Francesco Molinari-Pradelli

This article is about the opera conductor. For the golfer, see Francesco Molinari.

Francesco Molinari-Pradelli by Annemarie Heinrich

Francesco Molinari-Pradelli (4 July 1911 – 8 August 1996) was a prominent Italian opera conductor. He studied piano and composition at Bologna, and graduated from the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Rome, in 1938. He made his debut at La Scala in 1946 and his Covent Garden debut in 1955. During 1966-1973, he was active as a conductor at the Metropolitan Opera, specializing in the Italian repertoire, especially Verdi and Puccini, but also making a rare foray into the French repertoire with Gounod's Roméo et Juliette. His account of Puccini's Turandot with Birgit Nilsson and Franco Corelli is commonly regarded as one of the greatest recordings of that work.

Molinari-Pradelli died in Bologna, Italy, the city of his birth.

Discography

• Giuseppe Verdi: Simon Boccanegra - (Cetra, 1951)
• Friedrich von Flotow: Martha - (Cetra, 1953)
• Jules Massenet: Werther - (Cetra, 1953)
• Giuseppe Verdi: La traviata - (Decca, 1954)
• Giacomo Puccini: Manon Lescaut - (Decca, 1954)
• Gaetano Donizetti: L'elisir d'amore - (Decca, 1955)
• Giuseppe Verdi: La forza del destino - (Decca, 1955)
• Giacomo Puccini: Tosca - (Decca, 1959)
• The Art of the Prima Donna: "Joan Sutherland" - (Decca, 1960)
• Giacomo Puccini: Turandot - (EMI, 1965)
• Giacomo Puccini: La rondine - (RCA, 1966)

External links

• Francesco Molinari-Pradelli – All Music Guide to Classical Music