Wikipedia

Brian Large

Brian James Large (16 February 1937 – 23 May 2026) was a British television director and author. He was among the world's foremost television directors specialising in opera and classical music. After a 15-year association with BBC television his international career took him to the United States (notably the Metropolitan Opera), the Bayreuth Festival in Germany and Vienna for the New Year's Day Concerts.

Brian Large

Life and career

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Early life and education

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Large was born in London, England, on 16 February 1939[1] and took piano lessons.[2] He studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Academy in 1991.[3] After graduating from the University of London with doctorates in both music and philosophy, he did postgraduate work in Vienna and Prague and worked at the Prague National Theatre in early 1960s.[2] His interest in Czech and Slavic opera resulted in the publication of two pioneering volumes on the music of Bedřich Smetana and Bohuslav Martinů.

BBC 1965–1980

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Large joined BBC2 television as a director with responsibility for music and opera at its inception in 1965[2]. He was appointed chief opera producer in 1974.[1] During this period, alongside orchestral concerts, he produced or directed: The Burning Fiery Furnace (1969, with Pears and Britten), Peter Grimes (1969, with Pears and Britten), Idomeneo (1970, with Heather Harper, Anne Pashley, Pears and Britten), Amahl and the Night Visitors (1974, with April Cantelo, Michael Langdon, in the presence of the composer), Der fliegende Holländer (1975, Gwyneth Jones, Norman Bailey), La traviata (1975, with Elizabeth Harwood, John Brecknock, Bailey), Hänsel und Gretel (1976, with Elizabeth Gale, Patricia Parker, Ann Howard, conducted by David Lloyd-Jones, studio production) and Macbeth (1979, with Patricia Johnson, Bailey, Neil Shicoff, Nicolai Ghiaurov).

During his time at the Corporation Large directed for Britain's Royal Opera Aida, (1968, Gwyneth Jones, Grace Bumbry, Charles Craig; Edward Downes) and Otello (1981, with Carlo Cossutta, Piero Cappuccilli, Stefka Evstatieva conducted by Downes).

In 1966 the BBC commissioned an opera specifically for television from Benjamin Britten. In August 1970 Owen Wingrave, based on a short story by Henry James, was completed. Large directed and televised the world premiere conducted by the composer in November 1970.[1] It was first broadcast on BBC2 on 16 May 1971.[4]

He directed numerous programmes by Frederick Ashton and Kenneth MacMillan from The Royal Ballet, including Cinderella (1979, Lesley Collier, Anthony Dowell) and Sleeping Beauty (1969, Antoinette Sibley, Dowell) and (1978, Merle Park, David Wall).

Large worked with Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev. At the BBC he also directed numerous live telecasts of concerts with:

International networks and opera companies

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Grove comments that Large "always preferred to film singers live rather than allow them to mime to pre-recorded tapes", and that he paid "as much attention to the musical as to the dramatic aspects of opera direction".[1] He was a pioneer of High Definition Television.[1]

In 1974 Wolfgang Wagner invited Large to Bayreuth[5] to collaborate on documenting the works of his grandfather Richard Wagner on television:

and, perhaps, one of the most acclaimed programs in the history of classical music on television, the Der Ring des Nibelungen conducted by Pierre Boulez and directed by Patrice Chéreau,[1] for which the Royal Television Society named him "Best Television Director" in 1981.[5]

After leaving the BBC in 1980, Large continued to direct telecasts for the Royal Opera, including:

From the Glyndebourne Festival he produced broadcasts of The Makropulos Case (1979, Anja Silja; Andrew Davis) and Le comte Ory (1982, Marc Laho, Annick Massis; Davis).

Following the internationally televised Royal Opera House Gala for the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977, invitations came to direct performing arts programs for numerous TV networks and opera companies, including:

In 1992 Large directed a 'real-time' performance of Tosca from the sites in Rome where the opera is set for tv, using film, television and stage techniques,[5][6] which was broadcast to over 90 countries worldwide to an anticipated audience of one and a half billion.[7]

Large directed for the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra its annual New Year's Concert from 1989 to 1993; and again from 1997 to 2009; and in 2011. In Germany he has directed for ZDF from Deutsche Oper Berlin and two concerts at the Dresdner Frauenkirche with Angela Gheorghiu and Cecilia Bartoli. Brian Large televised for Bayerischer Rundfunk from Bayerische Staatsoper, Prinzregententheater and Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz and two special concerts from the Vatican honoring Pope Benedict XVI (Jansons 27 October 2007; Thielemann)[8] as well as the Opening Concert of the 2006 World Cup Games (Domingo, Damrau, Lang Lang; Jansons, Mehta, Thielemann).

He directed opera productions from La Scala among others Nabucco (Dimitrova, Bruson; Muti) and from the Arena di Verona Madame Butterfly (Kabaivanska) and Tosca (Marton, Aragall). From the Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg, Large has televised opera under the musical direction of Valery Gergiev including Pique Dame and the original "St. Petersburg" version of La forza del destino as well as ballet: Jewels (ballet) and Don Quixote. At the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris he directed The Cunning Little Vixen (Mackerras, Hytner); Alceste (von Otter; Gardiner) and Orphée et Eurydice (Kožená, Gardiner)[9]. From the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées he televised "Viva Vivaldi" with Cecilia Bartoli.

