Franz Allers

Franz Allers (August 6, 1905 - January 26, 1995) was a European-American conductor of ballet, opera, Broadway musicals, film scores, and symphony orchestras.

Personal life

Franz Allers was born in Carlsbad, Austria-Hungary (now Czech Republic) in 1905. He started playing the violin at the age of 7. In 1920, he moved to Berlin where he became a violinist in the Berlin Philharmonic. He had a distinguished career in Europe as an opera and symphonic conductor.[1]

He moved to the United States in 1938. Allers met his first wife, singer Carolyn Shaffer, in Chicago in 1939. While working on Broadway, Allers, his wife and their daughter, Carol, lived in Riverdale, New York. In later life he moved back to Germany and lived in Munich with his second wife, German actress/playwright Janne Furch-Allers (née Ertel).[2] Janne Furch-Allers died in 1992 at the age of 76.[3]

In 1995, Allers died from complications from pneumonia at the Desert Springs Hospital in Las Vegas, Nevada while traveling to California. He was 89.[4]

According to The New York Times obituary, "Harold C. Schonberg of The New York Times wrote that Allers, along with the conductor Maurice Abravanel, 'completely revised the standards of Broadway pit work,' demanding the highest quality from both the orchestra players and the singers."[4]

Career

In 1947, he conducted the original Broadway production of Brigadoon. In 1951, he conducted the original Broadway production of Paint Your Wagon.[5]

In 1952, he was the music director for My Darlin' Aida and in 1954 he conducted the score for the animated film Hansel & Gretel.[6]

In 1957, he conducted the score to the original Broadway production of My Fair Lady and would go on to win the Tony Award for Best Conductor and Musical Director.

In 1959, he received a Grammy nomination in the category "Best Recording for Children" for the film soundtrack.[7] Allers and Hansel & Gretel lost to Peter Ustinov and Peter & the Wolf (von Karajan conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra).

In 1961, he conducted the original Broadway production of Camelot. For the second time, he won the Tony Award for Best Conductor and Musical Director. On October 1, 1961, a German translation of My Fair Lady opened at the Theater des Westens in Berlin, and was conducted Allers.[8][9]

Awards and nominations

References
  1. https://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/28/obituaries/franz-allers-89-a-conductor-and-broadway-musical-director.html
  2. http://www.masterworksbroadway.com/artist/franz-allers/
  3. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0298835/
  4. "Franz Allers, 89, a Conductor And Broadway Musical Director". The New York Times. January 28, 1995. p. 10. Retrieved May 18, 2013.
  5. https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/franz-allers-78659/#broadway
  6. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0021248/
  7. http://www.awardsandshows.com/features/grammy-awards-1959-239.html
  8. Peter E. Müller (July 31, 2006). "Karin Hübner (1936-2006)". Die Welt (The World). Retrieved February 11, 2017. (in German)
  9. Birgit Walter (October 22, 2011). "Theater des Westens Ein Million für diese Lady" [Theater of the West – A Million For This Lady]. Berliner Zeitung. Missing or empty |url= (help) (in German)
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