Albert Rosen
Albert Rosen was born in 1924 in Vienna, to Czech and Austrian parents. He studied at the Vienna Academy of Music with Joseph Marx, as well as at the Prague Conservatory with Hans Swarovski. After conducting his first opera at Plzeň, Rosen developed a particular interest in opera and, in 1964, was made chief conductor of the Smetena Theatre in Prague.
His operatic repertoire included Carmen (Bizet), Lohengrin (Wagner), Il Trovatore and Don Carlos (Verdi), Tosca and Madama Butterfly (Puccini), Otello and Litaliana in Algeri (Rossini), Lucrezia Borgia (Donizetti), Kťa Kabanov (Janček), La Wally (Catalini), Salome (Richard Strauss) and The Bartered Bride (Smetena). He also conducted numerous more unusual works like unfamiliar operas by. It was the works of composers such as Martinů and Janček, as well as Smetena and Dvořk that Rosen was best known for and had a strong affinity with.
In 1965, and every year until 1994, Rosen conducted the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland at the Wexford Festival. From 1969, he became the orchestras chief conductor. It was with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland that Rosen made most of his recordings, including Mahlers Eighth Symphony and Strauss. In 1992, the orchestra toured Germany, visiting 10 cities, after having major success with the Die Fledermaus recording.
Albert Rosens involvement in opera continued in 1980 when he made his American debut with the San Francisco Opera and continued when he also premiered Rimsky-Korsakovs opera Christmas Eve with the English National Opera in 1988. He began his two year position as chief conductor of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra in 1986.
He returned to the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland as a guest conductor a number of times throughout the 1990s. Other opera orchestras he was involved with and conducted were those of the Scottish Opera, San Diego Opera, Welsh National Opera, Vancouver Opera and the Dublin Grand Opera Society.
Albert Rosen died in Dublin in 1997 of lung cancer. He was 73 years old.