Get a closer look at some of Hollywood's perfect pairs.

Hollywood Power Couples

Get a closer look at some of Hollywood&#39;s perfect pairs.

"The Gentlemen" and "Slow Horses" return this fall, while the "Reacher" spin-off series "Neagley" makes its debut. See our guide of the biggest Fall TV and streaming releases.

2026 Fall TV and Streaming Watch Guide

&quot;The Gentlemen&quot; and &quot;Slow Horses&quot; return this fall, while the &quot;Reacher&quot; spin-off series &quot;Neagley&quot; makes its debut. See our guide of the biggest Fall TV and streaming releases.

Get a closer look at these actors from their many TV and streaming series roles.

Streaming Stars, Then and Now

His father was the renowned violinist and music teacher Michelangelo Abbado. He is the brother of the composer Marcello Abbado and therefore uncle of the conductor Roberto Abbado. After school, Abbado studied at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan. From 1956 to 1968 he was married to Giovanna Cavazzoni. Together they became parents to the theater manager Alessandra Abbado and the opera director Daniele Abbado. In 1957 he moved to Vienna, where he went to school with conductor teacher Hans Swarowsky. In 1968, Abbado began working for the Milan opera house "Scala", where he worked in various functions until 1986. The conductor was committed to opening up the so-called "high culture" to the common people, who had once been the audience and protagonists of traditional Italian opera.

From 1979 to 1988, Abbado was also principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. Replaced by Riccardo Muti at the helm of La Scala in Milan, Abbado moved to Vienna in 1986 to take over the management of the State Opera until 1991. From 1990 to 2002 he was chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic. However, cancer interrupted Abbado's artistic career in the late 1990s. After his recovery, the internationally celebrated conductor only appeared at concerts sporadically. In spring 2004, Abbado's guest appearance with the Berlin Philharmonic was a great success. In the spring of 2005, Abbado conducted Mozart's "Magic Flute" for the first time, with which he celebrated great success in Baden-Baden and Italy. At the end of May 2005, the maestro gave three concerts in Berlin to sold-out houses.

Abbado was considered a supporter of young musicians, for whom he founded the European Union Youth Orchestra in 1978, the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra in 1988, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra in 1997 and finally the Mozart Orchestra in 2004. The youth orchestras support the training of young talent with scholarships. In 2003 he was honored with the Praemium Imperiale. In August 2005, Abbado, after Vienna, was also made an honorary citizen of Lucerne, whose music festival he was closely associated with. For the 250th year of Mozart's birth, Abbado designed numerous Mozart Orchestra initiatives in 2006. In 2008 he received the Wolf Prize. On August 30, 2013, Claudio Abbado was appointed senator for life by President Giorgio Napolitano. In the same year, his book "My World of Music" was named science book of the year in Austria.

Claudio Abbado died on January 20, 2014, at the age of eighty, in Bologna after a long battle with cancer.

I never made politics. Unless you consider culture as politics: I think we must sustain modernity. And, simply, I tried to open the doors of the theaters to anyone, not only in Milan. We cut the prices for the students, then I conducted La Scala Orchestra in the factories. And in Reggio Emilia, at the &quot;Musica e Realtà&quot; festival, we arranged meeting opened to anyone during the performance. There was people that not only, never listened to the music of Luigi Nono before, but neither the music of Beethoven.

Musical history does not end with Puccini.

I like the reaction of the audience. I&#39;m not sincere if I don&#39;t say that, but it still embarrasses me to take bows. I&#39;m not a showman. I hate all that.

A conductor must consider himself first and foremost a musician. The whole idea of the conductor as some sort of god or dictator is absurd - especially as the age of the autocrat is now finished. [in an interview with The Scotsman newspaper]

Quotes

Claudio Abbado

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