I woke up this morning to the very sad news that Nikolaus Harnoncourt had died. He was one of my favourite conductors of baroque opera and Mozart and, if I didn’t always think his ventures into the 19th century were fully successful, they were always stimulating. His partnership with the Zürich opera and its brilliant period instruments ensemble La Scintilla was as interesting as in work in Austria with Concentus Musicus Wien. He’ll be missed. There’s a very good obituary in the Guardian.
Here are a few of my favourite Harnoncourt recordings:
Haydn – Il mondo della luna
Mozart – La clemenza di Tito
Mozart – Le nozze di Figaro
Purcell – King Arthur
Weber – Der Freischütz
Graf Nikolaus de la Fontaine und d’Harnoncourt-Unverzagt, born 6 December 1929; died 5 March 2016.
operaramblings 
Sad indeed. He’d just retired this December, had he not? As they say, a life well lived. Hats off to the trickster.
I was sad to hear this too. Some of my favorite recordings are performances he conducted.