Brian Large Television Director
Recognized by The New York Times as a “virtuoso video opera director”, Brian Large has more than six hundred programs of opera, symphony and ballet to his credit. Born in London, he studied at the Royal Academy of Music. After graduation from the University of London with Doctorate degrees in both Music and Philosophy his post-graduate work brought him to Vienna and Prague where his interest in Czech and Slavic opera led him to write and publish definitive books on the music of Smetana and Martinů. He has also contributed to The New Grove Dictionary of Music and The Grove Dictionary of Opera.
In summer 2010 Dr. Large televised an outdoor concert of Viennese favorites conducted by Mariss Jansons with the Symphony Orchestra of the Bayerischer Rundfunk. Thereafter, he went to the Salzburg Festival where he taped Vera Nemirova’s new production of Alban Berg’s Lulu conducted by Marc Albrecht.
During the 2010-11 season Dr. Large US engagements include the gala opening of the Los Angeles Philharmonic season with Gustavo Dudamel and Juan Diego Flórez; one of the inaugural concerts celebrating Riccardo Muti’s tenure as Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; and the “live” HD world cinemacast of the Metropolitan’s new production of Boris Godunov starring German bass Rene Pape.
In Europe he will direct his nineteenth New Year’s Day Concert with the Vienna Philharmonic with Franz Welser-Möst conducting; as well as concerts of Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 and Strauss Heldenleben with Mariss Jansons and the BR Orchestral. He will also direct “Renee Fleming in Prague” (a sequel to the September 2010 PBS special “Fleming & Hvorostovsky: A Musical Odyssey in St. Petersburg”) after returning to the 2011 Salzburg Festival.
Highlights of Dr. Large’s 2009-10 season included Gustavo Dudamel’ inaugural concert as Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic; Schoenberg “Gurrelieder” with Maestro Jansons and BR Symphony Orchestra; Handel Tamerlano with Placido Domingo from the Los Angeles Opera; and the MET’s “live” world HD cinemacast of Thomas Hamlet.
Upcoming DVD releases include; “Fleming & Hvorostovsky: A Musical Odyssey in St. Petersburg” (Decca); Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte from the Salzburg Festival (Guth, EuroArts); La Rondine (Armiliato, EMI); Ariadne auf Naxos (Levine, EMI); The Metropolitan Gala Levine 25th Anniversary Gala (DG); Der Rosenkavalier (Bychkov, Arthaus); Il Barbiere di Siviglia (MET DG); A Night of Dances and Rhapsodies (Jansons, BPO, Kultur); Lohengrin (Schneider, Bayreuth DG); Italian Night (Abbado, BPO Kultur); Elektra (Abbado, Arthaus) and Wozzeck (Abbado, Arthaus).
Of special note is the momentous release by the Metropolitan Opera of a special eleven-DVD box celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Maestro James Levine. The titles directed by Brian Large: Lulu (Migenes, Lear, Mazura 1980); The Ghosts of Versailles (Stratas, Hagegård, Horne 1992); Le Nozze di Figaro (Vaness, Battle, von Stade, Allen, Raimondi 1985); Ariadne auf Naxos (Voigt, Dessay 2003); Elektra (Behrens, Voigt, Fassbänder, King, McIntyre 1994); The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (Stratas, Varnay, Cassilly 1979); and “In Concert at the Met” (Highlights with Price, Horne 1982).
Recent DVD releases directed by Brian Large include Der Rosenkavalier (Thielemann, Baden Baden Decca); Gustavo Dudamel & Los Angeles Philharmonic: The Inaugural Concert (DG); Owen Wingrave (Baker, Pears, BBC); Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia (Gruberova, Munich EuroArts); Gluck Alceste (von Otter, Gardiner, Théâtre du Chatelet) and Orphée (Kozená, Gardiner, Théâtre du Chatelet); two versions of Gounod Roméo et Juliette (Villazón, Nézet-Séguin, Salzburg as well as Alagna, Mackerras, ROH); Minkus Don Quixote (Kirov); Mozart Idomeneo (Nagano, Munich version), Così (Muti), Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Harnoncourt); Puccini La Rondine (Washington DC); Schubert Alfonso und Estrella (Harnoncourt); Tchaikovsky Pique Dame (Freni, Atlantov; Ozawa Vienna); Verdi Falstaff (Levine, MET), Simon Boccanegra (Te Kanawa, Solti, ROH), Il Trovatore (Cura, Downes ROH); Wagner Tannhäuser (Studer, Versalle; Sinopoli Bayreuth); as well as “Cecilia and Bryn” (Bartoli, Terfel, Chung, Glyndebourne, Opus Arte), “Viva Vivaldi” (Bartoli, Théâtre des Champs Elysées, EMI), the “2009 New Years Day Concert” (Barenboim, Vienna Philharmonic, Musikverein Wien Decca) and the “Last Night at the BBC Proms – The 100th Season” (Terfel, Andrew Davis, Royal Albert Hall).
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