The Australian opera and theater director Elijah Moshinsky, who died on Jan. 14 of COVID-19 complications at age 75, was celebrated for his onstage collaborations with superstar singers from Luciano Pavarotti to Plácido Domingo, and stage legends from Helen Mirren to Judi Dench. Yet Moshinsky’s most ardent lifelong inspiration was arguably drawn from his Jewish experience.
The moral and ethical imperatives displayed in his work drew directly from wide-ranging exposure to Yiddishkeit.
Moshinsky’s Orthodox Jewish parents had fled from Vladivostok in the Soviet Union to the Shanghai French Concession in China, where he was born.
The Shanghai French Concession was an area under French leadership until 1943, when France, under Nazi occupation, signed it over to the Axis forces of Japan.
Elijah Moshinsky, Met Opera Director With Fanciful Touch, Dies at 75
Mr. Moshinsky, known for mixing traditional staging ideas with modern flourishes, also created productions for the Royal Opera and Opera Australia. He died of Covid-19.
The director Elijah Moshinsky in 2015. Joseph Volpe, the Metropolitan Opera’s former general manager, said Mr. Moshinsky was “the closest thing the Met had to a house director.” He also worked in theater.Credit.Jeff Busby
Jan. 21, 2021
Elijah Moshinsky, an Australian theater, television and opera director known for his productions at the Royal Opera in London, Opera Australia and especially the Metropolitan Opera, died on Jan. 14 at a hospital in London. He was 75.