Silvio Varviso

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Silvio Varviso (26 February 1924 - 1 November 2006) was a Swiss conductor of classical music known for his "elegant touch for opera."[1]

Silvio Varviso was born in Zürich where his father was a voice teacher. The son studied "everything but voice"[2] at the Zurich Conservatory: piano, violin, clarinet, trumpet and percussion.[3] He continued his study of conducting with the Austrian conductor Clemens Krauss in Vienna.

Varviso made his conducting debut at age 20 leading Mozart’s The Magic Flute at the Stadttheater in St. Gallen, Switzerland. He became principal conductor of the Basel Opera (1950-62) and subsequently served as music director at the Royal Opera in Stockholm, the Staatsoper Stuttgart (Stuttgart State Opera), the Baden-Württemberg National Theater and the Paris Opera (1973-1985).

Silvio Varviso first conducted in the United States in 1959 at the San Francisco Opera and at the Metropolitan Opera in 1961 conducting Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor with the soprano Joan Sutherland in her memorable debut.

Silvio Varviso lived quietly in Basel and on the Côte d’Azur. His last appearances on the podium were conducting Puccini’s Tosca on September 17 and 19, 2006 at the Vlaamse Opera in Antwerp, Belgium. He died in Antwerp on November 1, 2006 at the age of 82.

[edit] External links

• Silvio Varviso, 82, Conductor With Elegant Touch for Opera, Dies, obituary written by Anne Midgette, published in The New York Times, November 3, 2006
• Biography of Silvio Varviso on Colbert Artists Management site
• Entry to Silvio Varviso, in The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music, published by Oxford University Press, 1994, powered by The Gramophone