Fiora Corradetti Contino, 91, opera professor, conductor . By Sam
Roberts New York Times . NEW YORK - Fiora Corradetti Contino, who
founded her first opera company when she was only 27 and became an
accomplished maestra who conducted for 50 years, until she was 81, died
on March 5 in Carmel, Ind. She was 91. The cause was arteriosclerotic
cardiovascular disease, her daughter Lisa Contino said. Fiora Contino,
who made her New York conducting debut when she was 73, hailed from a
distinguished musical family. Her father, Ferrucio Corradetti, was a
leading baritone at La Scala in Milan before he fled Mussolini's
fascist regime. A half sister, Iris Adami Corradetti, was a soprano and
one of the featured Madama Butterflys of the late 1930s. Dr. Contino,
who specialized in the visceral, unsentimental realism of Italian
verismo opera, was also a music professor and vocal coach, but was best
known as a conductor. Her execution of Mascagni's "Iris" by Teatro
Grattacielo at Alice Tully Hall in 1998, her New York debut, was "a
luscious and exultant orchestral performance," Paul Griffiths wrote in
The New York Times. Byron Belt described her in the Long Island Press
as "certainly one of the outstanding women conductors of our day. He
mentioned her gender, he wrote, "because a man of her superlative gifts
would surely be an international superstar today. Indeed, Dr. Contino
recalled that when she was in her 30s rehearsing Verdi's "La Traviata"
with the Pittsburgh Symphony, the orchestra balked at having to
practice an opera that they had performed repeatedly, and, she said, it
was less than thrilled being held captive to "some unknown woman. "I
found that a woman rather sounds like a kindergarten teacher when
saying, 'I don't like this,' " she was quoted as saying in "Wisdom,
Wit, and Will: Women Choral Conductors on Their Art" (2009). "I think
that has to do with gender, because a man sounds different when he
complains about something. She added, "It came to a point where the
second clarinetist, who I have since learned was a little bit goofy,
turned his chair completely around, making sure that he didn't see me.
Fiora d'Itala Rosa Corradetti was born on Long Island, the daughter of
Italian immigrants who met in New York at one of her father's concerts.
Her father, who died when she was 14, was also a vocal coach and music
critic. Her mother, the former Anna Lisarelli, was a seamstress.
Fiora's musical heritage germinated early. She was a prodigy as a young
pianist and church organist. Armed with a letter of recommendation from
the conductor Arturo Toscanini, a friend of her father's, she enrolled
in Oberlin College in Ohio, where she earned a degree in piano
performance. She married a fellow graduate, Joseph Contino; their
marriage ended in divorce. In addition to her daughter Lisa, she leaves
two other daughters, Adriana Contino and Francesca Levitt; a son,
Frederic; nine grandchildren; and 14 great-grandchildren. She was
preceded in death by her longtime companion, Dr. Jeraldine C.
Baumgartner, who died in 2012, as well as her sister, Adriana
Corradetti. Dr. Contino left her family in 1958 to study conducting at
the Conservatoire Americain in Fontainebleau, France; the École
Normale, in Paris, under Nadia Boulanger; and the Akademie Vienne, with
Hans Swarowsky. She received a doctorate from the Indiana University
School of Music in Bloomington, where she became a professor and served
as principal conductor and chairwoman of the choral department. While
teaching at Smith College in Massachusetts, Dr. Contino founded the
Amherst Community Opera Company. She also taught at Bowling Green State
University in Ohio; Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts; Hillsdale
College in Michigan; the Peabody Institute, part of Johns Hopkins
University in Baltimore; and the University of Texas Austin. Her opera
conducting career included performances at the Aspen Music Festival and
the San Francisco Opera.
