This Is Your Life: Georg Solti

Sir Georg SOLTI KBE (1912-1997)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Georg Solti, orchestral and operatic conductor, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews - on his 75th birthday - during the presentation of a cake at the Royal Opera House in London.

Georg, who was born in Budapest, Hungary, studied at the Franz Liszt Academy and later worked as a tutor with the Hungarian State Opera. In 1937, he worked as an assistant to Toscanini, in addition to coaching musicians at the Budapest Opera House, where he made his opera conducting debut the following year. However, his career was interrupted by the Second World War, and he took refuge in Switzerland, where he earned a living as a pianist.

After the war, in the first of a series of positions that would see him become one of the great conductors of the century, he was appointed musical director of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. He joined Oper Frankfurt in 1952 and London's Covent Garden Opera Company in 1961, and in 1969, he began a long association with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He performed worldwide, and as a prolific recording artist, he won more Grammy Awards than any other artist – classical or pop.

programme details...

Edition No: 733
Subject No: 727
Broadcast date: Wed 28 Oct 1987
Broadcast time: 7.00-7.30pm
Recorded: Wed 21 Oct 1987
Venue: Teddington Studios
Series: 28
Edition: 3
Code name: Ring

on the guest list...

Valerie Pitts - wife
Claudia - daughter
Gabrielle - daughter
Geraint Evans
Zsuzsi Dancs
Edward Kilenyi
Ann Murray
Yvonne Minton
Anthony Rolfe Johnson
Teresa Cahill
Evelyn Glennie
Frankie Howerd
John Tooley
Hans Hotter
Birgit Nilsson
Luciano Pavarotti
Placido Domingo
Kiri Te Kanawa
Edward Heath
Anne-Sophie Mutter

production team...

Researcher: Caroline Blackadder
Writer: Roy Bottomley
Directors: Stuart Hall, Terry Yarwood
Associate Producer: Brian Klein
Producer: Malcolm Morris

names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

related pages...

Classical Life

a symphony of subjects

Birth of Life

the genesis of the programme

Evelyn Glennie

Kiri Te Kanawa

Screenshots of Georg Solti This Is Your Life

Scriptwriter Roy Bottomley recalls this edition of This Is Your Life in his book, This Is Your Life: The Story of Television's Famous Big Red Book...

To surprise conductor Sir Georg Solti, I suggested he disguise himself as a Royal Opera House 'flunkey', complete with white wig, gaiters and buckled shoes. Eamonn, despite looking thin and gaunt, was game.

When the car taking him to the Opera House in Covent Garden got stuck in a West End traffic jam, he wanted to dash from the car to the nearest tube station – still dressed as a flunkey.

Now that really would have stopped the traffic!

Series 28 subjects