Patric Schmid var amerikaner og formåede at gøre sin passion til en mission. Da han i 1970, sammen med Don White startede Opera Rara, var det hans mål at genoplive de værker som nutiden havde glemt, men, som det skulle vise sig, ofte rummede forbavsende kvaliteter. Fra at være en koncertforening på abonnementsvilkår tog Patric Schmid i 1977 et afgørende skridt da han lod Opera Rara udsende en optagelse af Donizettis opera "Ugo Conte di Parigi" på plade. Her kunne man opleve hvordan Janet Price, Yvonne Kenny og Della Jones forbilledligt udførte enhver detalje og frasering i musikken, og man kunne nyde og værdsætte detaljer i musikken, som der ellers ville blive skøjtet henover i en udisciplineret og slet instuderet liveopførelse. For Patric Schmid var det ikke spørgsmålet om at lave en blot registrering af værket, men at lade det fremstå som et fuldgyldigt kunstnerisk udsagn der kunne forløse komponistens vision. Ofte med et langt bedre resultat end komponisten havde oplevet det i sin egen samtid, hvor intriger og magtkampe i operamiljøet ikke sjældent var skyld i at fremragende kompositioner endte som totale fiaskoer. Opera Rara satte en standard som man kunne have forventet af langt mere veletablerede pladeselskab, og det skyldtes at Patric Schmid besad sjældne evner som bel canto coach og voicecaster. Et resultat af hans årelange fordybelse i partiturerne og hvilke typer stemmer komponisterne havde skrevet for, og et gudsbenådet øre for hvem der i dag ville være i stand til at "dublere" datidens stjerner. Som mezzosopranen Jennifer Larmore udtrykte det under en samtale, kunne Patric få hende til at synge partier som hun ikke selv troede lå indenfor hendes rækkevidde. Patric Schmids omsorg for detaljen og kærlighed til stilen smittede også af på de medvirkende kunstnere på Opera Raras indspilninger. Som sopranen Annick Assis sagde "under Patrics produktioner føler vi os som én stor familie" og tilføjede at man i Opera Raras selskab aldrig følte sig som del af en kommerciel proces. At Patric Schmid havde så rige muligheder for at engagere tidens bedste bel canto kunstnere til Opera Rara, på trods af at selskabets udgivelser aldrig ville kunne opnå samme salgstal som en "Elskovsdrik" eller "Norma", kan tilskrives den lykkelige omstændighed at mæcenen, Sir Peter Moores, som nærede en livslang interesse i ukendte bel operaværker, fandt en nær personlig allieret i Patric Schmid som kunne realisere Moores egne visioner om at puste liv i arven fra de italienske nodearkiver. Herfra havde Patric Schimd gennem mange år erhvervet sjældne originalpartiturer og kopier af originale manuskripter. Med generøs støtte fra Peter Moores Foundation opnåede Schmid den fornødne økonomiske platform til sine studieindspilninger, uden at være dikteret af en koncernchefs krav om resultater på bundlinien, men kunne koncentrere sig om de kunstneriske resultater, som man i dag kan opleve i Opera Raras mere end 30 komplette indspilninger af operaer af Mayr, Rossini, Pacini, Mercadante Meyerbeer og ikke mindst Donizetti, samt i de syv udgivelser i serien "Il Salotto" som er tilegnet bel canto periodens salonrepertoire - det italienske modstykke til den tyske Lied. Hertil kommer en lang række kunstnerportrætter og kompilationer. Patric Schmid efterlader sig en stor arv for eftertiden, men han efterlader tillige et stort savn for alle der kendte ham, arbejdede med ham og for de mange der foran højtalerne kunne nyde resultaterne af hans utrættelige indsats og uudtømmelige viden.

Læs her Patrick O'Connors nekrolog skrevet for The Guardian fra den 16. november 2005.

Patric Schmid - Impresario dedicated to the revival of bel canto operas
In April 1801, Giovanni Simone Mayr's opera Ginevra di Scozia was premiered at the newly opened Teatro Nuovo in Trieste. Exactly 200 years later, Opera Rara performed it there again. That special anniversary was one of the typically imaginative projects organised by Patric Schmid, who has died of a heart attack, aged 61. Schmid was the co-founder of Opera Rara in 1970, and for 35 years oversaw the rediscovery of dozens of neglected or forgotten works by the masters of bel canto.

