Rare! 1952, Dimitris Mitropoulos, Carnegie Hall, New York, Concert Program, Milhaud, C. Colomb

Dimitri Mitropoulos (Greek: Δημήτρης Μητρόπουλος; 1896 – 1960) was a Greek and American conductor, pianist, and composer. In addition to his orchestral career, Mitropoulos conducted opera extensively in Italy, and from 1954 until his death in 1960 was the principal conductor of the Metropolitan Opera  in New York, although the Met never had an official ‘principal conductor’ title until the 1970s. His musically incisive and dramatically vivid performances of Puccini, Verdi, Richard Strauss and others remain models of the opera conductor’s art. The Met’s extensive archive of recorded broadcasts preserves many of these fine performances.

Darius Milhaud (1892 –1974) was a French composer, conductor, and teacher. He was a member of Les Six and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions are influenced by jazz and Brazilian music and make extensive use of polytonality. He is considered one of the key modernist composers. A renowned teacher, he taught many future jazz and classical composers, including Burt Bacharach, Dave Brubeck, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Iannis Xenakis among others. Christophe Colomb is an opera in two parts. The poet Paul Claudel wrote the libretto based on his own play about the life of Christopher Columbus, Le Livre de Christophe Colomb.