The highest faculty of a conductor, wrote George Bernard Shaw, is to establish "a magnetic influence in which an orchestra becomes as amenable to the baton as a pianoforte to the fingers." In the second of a two-part series, Paula Citron discovers the opera conductor's job isn't quite that simple.
ASK an opera conductor what it takes to be an opera conductor, and the answer is predictably complex. A love of voices and singing is certainly necessary, but so are a number of other ...