Christopher Keene

Christopher Keene (December 21, 1946 – October 8, 1995) was an American conductor.

Early life and education Keene was born in 1946 in Berkeley, California, the son of Yvonne (née Cyr) and Jim Keene. His mother was of Acadian, German, and Scottish descent. His parents divorced in 1953 and his mother remarried to Jim San Jule in 1954 until their divorce in 1970. He has three siblings: Philip Keene (born 1941), Elodie Keene (born 1949), and Tamsen (née San Jule) Calhoon (born 1956). as well as La traviata, Le nozze di Figaro (with Michael Devlin in the title role), The Makropoulos Case, Susannah, Tosca (with Marisa Galvany), Beatrix Cenci, Faust, Die Zauberflöte (with Syble Young as the Queen of the Night), L'incoronazione di Poppea, Ariadne auf Naxos, Médée (in the Italian version), I puritani (with Beverly Sills), Salome, A Village Romeo and Juliet, La fanciulla del West, Andrea Chénier, L'amour des trois oranges, The Turn of the Screw (with Phyllis Treigle as Miss Jessel), Jay Reise's Rasputin, Schoenberg's Moses und Aron, Zimmermann's Die Soldaten, and Stewart Wallace's Harvey Milk.

In 1976 Keene conducted the world premiere of Gian Carlo Menotti's The Hero for the Opera Company of Philadelphia. He also conducted at the Metropolitan Opera during a single season, a double-bill of Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci (with Teresa Stratas as Nedda) in 1971. From 1974 to 1989, he was music director of the Artpark Festival in Buffalo, and from 1975 to 1984 held the same post at the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra.

At the City Opera, Sills named him Music Director from 1982 to 1986, and he succeeded her as General Director in 1989, a position he held until his death. Keene had undergone treatment for alcoholism at the Betty Ford Center, and died of lymphoma resulting from AIDS, at New York Hospital.