rehearsal” on January 20, 1907, and at a benefit performance on January 22. The opera shocked the moral sensibilities of audiences and was met with disapproval, including many audience members walking out during the shocking final scene and with complaints to the company's board. The opera was pulled for the company's season and the Met did not actually stage the opera until 1934. Also in 1907, Conreid notably poached Gustav Mahler from his conducting post in Vienna, and brought him in to lead the conducting staff at the Met; a position he remained in until leaving to become the director of the New York Philharmonic in 1909. On May 1, 1908 Conreid retired from the Metropolitan Opera House due to his poor health. Immediately afterwards he voyaged to Europe. He died on April 27, 1909 in the Hotel Meranerhof in the city of Meran from an apoplectic stroke in the presence of his wife and sister. References Further reading Baker, Theodore. Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 4th edition, G. Schirmer, 1940. Moses, Montrose Jonas. The Life of Heinrich Conried, New York, Thomas Y. Crowell Company Publishers, 1916. Sendrey, Alfred. Bibliography of Jewish Music, Columbia University Press, 1951. Wininger, S. Große Jüdische National-Biographie, Vol. I, 1925, p. 591. 1855 births 1909 deaths American theatre managers and producers Austrian theatre managers and producers Cultural history of New York City Austro-Hungarian emigrants to the United States Metropolitan Opera people People from Austrian Silesia People from Bielsko-Biała American people of Austrian-Jewish descent 19th-century American businesspeople