Ted Puffer; founded Nevada Opera
Hyfler/Rosner
BYLINE: From Staff and Wire Reports
LA Times
Merle E. "Ted" Puffer, 75, the founder of the Nevada Opera and a former
chairman of the University of Nevada, Reno, music department, died
Wednesday. He had been battling cancer but his family said his death had
been unexpected.
Puffer launched Nevada Opera in 1967, serving as artistic director,
conductor and vocal coach. He also was a music professor at the university
for 28 years.
In 1994, he took early retirement from the university and joined the faculty
of the Manhattan School of Music in New York, maintaining homes in Reno and
New York.
"He was a genius, both as a musician and as a comedic director," said
Kathleen Kimmel, one of Puffer's vocal students and the studio director of
Nevada Opera's education and outreach program.
One of Puffer's goals was to make opera accessible to the general public. He
didn't believe in the cultural elitism the art form is sometimes associated
with, and he encouraged English-language translations of classic shows.
"For too long, opera has been a status event where patrons could sleep," he
said in a 1974 Reno Gazette-Journal interview. "I want people to come to the
opera because they like it."
Fred Landry
Peter or Dick?
Fred Landry
Land...@aol.com
(Remove "NOSPAM" from my address to reply via e-mail)
Hyfler/Rosner
"Fred Landry" <land...@aol.comNOSPAM> wrote in message
news:20031027081250...@mb-m22.aol.com...
> Hmmmm.... an opera scholar named "Puffer". Are you sure his first name
wasn't
> Peter or Dick?
Here's another obituary. This one mentions his wife and children. I'm sure
they would find your post hilarious.
Reno Gazette-Journal
October 23, 2003 Thursday
HEADLINE: Merle 'Ted' Puffer, founder of Nevada Opera, dies at 75
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
Merle E. "Ted" Puffer, founder of Nevada Opera and a former chair of the
University of Nevada, Reno music department, died Wednesday morning at
Washoe Medical Center. He was 75 years old.
Puffer had been fighting cancer for about a year and had been hospitalized
since August because of complications from a cancer surgery, but his death
was a surprise, said family and friends.
His daughter, Monica Harte of New York City, said his condition had been
improving but he died suddenly at 5 a.m. Wednesday.
"He was actually doing great and they were talking about getting him out in
a couple of weeks for rehab, so they were shocked, they were shocked when
this happened," Harte said. "I had spoken to him two days before and we had
a regular conversation."
Puffer is best known in Reno as founder of Nevada Opera, one of the area's
premier arts organizations.
He started the group in 1967, serving as artistic director, conductor, vocal
coach, and in other capacities. Under his leadership, the opera performed
the American premieres of Tchaikovsky's "Joan of Arc" and Busoni's "Doktor
Faust."
"He was a genius both as a musician and as a comedic director," said
Kathleen Kimmel, one of Puffer's vocal students and the studio director of
Nevada Opera's education and outreach program. "He knew the voice incredibly
well and he studied with people who had vocal techniques superior to
anything I'd heard before."
One of Puffer's goals was to make opera accessible to the general public. He
didn't believe in the cultural elitism the art form is sometimes associated
with, and he encouraged English language translations of classic shows.
"For too long, opera has been a status event where patrons could sleep," he
said in a 1974 Reno Gazette-Journal interview. "I want people to come to the
opera because they like it."
Ten years later, he still was beating the drum.
"Opera is entertainment," he said then. "Sometimes the entertainment value
is lost to American audiences because they put opera on a cultural
pedestal."
"I think the reason he was such a wonderful musician is because he was so
real and down to Earth," his daughter said. "He used to tell people, 'Leave
the costumes to us. You don't have to dress up.'"
Puffer was also a key player at UNR, where he was a music professor for 28
years. In 1994, he took early retirement from the university and joined the
faculty of the Manhattan School of Music in New York. Since then, he and his
wife, Deena, have maintained homes in Reno and New York. They were married
43 years.
Deena Puffer said along with starting Nevada Opera, her husband helped with
the formation of the Reno Chamber Orchestra and the now-defunct Nevada
Festival Ballet. Before those organizations were incorporated, Puffer worked
with other local artists to produce both ballet and chamber music
performances, and eventually the groups were able to sustain themselves.
"Ted was the driving force in all of these great musical events," Deena
Puffer said. "And terrific things came out of them."
Over the years, Puffer earned an international reputation for his skills as
a vocal coach and for his and Deena's efforts to translate foreign operas
into English. Major companies throughout the United States have performed
the couple's translations.
Puffer also is known for mentoring Dolora Zajick, a former student who has
become one of the finest mezzo sopranos in the world.
"Ted made the world look at Reno through different eyes," said Zoe Rose, a
23-year Nevada Opera employee. "His gift to Reno was he gave it class and
recognition and he did it with love and style."
Harte said news of her father's death spread rapidly.
"(From) all over the world we're getting calls," she said. "A couple of
different people have said, 'You know, I have the life I have because of
your parents and because of the opera or because your dad taught me how to
sing'."
Puffer was born in Rochester, N.Y., and was a gifted pianist as a child. He
made his debut with the Eastman Symphony at age 14, and he studied classical
music and voice at Eastman School of Music in New York.
