LERT, ERNST

LERT, ERNST (Ernst Josef Maria Levi; 1883–1955), opera producer and writer. Born in Vienna, Lert worked as theater director in Germany and Switzerland. He was dramatic coach at the Municipal Theater in Breslau and Leipzig (1920–23). From 1923 to 1929 he staged German opera at La Scala, Milan, and for the next two years (1929–31) was at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. From 1936 to 1938 he was the head of the opera department of Curtis Institute of Music and from 1938, after settling in the U.S., directed the opera department at the Peabody Conservatory, Baltimore. He specialized in the staging of Mozart and modern operas. Lert wrote the book Mozart auf dem Theater (Berlin, 1918. and a biography of the German conductor Otto Lohse, Otto Lohse als Opernleiter (Leipzig, 1918). cians. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musi- (Israela Stein (2nd ed.)