Andrew Davis, 1944–2024

The Metropolitan Opera mourns the death of conductor Andrew Davis, a dear colleague remembered fondly by the company. Davis debuted at the Met leading Strauss’s Salome in 1981 and would go on to conduct ten other works and 106 performances over 34 years. He led two Met premieres—of Strauss’s Capriccio in 1998 and Lehár’s The Merry Widow in 2000—as well as the premieres of two other new productions, Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia in 1982 and a subsequent staging of The Merry Widow in 2014. Davis was a favorite of many star singers and collaborated brilliantly with such artists as Gwyneth Jones, Marilyn Horne, Jessye Norman, Kiri Te Kanawa, Frederica von Stade, and Renée Fleming. He also met his wife, soprano Gianna Rolandi, while conducting Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos at the Met in 1984–85. Davis was known throughout the company for his warmth and good humor, and his presence in the house was always a welcome occasion. His final Met performance, of The Merry Widow in 2015, was transmitted live in HD around the world, as was an earlier performance of Capriccio. We treasure that piece of his legacy and offer our sincerest condolences to his son, Ed, to our colleagues at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, where he served as artistic director, and to all his family and friends.