Franz Allers

Franz Allers (August 6, 1905 - January 26, 1995) was a European-American conductor of ballet, opera, Broadway musicals, film scores, and symphony orchestras.

Allers (right) with dancer Frederic Franklin at the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo performance of Ghost Town, Los Angeles, 1940

Early life

Franz Allers was born in Carlsbad, Austria-Hungary (now Czech Republic) in 1905. He started playing the violin at the age of 7. In 1920, he moved to Berlin, where he became a violinist in the Berlin Philharmonic. He had a distinguished career in Europe as an opera and symphonic conductor.[1]

Career

In 1947, Allers conducted the original Broadway production of Brigadoon. He conducted the original 1951 Broadway production of Paint Your Wagon.[2] He was the music director for My Darlin' Aida the following year, and in 1954 he conducted the score for the animated film Hansel & Gretel.[3] Allers conducted the score to the original Broadway production of My Fair Lady in 1957, and would go on to win the Tony Award for Best Conductor and Musical Director.

Allers received a nomination at the 1960 Grammy Awards in the category of Best Recording for Children for the film soundtrack of Hansel & Gretel.[4] However, Allers lost out to Peter Ustinov's Peter & the Wolf (with Herbert von Karajan conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra).

In 1961, Allers conducted the original Broadway production of Camelot, which won him a second Tony Award for Best Conductor and Musical Director. On October 1, 1961, a German translation of My Fair Lady opened at the Theater des Westens in Berlin, conducted by Allers.[5][6]

Personal life

Allers moved to the United States in 1938. He met his first wife, singer Carolyn Shaffer, in Chicago in 1939. While working on Broadway, Allers, his wife and their daughter, Carol, lived in Riverdale, New York. In later life, he moved back to Germany and lived in Munich with his second wife, German actress/playwright Janne Furch-Allers (née Ertel).[7] She died in 1992 at the age of 76.[8]

In 1995, Allers died from complications from pneumonia at the Desert Springs Hospital in Las Vegas, Nevada while traveling to California. He was 89.[9]

According to his New York Times obituary, "Allers, along with the conductor Maurice Abravanel, 'completely revised the standards of Broadway pit work,' demanding the highest quality from both the orchestra players and the singers."[9]

Awards and nominations

References
  1. "Franz Allers, 89, a Conductor And Broadway Musical Director". The New York Times. January 28, 1995.
  2. "Franz Allers – Broadway Cast & Staff | IBDB".
  3. "Franz Allers".
  4. "Grammy Award Nominees 1959 - Grammy Award Winners 1959".
  5. Peter E. Müller (July 31, 2006). "Karin Hübner (1936-2006)". Die Welt (The World). Retrieved February 11, 2017. (in German)
  6. Birgit Walter (October 22, 2011). "Theater des Westens Ein Million für diese Lady" [Theater of the West – A Million For This Lady]. Berliner Zeitung. (in German)
  7. "Franz Allers".
  8. "Janne Furch".
  9. "Franz Allers, 89, a Conductor And Broadway Musical Director". The New York Times. January 28, 1995. p. 10. Retrieved May 18, 2013.
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