John Ardoin
John Ardoin (January 8, 1935 – March 18, 2001) was an American music critic.[1] The music critic of The Dallas Morning News for thirty-two years, he was particularly known for his friendship with the opera soprano, Maria Callas, about whom Ardoin wrote four books. His influence stretched much further than Dallas, and he was well aquatinted with many classical musicians of the postwar era.
Life and career
John Ardoin was bon in Alexandria, Louisiana, US on January 8, 1935.[1] As a child of twelve, he became interested in listening to the Saturday Met broadcasts and also heard and saw many singers of the day on The Voice of Firestone, and The Bell Telephone Hour. As he notes, "the radio was my first important link to the whole world".[2] He also describes his first experiences oeeing opera:
it wasn't until I was about 16 or 17 I saw my first opera – the old Charles Wagner Company, which used to barnstorm around towns, with Beverly Sills. Wait, I should say, that was my second opera, because I heard my first opera, La bohème, and then I saw the next year this neighboring city was doing La traviata. I went, and there was a baby Bev and John Alexander.[2]
However, in the same interview, he recounts a visit to the opera in New Orleans with his parents in 1950 or 1951 to see Risë Stevens as Carmen.
Ardoin attended North Texas State College (now the
During his army service spent in
Upon returning to the US, he went to New York in the late 1950s and, for seven years, wrote about music. He was editor of .
In June 1966 he became the music critic at The Dallas Morning News, only the second person to do so, but his most well-known writings were about Maria Callas, who was considered the godmother of the
Frequently, Ardoin was a commentator on the
He was given an honorary doctorate from the University of North Texas for his work in criticism in 1987, and, after retiring from the Morning News in 1998, Ardoin retired to Costa Rica.
He died in
Selected writings
- The Callas Legacy: The Complete Guide to Her Recordings on Compact Disc, Pompton Plains, NJ: Amadeus Press, Fourth Edition, 1995 ISBN 0-931340-90-XA detailed analysis of every recording made by Maria Callas from 1949 to 1977.
- Callas at Juilliard: The Master Classes, Pompton Plains, NJ: Amadeus Press, 1984 ISBN 1-57467-042-5
- (with Gerald Fitzgerald), Callas: the Art and the Life, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1974 ISBN 0-03-011486-1
- The Furtwängler Record, Pompton Plains, NJ: Amadeus Press, 1994 ISBN 0-931340-69-1An overview of the conductor's career and his place in the mainstream of the German school of conducting.
- Valery Gergiev and the Kirov: A Story of Survival, Pompton Plains, NJ: Amadeus Press, 2001 's efforts to revive it in the 1990s.
- The Stages of Menotti, New York: Doubleday, 1985 ISBN 0-385-14938-7
References
- ^ doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.A2234170. (subscription or UK public library membershiprequired)
- ^ a b c James Jorden interview on The Parterre Box web site, November 2005
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Artists | |
| Other | |
