Luis A.G. Navarro, 60; Revived Madrid’s Opera House

Luis Antonio Garcia Navarro, 60, the conductor credited with reviving Madrid’s opera house after its 1997 reopening and bringing it international fame, died of cancer late Wednesday in Madrid’s Clinica de La Luz, according to a statement released Thursday by the opera, the Teatro Real.

Born in Valencia, Spain, in 1941, Garcia Navarro studied music in his native city before moving on to academies in Madrid and Austria.

He conducted the opera in Stuttgart, Germany, and the Barcelona orchestra and was a guest conductor in New York, London and Vienna.

Since 1997, he had been the artistic and musical director of the Teatro Real. It had reopened for operas that year after being closed since 1925, and was in danger of failing when he took control.