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IN MEMORIAM
WALTER DUCLOUX
"The cultural
climate of a country depends not on what you can purchase, but
what you can produce." These words of Dr. Walter Ducloux
(1913-1997) prophesied the future of regional opera companies
throughout the United States into the twenty-first century.
Centennial Professor Emeritus of Opera at The University of
Texas, Ducloux
was an international conductor, pianist, translator, writer,
and educator whose career spanned over 50 years from Czechoslovakia
to California. His zeal to bring the American public to opera
knew no boundaries, be it in Opera Newsarticles, Longhorn
Band football half-time shows featuring the "Triumphal March" from Aida,bus
tours to the Dallas Opera’s Der Ring des Niebelungen,or
informal chats with colleagues in halls of the School of Music
about commedia dell’arte or Strauss’ Ariadne
auf Naxos. A prodigiously
gifted individual, whose expertise included philosophy, drama,
and languages, Walter was born in Lucerne, Switzerland, in
1913. After his high school study, which included piano and music
theory
instruction, he began his university study in Munich where
he studied both philosophy and German literature while simultaneously
studying composition and piano. After receiving his doctorate
in 1935, he moved to Vienna where he attended conducting master
classes with both Felix Weingartner and Josef Krips. After graduating
from the Munich Music Academy in 1937, Ducloux returned two
years later to his hometown of Lucerne and began his first contract
at the Stadttheater and his career as assistant to Bruno Walter
at the Lucerne Music Festival, where he first met Arturo Toscanini.
Ducloux prepared the chorus of the Verdi Requiemfor the
Festwochen and quickly became a close associate to Toscanini
because of his fluency in Italian. This encounter with Toscanini
became a turning point in his life. Toscanini was beginning his
career in America and encouraged Ducloux to follow him to New
York in 1939, where he became an assistant conductor and opera
coach. During the next three years, in addition to his conducting
duties and teaching at the University of New Hampshire, Ducloux
traveled extensively throughout the U.S. with the renowned Charles
Wagner Opera Company. He even conducted The Barber of Sevillein
Gregory Gymnasium at The University of Texas in 1940. In 1942 the young
conductor was drafted into the U.S. Army, where once again
his linguistic skills influenced the direction of his life. As
a
military intelligence officer, he was assigned to General George
Patton as aide de camp and interpreter in the invasion of Germany.
He earned a battlefield commission and Bronze Star for uncovering
and thwarting an Axis plot to ambush an American armored batallion.
He also worked during and after the war with the Voice of America. After the war
he resumed his conducting career in Czechoslovakia as guest conductor
with the Czech Philharmonic in Prague and as the first American
conductor of the Czech National Opera. In 1947 he was named head
(General Musikdirektor) of the Brünn opera, but the communist
invasion quickly ended this phase of his career. In 1948, he
assumed the post of conductor of the Ballet Russe in France
where he conducted the last great tour of the original Ballet
Russe
through Western Europe. In 1949 he returned
to America as guest conductor with both Toscanini's NBC Symphony
and the Philadelphia Orchestra, and began a four-year assignment
with the U.S. State Department as the director of music services. In 1953 he moved
to Los Angeles following in the footsteps of Carl Ebert at
the University of Southern California as professor of opera and
director
of the USC Opera Theater. This 15-year period showcased over
25 operas including The Rake’s Progress(Stravinsky), Liebe
der Danae(Strauss), Peter Grimes(Britten), and Mathis
der Maler(Hindemith). He also began his "third" career
of translating over 25 operas into understandable and singable
English. His comprehensive understanding of the slightest nuance
and detail of Italian, French, Czech, and German gives his
widely used translations a marvelous depth of understanding.
Over a
25-year period, he regularly appeared with the Texaco Metropolitan
Opera Quiz (a panel of experts quizzed about opera trivia during
the intermission of the Metropolitan Opera broadcast). Walter and his
wife, opera singer and voice teacher Gina (Rifino), arrived in
Austin in the fall of 1968. They brought opera with them. His
marvelously witty and comprehensive pre-concert lectures and
lecture series induced a love of opera in many who never before
had attended an opera. These journeys to the Dallas, Santa Fe,
San Francisco, and Houston operas planted the seed for the astoundingly
successful Austin Lyric Opera (ALO), which he co-founded in 1986
with Joseph McClain. This "musical congregation" became
the core of supporters for the development of the Austin Lyric
Opera. He served as ALO’s conductor and musical director
until 1989. His farewell conducting appearance with the ALO
was The
Marriage of Figaroin 1994. His statement in 1957, that "opera
will never impact American culture until we are producing opera
to suit the mainstream environment, using ‘homegrown’ American
young singers," became the axiom for the unparalleled success
of the young, "grassroots" Austin Lyric Opera. In
addition to his contribution to the development of the School
of Music
and to the musical education of University of Texas students,
he also envisioned and helped design the Performing Arts Center,
which has become one of the foremost cultural centers in Texas. He is survived
by Gina, his wife of 53 years, three children, Claude, Phillip,
and Denise, and four grandchildren. In addition to the Bronze
Star, his numerous awards included five battle stars and a battlefield
commission to lieutenant, as well as the Bronze Medal from the
government of Italy for his work with Italian Opera in America
and Germany’s Verdienstkreuz (Cross of Merit, first class)
for accomplishment in German opera. At the University, Walter
held an Ashbel Smith chair, the Frank Erwin Centennial chair
in Opera, and received the E. W. Doty Award for Excellence.
He and his wife also created the Walter and Gina Ducloux Fine
Arts
Fellowship Endowment at the University.
<signed>
Larry R. Faulkner, President
The University of Texas at Austin
<signed>
John R. Durbin, Secretary
The General Faculty
This memorial resolution was prepared
by a special committee consisting of Professors Darlene Wiley (chair),
Rose Taylor, and Leonard Johnson.
Distributed to the Dean of the College of Fine Arts, the Executive Vice President
and Provost, and the President on March 14, 2000. Copies are available on
request from the Office of the General Faculty, FAC 22, F9500. Revised April
27, 2000.
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