THE MET'S VENERABLE WALTER TAUSSIG HAS HISTORY FOR A MIDDLE NAME.(Interview)

Since joining the Metropolitan Opera in 1949, Maestro Walter Taussig has been an invaluable source of musical know-how for the company in his multiple roles of coach, associate conductor and, occasionally, conductor. A beloved figure in the background -- James Levine calls his offstage band in Der Rosenkavalier "the Taussig Philharmonic" -- the deferential nonagenarian can take center stage when asked, and he recently did so, sharing a host of recollections, anecdotes and opinions with Ira Siff.

IRA SIFF: Yours is a name I've known since my operagoing and broadcast-listening days began, nearly forty years ago. But your association with the Met, and with opera in general, goes back a good deal before that. I'd like to begin with Europe, your early training and life, and, of course, how and why you left and came to the U.S.

WALTER TAUSSIG: (Laughs) Well, have you ever heard of a guy called Hitler?

IS: When were you born?

WT: 1908. You cannot think so far back.

IS: Were you musical as a child?

WT: It seems they discovered that I had this cursed absolute pitch -- it is a curse. And from there I had first private instruction and then joined the Academy for Music in Vienna. It was funny, because I was at the same time going to the Akademisches Gymnasium [academic high school] and the music academy across the street. In the morning at the Gymnasium, I was a Lausbub [brat], and in the afternoon at the academy, I was Herr Taussig!