Tenors Promoter Rudas Dies

Rudas, a child singing star in Budapest and a Holocaust survivor, became a talent buyer in Atlantic City, booking acts like Jackie Gleason and Dean Martin. He put up $250,000 of his own money to bring Luciano Pavarotti to a tent outside the Resorts Casino Hotel, and it sold out in an hour.

That led to a lifetime relationship with Pavarotti as well as with Jose Carreras and Placido Domingo, including the tenors’ famed concert under the Eiffel Tower in 1998 that was viewed by as many as 2 billion people. Some criticized him for taking opera to massive venues. “I am the most hated man in the world of opera but I am loved by the masses,” Rudas said.