From 1979 Large directed over 80 opera-, recital- and gala-telecasts from the Metropolitan Opera New York including Birgit Nilsson's final appearance as Electra (1980),[1] the 1983–84 Spring Centennial Gala, the 1991 25th Anniversary Gala, the 1996 James Levine's 25th Anniversary gala, the 1998 Pavarotti's 30th Anniversary gala and the 2006 Farewell Gala to General Manager Joseph Volpe.

In the United States Large has televised operas from the:

and a decade of Opening Night gala events from:

Renowned conductors and orchestras he worked with include:

Death

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Large died on 23 May 2026, at the age of 87.[10]

Awards and honours

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Large received two primetime Emmy Awards:

1992 for The Metropolitan Opera Silver Anniversary Gala (Levine, 1991) (TV) at Lincoln Center for Outstanding Individual Achievement – Classical Music/ Dance Programming – Directing; and again in 1993 for the live transmission of Tosca conducted by Zubin Mehta (1992) (TV) from Rome, seen worldwide on 106 television networks, and for Outstanding Individual Achievement – Classical Music/ Dance Programming – Directing, (shared with Giuseppe Patroni Griffi (director)).[11]

Other honours:

1986 Large received a Peabody Award for the live CBS telecast "Sunday Morning: Vladimir Horowitz" (1986) from the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory.[12]
1981 The British Television Society recognized Large as "Best Television Director" for the Chéreau/ Boulez production of Der Ring des Nibelungen;
1990 for "The Three Tenors" FIFA world cup concert on 7 July 1990 from the Bath of Caracalla in Rome and again in
1993 for Stiffelio (Carreras) from Covent Garden[5]
further with its Judges' Award (Programme) for outstanding achievement in the field of television direction.[13]
1990 The British Academy of Film and Television Arts/BAFTA recognized Large as "Best Television Director" for "The Three Tenors".

For the 'excellence of his opus of more than 600 programmes,' the 44th annual Golden Prague Festival in June 2007 honored Large with a special tribute for his contribution to the industry, and named his 2006 Salzburg DVD of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro "Best Performing Arts Programme – Opera". In 1985 the French government named Large a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Publications

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He also translated the libretto to Wagner's The Flying Dutchman[19] and Martinů's Julietta.

Videography

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References

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  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Brian Large. In: The New Grove Dictionary of Opera. Macmillan, London and New York, 1997, p. 1101.
  2. 1 2 3 Plotkin, Fred. Brian Large obituary. Opera, August 2026, Vol.77 No.8, p. 1273-74.
  3. ↑ "Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music". Royal Academy of Music. Archived from the original on 18 July 2010. Retrieved 21 June 2026.
  4. ↑ Peter Evans in Britten's Television Opera Musical Times Publications, 112(1) Ltd., 1971, pp. 425–429 (1971)
  5. 1 2 3 4 Opera Newsdesk - Two TV Awards for Large, Opera, July 1994 Vol. 45 No. 7, p.790.
  6. ↑ Barnes, Jennifer. Television Opera - A Non History. In: A Night in at the Opera. John Libbey & Company Ltd, London, 1994, p. 47.
  7. ↑ Opera - Suicide in three acts? This weekend Tosca will be performed over 24 hours in three different locations in Rome. Wolfgang Achtner reports. The Independent 9 July 1992. accessed 8 August 2026.
  8. ↑ BR Symphonieorchester INFO DVD Programme, Print-No. 07024B, 2007 Telepool GmbH
  9. ↑ Orphée et Eurydice at Discogs Théâtre du Châtelet (EMI 2008)
  10. ↑ "Fernsehregisseur Brian Large gestorben". ORF.at. 24 May 2026. Retrieved 24 May 2026.
  11. ↑ Brian Large awards at IMDb.com. Accessed November 2009
  12. ↑ Brian Large Archived 11 June 2010 at the Wayback Machine at Peabody Awarda, seen last: November 2009
  13. ↑ Brian Large at https://www.imdb.com/Sections/Awards/Royal_Television_Society_UK/1993, seen last: November 2009
  14. ↑ Large, Brian (1970). Smetana (in Spanish). London: Duckworth. ISBN 0-7156-0512-7. OCLC 123048.
  15. ↑ Large, Brian (1975). Martinu. London: Duckworth. ISBN 0-7156-0770-7. OCLC 1463536.
  16. ↑ Brian Large: "Martinů Bohuslav (Jan)" in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie, Macmillan, London 1980 (6th ed.), vol. 11, pp. 731–735
  17. ↑ Large, Brian. Opera. December 1991, p. 1399-1402.
  18. ↑ Brian Large and Jane Scovell. At Large–Behind the Camera with Brian Large (2025). 978-3-99153-127-2
  19. ↑ Wagner, Richard (1975). The Flying Dutchman : the German libretto with a line-by-line English singing version. London: Duckworth. ISBN 0-7156-0938-6. OCLC 15487178.
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