- American director and administrator of Iranian birth who graduated from University of California at Los Angeles in 1953 with a degree in psychology, then began directing operas. Served as resident stage director for the Zürich Opera (1960-1965) and the Geneva Opera (1965-1975). In 1976 he was named General Director of the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto. In 1988 became General Director of the San Francisco Opera.
- He commissioned Jake Heggie's first opera, "Dead Man Walking," which went on to become an international hit.
- When he was the head of the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto, he introduced supertitles, which became a standard feature of opera performances throughout the English-speaking world.
- He was a stage and opera director. He was general director of the San Francisco Opera for 13 years. He had a long collaboration with the Kirov Opera, overseeing the first San Francisco productions of many masterpieces of Russian opera, including works by Prokofiev, Glinka, and Rimsky-Korsakov.
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