Rhoda Levine obit

Death of pioneering opera director

 She was not on the list.

The family have announced the peaceful death of Rhoda Levine at the age of 93.

Rhoda was a prolific stage director at a time when few women controlled opera productions. She worked at NY City Opera, Glimmerglass, Belgium’s Opéra National; Scottish Opera; San Francisco Opera; Cabrillo Festival; Nederlandse Opera; and the Holland Festival.

Among her historic achievements was the 1975 world premiere in Holland of the Viktor Ullmann Theresiendstadt opera Der Kaiser von Atlantis. She also put on the South African premiere of Porgy and Bess.

A great lady of the opera stage.

Levine was born in New York City. She wrote the libretto for Opus Number Zoo by Luciano Berio and also wrote children's books. She was the artistic director of Play It By Ear, an improvisational opera group. She was the recipient of the National Institute for Music Theater Award. She got her BA at Bard College.

In the summer, she taught at the John Duffy Composers Institute, in Norfolk, Virginia.

Levine was a faculty member at the Curtis Institute of Music, Yale School of Drama, The Juilliard School, and Northwestern University, and taught at Manhattan School of Music (from 1992) and Mannes College and was a frequent guest teacher and visiting artist at Tisch School of the Arts at NYU.