician was rushed to hospital and later pronounced dead following the tragic accident, Michael Wuerges, the spokesman for the company said.
One theatregoer, Sebastian Bolz, said the music suddenly stopped during the performance and they could not understand why.
Neither Bolz nor his wife witnessed the conductor’s fall, but they did hear calls for help from the stage and orchestra pit.
Michael Wuerges, the spokesman for the opera company, said that shortly after the conductor’s collapse, the curtain fell on the stage and the theatre’s on-site doctor rushed to the scene.
An immediate break was called for the audience and eventually, the remainder of the performance was cancelled. Shortly before 11 pm that night, the State opera’s general manager, Serge Dorny, announced the death on Twitter.
“We are losing a gifted conductor,” he wrote. “I lose a good friend.”
While deaths at the conductor's podium are rare, Mr Soltesz is the fourth conductor to collapse midperformance at the National Theater since the early 1900s.
In 1911, the Austrian conductor Felix Mottl collapsed at age 56 and died 11 days later, the German maestro Joseph Keilberth died at age 60 at the podium in 1968, and Giuseppe Patanè collapsed at age 57 and died hours later at a hospital, in 1989.
“He was a very fine, refined musician, and music, you know, was first. He came second,” Mr Dorny said about Soltesz.
The Bavarian State Opera said the news was horrific and sad and their thoughts are with his wife, Michaela.
