Wolfgang and Gunther Rennert

 

I liked Wolfgang Rennert personally very much. He was an interesting man - not a great conductor but very routiniert. He was genuinely interested in production being the brother of Guenther Rennert and was one of the few conductors to make a point of attending every production rehearsal.

I got him to Covent Garden also for 'Arabella.' He was in love with Kiri as everyone was. He studied with Clemens Krauss. I wish I had asked him about that.

Klemperer had an awful and not very funny thing to say about him. He didn't like the producer Rennert's productions and when he attended a performance conducted by W. Rennert asked if they were related. On learning that they were brothers he said 'The father must have had a poisoned sperm.' Very unfair. Guenther's productions were excellent in my experience. I still remember his 'Fidelio' at Glyndebourne with Gre Browensijn, Richard Lewis, Kim Borg and Mihaily Szekely as Rocco and Gui conducting.

That was my first. I remember in particular how the prisoners were dressed in the clothes they would have been arrested in - only by now dirty and ragged. I have never seen that since but it should always be like that if you ask me.

BTW someone told me Vittorio Gui was so self-centered he was known as Vittorio Lui.