Obituaries.(Obituary)

The executive and artistic director of Carnegie Hall since September 2001, Harth died of an apparent heart attack. He was an innovative and energetic leader in the U.S. arts community who came to Carnegie after serving as executive director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic (1979-89) and president and chief financial officer of the Aspen Festival (1989-2001). His brief Carnegie tenure was an eventful one, marked by the fall 2003 opening of Carnegie's new auditorium, Judy and Arthur Zankel Hall, as well as negotiations for a proposed merger (later abandoned) with the New York Philharmonic.

Norman Platt, Bury, Lancashire, U.K., August 29, 1920--Ashford, Kent, January 4, 2004.

After a distinguished career as a baritone, Plat* created Kent Opera, becoming its first artistic director, and won praise for two decades for the company's high musical standards and innovative productions, which gave early career opportunities to Jonathan Miller and Nicholas Hytner, among many others. Platt announced his retirement as artistic director in 1989, shortly before the Arts Council of Great Britain's widely deplored decision to withdraw funding caused Kent Opera to cease operations. When the company was revived in the 1990s, Platt returned as artistic director from 1991 to '96. Platt's memoir, Making Music was published in 2001.

Renata Babak, Kiev, Ukraine, February 4, 1934--Silver Spring, MD, December 31, 2003

Babak was an eleven-year veteran of the Bolshoi Opera, and one of its best-regarded mezzos, when she defected from the Soviet Union in 1973, after singing Marfa in a Bolshoi performance of Khovanshchina at La Scala. Disguised in a wig and dark glasses, Babak slipped by the Soviet police agents in her Milan hotel lobby and was granted political asylum by Italian authorities. She then ...