James Conlon has spent more than five decades at the center of the operatic and symphonic worlds, building one of the most expansive conducting careers of his generation.

A New Yorker by birth and formation, he rose quickly through the ranks of major opera houses and orchestras on both sides of the Atlantic, logging some 20 years of full-time residence in Europe before returning to the United States.

His 20-year tenure as Music Director of LA Opera, which recently drew to a close, stands as one of the longest and most artistically consequential relationships between a conductor and an American opera company in recent memory. At Ravinia, where he served as Music Director for 11 years, he forged a bond with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra that now stretches nearly half a century.

Beyond the podium, Conlon has devoted considerable energy to the recovery and advocacy of music suppressed under the Nazi regime, a mission he continues through his work with the Colburn School.

Conlon recently spoke with OperaWire ahead of his appearance at the Ravinia Festival, where he conducts Mozart’s “The Abduction from the Seraglio,” reflecting on his legacy at LA Opera, his lifelong relationship with Mozart, and what comes next.

OperaWire: You were music director of the Ravinia Festival for 11 years. I wanted to know what your relationship was with the festival. What are some of the most cherished moments from your time leading the festival, and how did that organization help you grow as an artist?

James Conlon: Well, first of all, as music director, you have a partially artistic director function of choosing programs. But the most special part of that is, of course, the Chicago Symphony. In fact, I made my debut with the Chicago Symphony at Ravinia in 1977. So in one more year, it will be 50 years. And it has been more or less continuous over all of these years. It is actually the American orchestra with whom I have the longest ongoing relationship. And sometimes that’s downtown and sometimes that’s Ravinia. That was the greatest part of being music director at Ravinia. And still today, I go back with the greatest pleasure because of the Chicago Symphony.

OW: There’s always the question of every orchestra having its own individual character, obviously shaped by its music director or by its history. What makes the Chicago Symphony Orchestra so unique, in your view?

JC: Well, first of all, it is without question one of the greatest orchestras in the world, and it always was. They are capable of anything and they’re capable of playing in any style. And aside from being so highly equipped to play, they’re very flexible, very quick. You can stop, you explain what sound you’re going for, and they’re able to give it back to you very quickly. So it’s an ideal instrument to work with.

OW: Any special performances? Like you said, you’ve been working with them for almost 50 years. I’m sure amongst that time there are some standout moments you still hold on to.

JC: That’s very difficult to answer. There are so many. But I would look at the complete Mahler symphony cycle that I did in the course of my years as music director at Ravinia, and certainly the concertante or semi-staged Mozart operas. That is a very special pleasure and we’ve shared that together. I think they feel the same way I do. There was always a special moment when it came up. I started doing it — we usually did it every two years — and now when I go back as a guest, they continue to ask me to do it and I do it with great pleasure. The Mahler cycle would stand out absolutely in that context, specifically because I did the entire thing from beginning to end, inclusive of “Das Klagende Lied” and the “Mahler Tenth.” We did it all in order. And that, of course, is a great memory.

OW: Regarding Mozart, you are doing “Abduction from the Seraglio” at Ravinia. But I also wanted to ask about you finishing your tenure at LA Opera with “The Magic Flute.” I wanted to know a little bit about your time with the organization, what it’s meant to you. Was it serendipitous that you’re finishing with Mozart, or was that a very specific choice?

JC: First of all, I think you can tell from the fact that I stayed 20 years, and they wanted me to stay for 20 years, that it was a testament to how well it went as a collaboration. Frankly, my age is the only reason that it’s coming to an end. My own priorities, but also theirs. It’s the time for it to go into younger hands, and that’s fine. It’s exactly as I would have imagined it. The 20 years have been an enormous satisfaction to me, an enormous surprise, because I went out there thinking four years. Plácido [Domingo], who asked me, said just come for three or four years. And I never imagined spending all this time.

Is it serendipitous that it’s finishing with “The Magic Flute?” Yes and no. From now until the middle or end of July, I’ll conduct nothing else but Mozart. I’ll do “The Magic Flute” here until it’s finished, then “Abduction” at Ravinia, and then an all-Mozart program at the Aspen Festival. I love Mozart; that goes without saying. But I did want my final operas here to be the final operas of both Verdi and Mozart, as they represent what I consider the three pillars of any opera house: Mozart, Verdi, and Wagner. We didn’t manage to produce a Wagner this year, but I did do a large excerpt of “Meistersinger” at the gala concert in honor of those 20 years. So it was not an accident. “Falstaff” was conscious and “The Magic Flute” was conscious. These are my last operas here, at least as music director, and I wanted the last Mozart and the last Verdi. That’s how that happened.

OW: You said that LA surprised you. What did you discover about the musical culture and the relationship the city has with its opera company?

JC: I had almost no history of California as a conductor. I went a few times to the Bowl when I was very young, and a few times to the San Francisco Symphony. But when I accepted the job at the opera, I was not a regular anywhere in California. I’m a New Yorker. I grew up in New York, my career started in New York, and I spent roughly 20 years living full time in Europe. So the surprise was how much I’ve enjoyed it, how much I’ve enjoyed living here, and how much I enjoyed the years at the opera. Those are all pleasant and wonderful surprises.

