Armin Jordan, 74; Swiss Orchestra Conductor Performed in the U.S.
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Armin Jordan, 74, a Swiss conductor who was a leading figure in opera houses and concert halls in Europe and the United States, died Wednesday in Basel, Switzerland, days after collapsing during a performance.
Jordan collapsed Friday while he was conducting the Basel Symphony in Sergei Prokofiev’s “The Love for Three Oranges” and was hospitalized. No cause of death was given.
He made his name as the principal conductor of the Orchestra of French-Speaking Switzerland, and his recordings with that group are particularly well-regarded.
On the West Coast, he regularly conducted at the Pacific Northwest Wagner Festival in Seattle. When he appeared with the Seattle Opera in a 1998 performance of “Tristan und Isolde,” The Times called his conducting “near mystical” at times.
In 1983, Jordan conducted the soundtrack of the Hans-Jurgen Syberberg film “Parsifal” and also acted in the movie version of Wagner’s last opera. The reluctant actor called it “his first and last film.”
Jordan was born in Lucerne, Switzerland, in 1932 and started conducting in 1957 in the Swiss city of Biel. He became chief conductor of the Zurich Opera in 1963.
His son, Philippe, is a conductor with the Berlin and Vienna state operas.
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