Philip Eisenberg

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Philip Eisenberg, born on June 8, 1936, is an American prompter. He has worked extensively with New York’s Metropolitan Opera and the San Francisco Opera, as well as with other American opera companies and in Europe.

San Francisco Opera shows his name in 302 listings, extending from an “Aida” in 1960 to a “Nabucco” in 2000, both operas by Verdi. At the Metropolitan Opera, Eisenberg has prepared singers for, and prompted, productions of works by Berg, Mozart, Strauss, and Wagner, among other composers. He prompted the Met’s Otto Schenk production of Wagner’s “Der Ring des Nibelungen,” which was televised in 1990.

In the 1970s, Eisenberg collaborated in Europe on Jean-Pierre Ponnelle movies of Mozart’s “Le nozze di Figaro” and “La clemenza di Tito” with conductors Karl Böhm and James Levine, respectively. These productions have been released as DVDs by Deutsche Grammophon. Europe’s Bayreuth and Salzburg festivals have played a part in Eisenberg’s career, too, as have several European opera houses.

Eisenberg is perhaps the only prompter to have worked with the two “rival” operatic divas of the 1960s, Renata Tebaldi and Maria Callas, as well as all three of the “Three Tenors” of the 1990s, José Carreras, Plácido Domingo, and Luciano Pavarotti. Indeed, he has coached or prompted virtually all the stars of opera active since the 1960s.