Stuart Challender AO 1947-1991

In Hamburg and Vienna he studied with two leading teachers of conducting – Wilhelm Brückner-Rüggeberg and Franco Ferrara. From the great Romanian conductor Sergiu Celibidache he gained a love of the Romantic repertoire and a meticulous, totally committed approach to his craft. Like two of his idols, Otto Klemperer and Bruno Walter, Challender began his professional career as a répétiteur for opera; that was in 1970. His first conducting engagement was – surprisingly – Kiss Me, Kate, for the Lucerne Opera. Thankfully, La Traviata followed almost immediately! He was appointed assistant conductor at the Nuremberg State Theatre; then came engagements at Zürich and Basle, where he was resident conductor at the Opera House from 1976 to 1980. He made guest appearances in Berne, Lugarno and Gelsenkirchen.

In 1980 his great friend, American soprano Marilyn Zschau, recommended him for a temporary position with the Australian Opera. He joined the staff and in late 1980 was assigned to conduct a single performance of The Barber of Seville. Soon after he was appointed resident conductor. He went on to conduct many of the great standards of the operatic repertoire: Aida, Cosi fan Tutte, Don Giovanni, Falstaff, Die Fledermaus, The Force of Destiny, Jenfa, Macbeth, Madama Butterfly, Manon Lescaut, The Marriage of Figaro, Otello, Salome, The Tales of Hoffmann, Tosca, La Traviata, Tristan and Isolde, Il Trovatore Die Walküre and Lucia di Lammermoor – which he also conducted for Dame Joan Sutherland in her 1982 Netherlands Opera engagement.

Challender conducted the Sydney premieres of Brian Howard’s operas Metamorphosis in 1983 and Whitsunday in 1988. In 1985 he went freelance, but maintained a regular relationship with the Australian Opera, conducting the world premiere of Richard Meale’s Voss for the 1986 Adelaide Festival. This was recorded and telecast. Such ventures epitomised his enthusiasm for contemporary Australian music. As the artistic director of the Sydney-based Seymour Group from 1981 until 1983 he commissioned and conducted many new works by Australian composers and treated Sydney to a fully staged version of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire.

He also found time to work with dance companies and youth orchestras – including a triumphant Mahler Fifth Symphony with the Sydney Youth Symphony. He started to re-establish himself in Europe and the United States, making his American debut conducting Eugene Onegin for the San Diego Opera in October 1985. Two years later, in Britain, he conducted the Royal Philharmonic, BBC Scottish and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic orchestras.

Challender conducted the Sydney premieres of Brian Howard’s operas Metamorphosis in 1983 and Whitsunday in 1988.‘With reasonable luck,’ wrote critic Roger Covell, ‘Challender could be Australia’s next major figure as an international conductor.’