Georges Sebastian; Ex-Met Conductor

Georges Sebastian, a Hungarian-born conductor who specialized in the Viennese and German classical and romantic repertory and directed the Metropolitan Opera in the putative Golden Age of that organization, has died at age 85.

The Associated Press quoted Radio France, where Sebastian worked after World War II, as reporting that the retired conductor died Wednesday at his home outside Paris.

Long considered the musical heir to Austrian conductor Bruno Walter, Sebastian was best known for his German post-romantic repertory. During the 1950s, he conducted operas starring Maria Callas and others.

Sebastian was born Gyorgy Sebestyen in Budapest and trained under Bela Bartok. He made his operatic debut in Munich as choral director under Walter and later became his assistant.

In 1923 and ’24 he directed the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

From 1931 to 1937, he was the music director for a Soviet radio station in Moscow, where Sergei Prokofiev appeared as soloist, and conductor for the Moscow Philharmonic. There in 1933 he performed Tchaikovsky’s entire symphonic output on the 40th anniversary of the composer’s death.

Fleeing the Nazis during World War II, Sebastian returned to the United States, where he led the San Francisco Opera and the Philharmonic Orchestra of Scranton, Pa. He settled in Paris in 1946 and became principal conductor of the Paris Opera and the Opera-Comique.

In addition to being known for the symphonies of Brahms, Beethoven, Bruckner and Schumann, Sebastian conducted performances of Wagner featuring soprano Kirsten Flagstad.