OW: Shifting over to “Abduction,” Mozart wrote so many great operas and I think this one you can definitely count among them. What excites you about this particular work? What makes you want to come back to it, and are there any particular moments that stand out for you?

JC: I love all of Mozart. I’m convinced he never wrote a bad piece of music, not just operas. I’ve done three full cycles of the piano concertos in my life, the symphonies multiple times, and of course the choral works, notably the Requiem and the C Minor Mass at the top of all of that. I can’t live without Mozart. If I could remember the statistics exactly, I’ve conducted over 220 to 225 performances of Mozart operas in my life, and that’s not stopping.

I actually saw “Abduction” for the first time when I was maybe 13. Some people say it’s done less often or rarely, but not to me. It’s been part of the canon, my canon of all singspiele, from the beginning of my life. In fact, if my memory serves me correctly, I saw it even before I ever saw “The Magic Flute” or “Così.”

If you want to explain why it’s relatively less popular, I think there are a few reasons. In America at least, part of it is the title, the word “seraglio” is not commonly used, and I don’t think I would have known it if I didn’t know this opera. I think the same applies to “Così fan tutte,” which has an Italian title that has never adequately been translated. If it had been called “The School for Lovers,” I’m sure that would have been much less of a problem.

The other reason is that it’s very hard to cast. You have to have a great Constanze. If somebody can’t sing “Martern aller Arten” and the rest of it, you don’t have a show. And if you don’t have a bass with all those low notes, you don’t have Osmin. Without Osmin and Constanze, the opera is not going to be successful. The Belmonte is not easy either, but it’s more castable.

The third reason some people propose is the spoken dialogue, the singspiel element. But I don’t think that really counts, because it’s not a problem for “The Magic Flute.” Although it does raise practical questions: do you speak in German, do you speak in English? What I’ve done, and this will be the third time I’ve done it in this context, is shorten the dialogues considerably. I bring in a great actor, make the Pasha the narrator who summarizes what was in the dialogues, retaining only the exchanges between the Pasha and Constanze and one or two other short moments. I can also work into the narration some historical and cultural context for the audience. I did it once at Ravinia and once at the Cincinnati May Festival, and I find it works very well. I once sat through a performance in a German opera house where they kept every word of text, and to say it was not a success would be an understatement.

In any case, to count the great operas of Mozart, you have to come up with seven: the three Da Ponte operas, “The Magic Flute,” “Abduction,” “La Clemenza di Tito,” and certainly “Idomeneo.” All seven are masterpieces in their different ways. And if he had written only “La Finta Giardiniera,” which unfortunately one hears and sees very rarely, that alone would be considered one of the great operas of the world. So “Abduction” needs no justification. It’s one of the great works.

OW: I wanted to ask you about conducting Mozart specifically versus Verdi. How does your approach change?

JC: A conductor has to become the music he or she is performing. To become Giuseppe Verdi, to try to intuit the soul of his music and then render it, is totally different from doing Wagner or Mozart or Debussy or Berg or Bach. A part of that is automatic. It’s not that I take a consciously different approach; you have a relationship with the work, you have a relationship with the composer. And especially in a case like Mozart, where it’s multi-genre. He wrote equally well in almost every genre we know, so your experience is so much more vast and horizontal. If you conduct Verdi, Verdi basically wrote operas. Wagner basically wrote his music dramas. But each composer’s artistic character and profile is different, and what you try to do as a performer and interpreter is to become, to the degree that you can, the vehicle for the passing of that composer’s spirit in that specific composition. You don’t want to go to a Mozart concert and make it sound like Stravinsky.

OW: Moving forward in your career, what are some future dream projects, or things you hope you’ll get a chance to pursue?

JC: There are many more questions than answers. But I can also tell you that at my age, 76, I don’t think about my career in the way I once did. Many of my contemporaries and best friends have already passed away. You have a very different awareness of the shortness of time. I want to stay healthy, my brain is still active, I have two grown daughters. Those are my priorities.

As for musical priorities, I can assure you I will not become a music director again. I’ve been doing that work for 47 years and I don’t want any of the responsibility that comes with it. That part I feel is a liberation. I still love to conduct, I still love music, that’s not going to change. I’ll conduct what gives me pleasure and hopefully gives other people pleasure.

But I want to write. I have a lot on my mind, and I have written a lot, though most of it is in my computer waiting to be edited and prepared and hopefully find the right publishers. And I love public speaking. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the pre-performance talks I’ve given before every performance at LA Opera. They’ve been extremely popular and I enjoy doing them. I feel that advocacy of classical music and the arts is a very important responsibility, one I’m happy to continue. The arts need strong defense and advocacy in our country at this time.

I will also continue my mission of trying to encourage people to become familiar with, listen to, and perform music that has been neglected because of the atrocities of the Nazi regime. That is a life’s mission. And I’m working very closely now with the Colburn School to prepare another generation to carry that work forward, because it will not be accomplished quickly and it needs the advocacy of young people. So there’s a lot — and this is all aside from whatever guest conducting I feel like doing.