Edward Downes

Edward Olin Davenport Downes (August 12, 1911 – December 26, 2001) was an American musicologist, professor, radio personality, and music critic. He was the host of the Texaco Opera Quiz on the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts for nearly forty years. He attended operas with his father as a young child in Boston, becoming an "ardent Wagnerite with a passion for Siegfried" by the time he was nine years old. However, his father resigned his position with The Boston Post over boredom and issues such as being asked to write a positive review for the girlfriend of the paper's manager. While there, he was a member of the fraternity of St. Anthony Hall.

Career Downes began his career in music as the assistant music critic of The New York Post, covering music festivals in Bayreuth and Salzburg for a year.

As translator: Shostakovich, Dmitri. Katerina Ismailova. New York: Leeds Music, 1963. Verdi, The Man in his Letters, as edited and selected by Franz Werfel and Paul Stefan. Vienna House, Inc., 1973, Janáček, Leos. Jenufa. Australia: Pellinor Pty Ltd., 1984