10 things to know about Sir Georg Solti

5 January 2026 - Borbála Tuska

Sir Georg Solti was one of the most significant conductors of the 20th century. He was even knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. But do you know why he was referred to as “The Screaming Skull”? And why he had a bone to pick with Maria Callas?

A first wife who treated him like a child
After the outbreak of World War 2, Solti emigrated to Switzerland, where he made the acquaintance of Hedwig (Hedi) Oechslit. It was not long before they married. After 20 years of wedlock, however, he filed for divorce – on the grounds that Hedi had too much of a controlling influence over him.

Remarriage after a chance encounter
In 1964, he met Valerie Pitts, who was 25 years younger than him and one of the BBC’s first television presenters. Pitts was making cultural programmes at the time and, when she needed a new topic at the last minute, she recorded an interview with Solti for want of anyone better, so to speak. They soon fell in love and it was because of the conductor that Pitts divorced her husband.

The flying cabbage
During his tenure as musical director of the Royal Opera House in London, a campaign was carried out against him by a group of young men. Following one performance, a head of cabbage was thrown at him when he went to take his bow. On another occasion, his car parked on Bow Street was scratched, and the words “Solti must go” were scrawled on it. The troublemakers never never made public the reasons for their protest.

Solti with the Munich Opera on tour in Bayreuth, 1948 // Photograph: Courtesy of Lady Solti

White mink coats
During his years in London, the rumour spread that Solti gave white mink coats as gifts to the singers with whom he had intimate ties. In time, a counter-rumour emerged according to which some women were buying coats for themselves to give the impression they were engaged in romantic relations with the composer.

Anger at Maria Callas
The world-famous opera singer was due to perform a series of four performances of Tosca at Covent Garden in 1965. She eventually decided to appear only once, at the Royal Gala, in order to spare her voice. Solti, in his capacity as music director, would not countenance this, but the opera house director sided with Callas.

Knighted by the Queen
In 1971, shortly before his departure from London, Queen Elizabeth II awarded the conductor with an honorary knighthood following a performance of Tristan und Isolde. As Solti was still a German citizen at the time, he could only add the title of “Sir” to the start of his name after acquiring British citizenship.

On tour with the Frankfurt opera in the late 1950s // Photograph: Courtesy of Lady Solti

The Screaming Skull
He was one of those conductors who did not shy away from raising his voice during rehearsals, so the musicians playing under him nicknamed him “The Screaming Skull”. Solti’s exacting demands also led to him being dubbed “Prussian” as he would not take no for an answer when it came to absolute precision and adherence to the score.

Half English, half Hungarian
József Krénusz, a Hungarian who worked at the New York Metropolitan Opera for 40 years, knew Solti personally and once arranged to conduct a radio interview with him. The maestro was ultimately forced to cancel the appearance over the phone citing time constraints. In his characteristic jumble of English and Hungarian, he said: “Yesterday megcsináltuk a harmadik felvonást last part.”

Bloodshed in New York
It was also József Krénusz who recalled an incident from 1976, when Solti was conducting guest performances by the Paris Opera in New York. Early in The Marriage of Figaro, a minor accident befell him: Solti came perilously close to poking his own eye out with his baton. Blood poured onto the score, yet he refused to halt the performance; instead, he simply allowed the doctor who rushed to his aid to tend to the wound.

A record number of Grammy Awards
Throughout his career, Solti made countless recordings with the world’s leading orchestras. His name is associated in particular with the first complete recording of Wagner’s Ring cycle, which he made with the Vienna Philharmonic. Solti won a total of 31 Grammy Awards, the last of which he received posthumously in 1997 for Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. This was a record that was only broken in 2023 by the popstar Beyoncé.

* Lead photo: Opera Magazin