Today, it’s a bit cliche to describe something as your “passion.” The word is everywhere on job postings, resumes, dating profiles and countless “about me” sections all over the Internet. But maybe the best way to categorize your passion is by the thing you’d like to die while doing. If that’s the criteria, then the passion of these conductors was unquestionable.
Felix Mottl
This Austrian conductor made a name for himself as a masterful interpreter of Richard Wagner. His pit presence was in high demand, and while he was primarily active at the Karlsruhe opera, he also conducted for a time at the Metropolitan Opera. And in 1911, Mottl moved on from life while doing what he did best: conducting. He was in music, leading the 100th performance of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. He suffered a heart attack in the second act and died in a hospital 11 days later. Oh, and he married his mistress on his deathbed. Make of that what you will.
Joseph Keilberth
Like Mottl, Joseph Keilberth was a conductor. That’s neither odd nor inspiring, as everyone on this list was a conductor, but just hear us out. When he was just 17, he became a vocal coach for the Karlsruhe State Theater. 15 years later, his conducting career took off — first he was appointed chief conductor of the German Philharmonic Orchestra of Prague, and later as the head of the Dresden State Opera. Like most conductors, Keilberth had a speciality: it was his performances of the Wagner repertoire that boosted his artistic credibility. And here’s where it gets weird. In 1968, Keilberth, like Mottl, was in Munich conducting Tristan. And also, just like Mottl, he died doing what he loved.
Giuseppe Patanè
Giuseppe was the son of Franco Patanè, another conductor who was a fixture of the New York City Opera. The passion was in the blood. The younger Patanè made a name for himself as a masterful interpreter of Italian opera. After his 1951 debut, conducting La Traviata, he held positions in opera houses in Naples, Austria and West Berlin. In 1989 he was conducting Il Barbiere di Siviglia when he suffered a heart attack. He may not have been conducting Tristan, but he was conducting in … Munich, becoming the third conductor to meet their end while conducting in that city.
Jean Baptiste Lully
We’ve remarked on the bizarre circumstances of the French baroque composer’s death before, but we’re doing it again because it is just that wild. In Lully’s day, conductors would keep time not with a baton, but with a pointed staff. And it was during the performance of his Te Deum that Lully, really feeling the groove and beating out time with unmatched enthusiasm, drove his staff into his foot. What with it being the 17th century and all, the wound became infected. Naturally, doctors decided the only thing they could do was amputate that portion of the leg. Lully wasn’t having any of that, because missing a leg also meant he was missing the ability to dance. So he refused medical service, and died. Danced right on to the grave.
Unfortunately, these aren't the only people who have departed this world while conducting. There's Eduard van Beinum, a former music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, who died in rehearsal; and Metropolitan Opera fixture Fausto Cleva, who died in Greece while conducting the overture of Gluck's Orfeo et Euridice. Franco Capuana was conducting Rossini's Mosè in Egitto when he died in 1969. Fritz Lehmann didn't collapse on stage — he actually died during the intermission for Bach's St. Matthew Passion. More recent incidents of this unfortunate events include the 2001 death of Giuseppe Sinopoli as he conducted Aida; Richard Hickox, who fell ill during a Holst recording session and died shortly after; and Israel Yinon, a composer dedicated to reviving musical works that were suppressed by the Nazi state, who died in 2015 during a performance of Strauss' An Alpine Symphony.
That may seem like a frightful lot, but thankfully podium deaths are not common occurrences.