Edwin McArthur, 79; Musician, Singing Coach and Biographer

Edwin McArthur, an accompanist, singing coach and biographer who was believed to be the first American-born conductor to ever direct a production at the Metropolitan Opera House, died Tuesday.

The pianist most closely identified with Wagnerian soprano Kirsten Flagstad died at his studio in Manhattan shortly after giving a lesson. He was 79.

Denver-born and raised, McArthur in the 1930s was one of the first American accompanists taken seriously in his own land. He studied in his native city and then moved to New York and the Juilliard School where he soon became an accomplished pianist, organist and coach.

He came to the attention of the Norwegian soprano Flagstad who chose him to accompany her on her first American tour in 1935. In 1941 he was at the podium when Miss Flagstad and Lauritz Melchior sang “Tristan und Isolde,” and was credited at the time as the first American to wield a baton at the Met.

Olin Downes, then a New York Times music critic, said McArthur “read it (the score) with much passion, conviction and feeling for the color and excitement in Wagner’s music. There is no question of his talent for conducting and for opera.”

McArthur was music director of the St. Louis Municipal Opera for 23 years and from 1967 to 1972 was the director of the Eastman School of Music Opera Department.

In 1966, four years after Miss Flagstad’s death, McArthur wrote “Flagstad: A Personal Memoir,” recounting his friendship with the opera singer.