Fausto Cleva, Conductor Metropolitan Opera Photo by Louis Melancon

Description

Fausto Cleva
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fausto Cleva
(17 May 1902 – 6 August 1971) was an Italian-born American operatic conductor
Life and career
Fausto Cleva was born in Trieste in 1902. After studies at the Conservatorio in his native city and Miln, Cleva made his debut conducting La traviata in Teatro Carcano in Milan, before emigrating to the United States in 1920, becoming an American citizen in 1931. He joined the musical staff of the Metropolitan Opera later that year and for twenty years was an assistant conductor and later chorus-master  before making his official conducting debut in February 1942. Following his return to the Metropolitan Opera in 1950, he conducted over 700 performances of thirty operas, mainly from the French and Italian repertory.
Louis Mélançon
(1901-1974) was the in-house
photographer
for the Metropolitan Opera from 1947 to his death in 1974.