"He had a great eye and ear for talent and for putting important people together for projects that had lasting value to the music lover. He was an enabler with great imagination and great taste. My impression was he got (the artists) to behave like pussy-cats."

Martin Bernheimer, Pulitzer Prize winner and former Music Critic for the Los Angeles Times.

The excerpt you are listening to is from the complete recording of the opera with Garaint Evans as Falstaff, conducted by Georg Solti.

BIOGRAPHY

Richard Mohr was born on June 13, 1919, in Springfield Ohio. He studied journalism at Ohio's Wittenberg University, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree, with majors in English, journalism and history, and minors in French and music. After graduation he joined the Columbus Dispatch as a reporter and associate music critic. During this period he began writing radio scripts for RCA's "The Music You Want When You Want It" series. In 1943, he joined RCA Victor in Camden, New Jersey as editor of the "Victor Record Review."  From there he went on to produce original cast recordings of world premiere operas including Samuel Barber's "Vanessa," Gian Carlo Menotti's "Amahl and the Night Visitors" and the first album recordings of numerous artists and works including 80 complete operas. After his historic tenure at RCA Victor ended in 1977, he produced 26 half hour radio programs for PBS, titled "Backstage with Richard Mohr." In 1980 he became Associate Producer with Geraldine Souvaine, and then Producer, of the Texaco Intermission Features for the Saturday afternoon broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera. He retired from that position in 1991.
Mohr resided most of his life in New York City and at his beloved country home in Blairstown, New Jersey until his death in a nursing home on November 23, 2002