Gentele, Goeran

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Gentele, Goeran

Gentele, Goeran, brilliant Swedish opera manager; b. Stockholm, Sept. 20, 1917; d. in an automobile accident near Olbia, Sardinia, July 18, 1972. He studied political science in Stockholm, and art at the Sorbonne in Paris. He was first engaged as an actor, then was stage director at the Royal Drama Theater (1941–52) and at the Royal Opera (1952–63) in Stockholm, where he was appointed director in 1963. In 1970 he was appointed general manager of the Metropolitan Opera in N.Y., effective June 1972. Great expectations for his innovative directorship in America were thwarted by his untimely death during a vacation in Italy.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire