'Anton Seidl' (
7 May 1850 –
28 March 1898) was a
Hungarian conductor.
He was born at
Budapest, and entered the
Leipzig Conservatory in October
1870, remaining there until
1872, when he was summoned to
Bayreuth as one of
Richard Wagner's copyists. There he assisted in making the first fair copy of ''
Der Ring des Nibelungen''. Thoroughly imbued with the Wagnerian spirit, it was natural that he should take a part in the first
Bayreuth Festival in 1876.
His chance as a conductor came when, on Wagner's recommendation, he was appointed to the
Leipzig State Theater, where he remained until, in
1882, he went on tour with
Angelo Neumann's Nibelungen Ring company. To his conducting the critics attributed much of such artistic success as attended the production of the Trilogy at
her Majesty's Theatre in London in June of that year.
In
1883 Seidl went with Neumann to
Bremen, but two years later was appointed successor to
Leopold Damrosch as conductor of the
German Opera Company in
New York City, and in the same year he married
Auguste Kraus, the distinguished singer. He became conductor of the
New York Philharmonic in
1891 where he remained until is death in
1898.
References
★
★
Excerpts from Memoirs of Anton Seidl
Further reading
★
Finck, Henry Theophilus and
Krehbiel, Henry Edward. ''Anton Seidl; a memorial by his friends''. New York, C. Scribner's Sons, 1899. Reprinted New York : Da Capo Press, 1983. ISBN 0-306-76144-0.