Schmid was born in Eagle Pass, Texas, the eldest of the three sons of Pauline and Albert Schmid. His father was in the US air force, so Patric's childhood was one of frequent removals. His interest in music, and particularly singing, was fostered by the family's collection of records, though it was Billie Holiday and Doris Day, rather than Melba and Caruso. The family eventually settled in the Sacramento valley, California.

Patric had already taught himself to play the piano, and from Mozart and Chopin he moved on to Bellini. Listening to an album of highlights from Norma, with Maria Callas, proved a revelation. "It started with Casta Diva, and within two minutes the whole direction of my life had changed. It was like someone opening a window." He acquired his first opera score, Bellini's Il pirata, which always remained a treasured possession.

As a student at San Francisco State College, Schmid became "a backstage pest, a smart-alec kid, but I loved the opera". In his teens, he had already fixed on Donizetti as one of his preferred composers, and started to play his way through as many scores as he could find. He corresponded with the musicologist William Ashbrook, who advised him to go to Italy; five years later, they met by chance in Bergamo, Donizetti's birthplace. Meanwhile, Schmid had been befriended by Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge, who gave him an introduction to London, where he moved in 1969.

Through the Bonynges, Schmid met Don White, a dynamic advertising executive, but also translator and writer. They set up an artists' agency. Schmid later recalled, "I was the worst agent in the entire world, because I didn't know anybody." He and White, however, shared a consuming passion for 19th-century opera, so, in 1970, they put on their first concerts, of arias and ensembles performed by some of the artists they had been trying to represent. In January 1972, they put on their first complete opera, Meyerbeer's Il crociato in Egitto. Schmid called it "a baptism by fire", but it was a notable success, with an accomplished cast, led by Patricia Kern, Janet Price, Christian Du Plessis and a last-minute substitute, William McKinney.

During the early 1970s, Schmid spent much time in libraries in Italy and France, gathering material, "The names of the operas were like a litany of saints - Ugo, Conte di Parigi, Trajano in Dacia, Carlo di Borgogna." Several more concerts followed, then stagings; one notable success was Offenbach's Robinson Crusoe, for which White made a brilliant translation. Radio 3 broadcast many of the operas, and, finding that pirate labels were issuing LPs of them, White and Schmid launched a subscription scheme, announcing the recording of Donizetti's Ugo, Conte di Parigi.

In the mid-1970s, Peter Moores became a sponsor for the company; the encounter between him and Schmid was a meeting of minds on every level. Their partnership continued for 30 years and resulted in more than 30 recordings of works by Rossini, Donizetti, Mercadante, Mayr, Viardot, Offenbach, Pacini and Meyerbeer. Singers associated with the series in the early days included Ludmilla Andrew, Margreta Elkins, Della Jones and Eiddwen Harrhy, and, more recently, Nelly Miricioiu, Jennifer Larmore, Bruce Ford and Antonino Siragusa. The conductor David Parry has been a tower of strength.

From 1975 to 1986, Schmid was artistic adviser, and then director, of Opera Northern Ireland. During this time the company moved into the renovated, Frank Matcham-designed Grand Opera House. Schmid was instrumental in bringing to Belfast such directors as Graham Vick, Richard Jones and Steven Pimlott, as well as other singers who would later record for his label. Back in London, the young Nicholas Hytner staged Pacini's Maria Tudor for the company in 1983, and with the CD revolution that joined the growing list.

White eventually left London (he died in 1995) and Schmid re-established his headquarters in a converted City warehouse. In the spacious studio, lined with bookcases of 19th-century scores, he presided over meetings and preliminary rehearsals. A new project was a series of CDs, Il salotto, exploring the salon music of the era. Schmid combined a single-minded tenacity, with a quiet, sometimes ironic manner. He never lost the essential youthful enthusiasm which had first drawn him to his subject.

Several years ago he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, but he did not allow it to slow down his activities. He dressed in practical, casual clothes, but for social occasions would add a sparkling pin, with his name picked out in (quite large) diamonds.

He died suddenly, having just given a pre-performance talk on the latest Donizetti rarity, Il diluvio universale (The Great Flood). The recording sessions had already taken place, and the concert, at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane was a special occasion - the first time an opera had been heard there for decades. With the audience assembling and the orchestra warming up, he could not have planned a more fitting exit - to expire in the wings of the theatre in which Malibran had sung La sonnambula.


 Patric Schmid, impresario, born April 12 1944; died November 6 2005