Peter Klein is an American
impresario who brought several American theatrical productions to Europe and arranged the first US tour of
La Scala Ballet in 1986. He is best known for touring
George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess around the globe since 1993.
Early life
Peter Klein was born on July 22, 1945[citation needed] in
Romania, his parents were Hungarian Jews, who survived the
Holocaust.[1] Growing up in communist Romania he learned Hungarian, Romanian, Russian, German, French and English. In 1963 the family moved to
Israel,[1] where Klein learned Hebrew. In 1967 Klein traveled to Europe and eventually to
New York, where he met legendary impresario
Sol Hurok and started working for him as North American tour manager in 1969.[4][5] He was the tour manager for
Andrés Segovia and
Arthur Rubinstein.[1] Klein established his own production company, Living Arts, Inc., in 1972.[6]
Klein managed Boston Ballet European tours in 1981 and 1983.[13][14][15] There was also a controversy around 1981
South African tour that had to be cancelled because of
apartheid rules that could hurt
principal dancer Augustus Van Heerden and other team members.[13][14]
During the 90s, Klein toured the world with his Opera Nazionale Italiana company[4][9] featuring stars of Italian opera. He arranged tours to Spain and Mexico in 1991[30] and to US and Canada several times between 1992 and 2000.
To commemorate the Verdi centennial in 2001, Klein produced and toured Viva Verdi! show with partner Particia Murray-Bett in the
United Kingdom and
Ireland featuring excerpts from Nabucco, Rigoletto, Il Trovatore and other Verdi operas.[36][37][38]
In 2002, Klein brought West Side Story to Italy again in 2002 performing in
Ravenna,
Palermo and
Pistoia.[39][40][41] In 2002 he arranged the Arad Philharmonic of Romania to a US and Canada tour, Maestro Dorin Frandes conducting.[citation needed]
In 2003, Klein arranged the US tour for the
Polish Philharmonic of
Resovia with pianist Leopold Godowsky III, nephew of
George Gershwin and grandson of the legendary pianist-composer
Leopold Godowsky as the guest star at the Polish Cultural Institute in New York.[42] The following year he brought Broadway Tonite show to
Warsaw,
Poland.[43] In 2007, he presented
Liza Minnelli at the Roman amphitheater in Taormina, Italy.[citation needed]
In 2013, Klein started to work with the Spanish contemporary
flamenco dance company Los Vivancos taking its Aeternum show with the Hungarian all-female band Maszka Band to London[55] and Budapest.[56] He also arranged Los Vivancos performance at the Beijing 2014
BTV Global Spring Festival TV show.[57] Also in August 2014 together with Patricia Murray-Bett he produced Los Vivancos concert at the
Jersey Opera House.[58]
In 2017 Klein brought the winners of Hungarian Virtuosi show to New York's Weill Recital Hall at
Carnegie Hall.[citation needed]
Porgy and Bess
Peter Klein started to consider staging his own production of Porgy and Bess in 1991 when his
Argentinian colleague asked him to bring the opera to
Teatro Colón in
Buenos Aires.[59] In 1992 he brought the existing production of the
Virginia Opera company[4][60] to an 18-performance tour of Latin America in April and May, with 9 performances at Teatro Colon.[61] Klein’s own production started touring US and Canada in January 1993.[3] In the 90s it was also known as the Charleston production as it debuted in
Charleston and performed with the
Charleston Symphony Orchestra (
David Stahl, conductor).[60][62]
The concept of the touring production was approved by George Gershwin’s heirs.[60] Leopold Godowsky III, the nephew of George Gershwin, helped Klein to develop the concept of the touring version[4] with shorter performance time[63][64] and reduced number of musicians.[60][63] The original cast had three pairs of lead actors: Brian Gibson and Elizabeth Graham, Andre Solomon-Glover and Vanessa Stewart,
William Marshall and Claudette McCargo.[65]
^John Ferri (January 8, 1998).
"Night & Day". Brownward-Palm Beach New Times. Archived from
the original on February 24, 2018. Retrieved March 20, 2018.
^Musical America International Directory of the Performing Arts 1999. ABC Leisure Magazines. 1999. p. 191.
ISBN9781891131011.
^Alexandre Delgado (January 29, 1999).
"Um honesto "Rigoletto"" [An honest "Rigoletto"]. Público (in Portuguese). Archived from
the original on February 25, 2018. Retrieved March 20, 2018.
^Alessandro Rigolli (July 1, 2002).
"La Broadway di Bernstein a Ravenna" [Bernstein's Broadway in Ravenna] (in Italian). Il Giornale della Musica. Archived from
the original on February 2, 2018. Retrieved March 20, 2018.
^"East Coast Tour". Polish Cultural Institute. October 24, 2003. Archived from
the original on February 27, 2018. Retrieved March 20, 2018.
^Jacek Marczyński (July 6, 2004).
"Kołysanka dla przeszłości" [Lullaby for the past]. Rzeczpospolita (in Polish). Archived from
the original on February 27, 2018. Retrieved March 20, 2018 – via encyklopediateatru.pl.
^"BTV环球春晚第5季 第0期 2014BTV环球春晚" [BTV Global Spring Festival Season 5 Season 0 2014 BTV Global Spring Festival Gala] (in Chinese).
BTV. Archived from
the original on May 19, 2018. Retrieved May 19, 2018.