“Anton Coppola, who appeared in the children’s chorus for the 1926 American premiere of Puccini’s uncompleted ‘Turandot,’ conducted his own ending to the work some nine decades later, and in between had one of the longest careers as a maestro in modern times, died on Monday at his home in Manhattan,” writes Daniel Wakin in Monday’s (3/9) New York Times. “He was 102.… Mr. Coppola was the elder statesman of the Coppola movie clan…. Anton, too, had a role in the family film business, appearing as the conductor of the opera ‘Cavalleria Rusticana’ in a scene from ‘Godfather III’ (1990) and conducting the score to Francis Ford Coppola’s ‘Bram Stoker’s Dracula’ (1992)…. Anton Coppola considered his crowning glory [the 2001 opera he wrote], ‘Sacco and Vanzetti.’ ” Among his other activities, Coppola was founding artistic director of Opera Tampa in Florida. “Mr. Coppola remained active on the podium into his final years, leading a concert of his own music with the Tampa company at a gala to mark his 100th birthday.… Antonio Coppola was born on March 21, 1917, in Ocean Hill, Brooklyn…. Anton … entered the Juilliard School at about 16…. A later generation of Coppolas … recruited him to appear in ‘Mozart in the Jungle,’ their Amazon series about classical music musicians in New York.”
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