Martin Feinstein, 84; First Kennedy Center Chief, Opera Impresario

Martin Feinstein, 84, who sought to elevate cultural life in the nation’s capital as the first executive director of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and later as general manager of the Washington National Opera, died of pancreatic cancer Sunday at his home in Potomac, Md.

A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., he joined the Kennedy Center in 1971 as deputy to Roger Stevens, who was then the center’s chairman.

Feinstein designed festivals and arranged for performances by world-renowned artists, including the Berlin Opera, Bolshoi Ballet, National Ballet of Cuba and Vienna State Opera. He also helped oversee the planning and construction in 1979 of the center’s Terrace Theater, which he envisioned as a more intimate space than its opera house.

Feinstein left in 1980 to manage the Washington Opera and over the next 16 years was responsible for attracting such stars as conductors Gian Carlo Menotti and Daniel Barenboim and tenor Placido Domingo, who eventually replaced Feinstein as general manager.

Feinstein had learned the impresario business during 25 years in New York as a top assistant to Sol Hurok, the illustrious showman who introduced scores of world-class artists and ballet companies to American audiences.