Early in his career, Puffer was a performer himself, singing tenor leads for
a number of opera companies, including the Rochester Opera, Boston Opera
Company and Boston Comic Opera. The latter company was another that he
founded. Puffer also toured and recorded with the Robert Shaw Chorale during
the 1950s, and he spent time as an accompanist and coach for Metropolitan
Opera.
He moved to Reno in 1967 after teaching four years at Utah State University.
Puffer became seriously ill in 1995 from a staph infection, losing more than
50 pounds and was in a coma for several weeks. But he battled back.
Shortly after his recovery, he told a Gazette-Journal reporter, "Nothing in
life is easy; everything is discipline."
Rose said that's the kind of man he was.
"The reason (his death) is a shock is because Ted was a fighter," she said.
"I mean how many times did they tell Ted he wasn't going to live? . . . He
was a real light and it's really hard when those lights go because they're
not being replaced."
Harte remembers her father as a loving man whose passion for music was
nearly matched by his love for sports. He was a high school and college
athlete, she said, and he was a long-time Boston Red Sox fan. From his
hospital bed, he followed the Major League Baseball playoffs.
Funeral services are pending, but Harte said her family will welcome friends
and colleagues to their home between 2 and 5 p.m. Sunday.
Puffer is survived by his wife and daughter. An older daughter, Keri, died
two years ago.
GRAPHIC: Reno Gazette-Journal fileMUSIC LOVERS: Nevada Opera artistic
directors Ted and Deena Puffer collaborate in 1998 to find local and
national opera talent for the company's productions.
Hyfler/Rosner
Founded 3 Opera Companies, Conducted, Played, Sang...
By STEPHEN MILLER Staff Reporter of the Sun
Ted Puffer, a polymathic producer of operas - and opera companies - died
October 22 in Nevada, where he had founded the state opera company 35 years
before. He had retired to New York City (if giving voice lessons to singers
at the Metropolitan Opera and being on the teaching staff at the Manhattan
School of Music can be called retirement).
Called "Johnny Operaseed" by some cultured wags, Puffer founded at least
three opera companies in a career that encompassed piano, voice, conducting,
directing, producing, and working on virtually every aspect of opera.
His wife, Deena, herself a translator of librettos and an all-around
opera wrangler, once described him as "at least a quadruple threat."
He was famed for his insistence on performing many operas in English -
"the vernacular"- rather than in their original languages."For too long,
opera has been a status event where patrons could sleep," he once said. "I
want people to come to the opera because they like it."
He was eager to go before audiences from an early age. At 14, he soloed
on piano with the Eastman Symphony in Rochester, N.Y. During college at the
Eastman School of Music, he took up singing as well, and after graduation
came to New York and toured with the Robert Shaw Chorale, accompanying and
singing in the chorus. He then joined the Boston Opera as a leading tenor,
conductor, and director; he seemed always a jack-of-all-trades.
While in Boston he met Deena, then a student at the New England
Conservatory. For their first date they worked on a translation of Strauss's
"Die Fledermaus." It was the beginning of a collaboration that would last
for 43 years and produce widely performed translations of many operas,
including Lehár's "The Merry Widow" and Shostakovich's "The Nose," as well
as the American premiers of Tchaikovsky's "Joan of Arc" and Busoni's "Doktor
Faust."
Two daughters and three opera companies would result from their union as
well.
It was while on a Boston Opera tour stop in Milwaukee (of all places)
that Puffer founded the Boston Comic Opera, in response to a proposal by a
local entrepreneur. After a couple of performances, the company followed
Puffer back to Boston, where it survived for several years.
The birth of the couple's first daughter sparked a search for less
peripatetic employment, and Puffer landed in the music department at Utah
State University. Opera was not a part of the Logan, Utah, landscape, but
for Puffer it represented an opportunity to found a second company.The Utah
Opera did not long survive after he moved to the University of Nevada at
Reno, in 1967.
That same year, he founded the Nevada Opera, where he remained as
director of everything for 27 years. His tenure was remembered as much for
his good humor as for the three major productions the company mounted each
year. He was quick to note that even though the locals pronounced the name
of a neighboring town "VURDeye," it was in fact named after the Italian
composer of "Rigoletto," "Aida," and "Il Trovatore."
The internationally renowned Verdi mezzo-soprano Dolora Zajick,a student
of Puffer's in Nevada and later in New York,credited him with making opera
popular in Reno "without any dumbing-down to reach the masses." She was the
most famous of the many professional singers he developed over the decades.
In addition to his work in Nevada, he produced recordings of songs by
Charles Ives and the world-premier recording of Scott Joplin's
"Treemonisha," on which he was solo pianist and choral director.
Despite his active support of performing opera in the vernacular, Puffer
at first opposed the use of supertitles, which he characterized as "Opera on
training wheels." He eventually relented.
He refused to regard opera as anything but entertainment. An avid
baseball fan, he was fond of quoting Willie Stargell's remark: "It's
supposed to be fun; the man says 'Play ball' not 'Work ball,' you know."
Puffer said he wanted his opera company to play music. And he had this
message for his audiences: "Leave the costumes to us. You don't have to
dress up."
Merle Edward Puffer
Born October 15, 1928, in Rochester; died October 22 in Reno of cancer;
survived by his wife, Deena, and daughter, Monica Harte of Brooklyn, who is
also a classical singer.