Keene, Christopher (1946–1995)

US conductor. He conducted operas by Britten and Henze while at the University of California and later assisted Kurt Adler in San Francisco and Menotti at Spoleto. He gave the 1971 premiere of Menotti's opera The Most Important Man, and in the same year made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, with Cavalleria Rusticana. Principal conductor of the New York City Opera 1970–86 and its general director from 1989, he gave the first New York stage performance of Moses und Aron, in 1990. In the same year he led the Philip Glass trilogy, Akhnaten, Satyagraha, and Einstein on the Beach in Stuttgart. Working again at the New York City Opera 1990–92, he gave the New York premieres of From the House of the Dead and Busoni's Doktor Faust.