On May 23, 2026, Brian James Large has died at the age of 87.

Born on Feb. 16, 1939 in London, England, Large went on to study at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Academy in 1991.

After graduating from the University of London with doctorates in both music and philosophy, he did postgraduate work in Vienna and Prague and there he gained an interest in Czech and Slavic operas which resulted in the publication of two volumes on the music of Bedřich Smetana and Bohuslav Martinů.

From 1965 to 1980, Large worked with BBC2 television as a director with responsibility for music and opera and was appointed chief opera producer in 1970.

During that period he televised many productions including “Idomeneo,” “Peter Grimes,” “La traviata,” “Macbeth,” and “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” among others.

In 1966 the BBC commissioned an opera for television from Benjamin Britten and in August 1970, Large directed “Owen Wingrave” for broadcast on BBC2.

Large also directed many broadcast for the Royal Opera House including “Les Contes d’Hoffmann,” “La bohème,” “Don Carlo,” “Il trovatore,” “Tosca,” “Aida,” “Otello,” and the Bayreuth Festival including the famed Patrice Chereau production of “Der Ring des Nibelungen.”

He also directed for the Vienna State Opera, Salzburg Festival, Vienna Volksoper, Theater an der Wien, Glyndebourne, Teatro alla Scala, Bregenz Festival, Arena di Verona, and Mariinsky Theatre.

Starting in 1979, Large directed over 80 operas, recitals, and gala-telecasts from the Metropolitan Opera New York. He also worked the Los Angeles Opera, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Washington National Opera and Philadelphia Opera.

Large won two primetime Emmy Awards for the 1992 Metropolitan Opera Silver Anniversary Gala and in 1993 for the live transmission of “Tosca” conducted by Zubin Mehta.

He was also a recipient of the Peabody Award and the British Television Society award for “Best Television Director.” In 1985, the French government named Large a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

In 2020, OperaWire spoke to Large in which he said, “I feel especially honored to have created what I consider to be a piece of “television history” that documents the musical quality and standards of Met productions in the last years of the 20th century.”