Johanna Fiedler | Met publicist, author, 65

Johanna Fiedler, 65, a publicist who wrote tell-all books about the Metropolitan Opera and about growing up as the daughter of Arthur Fiedler, the conductor of the Boston Pops, died May 27 at her home in Manhattan. She had been ill for some time, her sister, Deborah Stiles, said.

Ms. Fiedler drew on her experience as the chief press liaison for the Metropolitan Opera from 1975 to 1989 to write Molto Agitato: The Mayhem Behind the Music (2001). She wrote in the preface that the book was "an attempt to open up the Metropolitan's world," which she considered as insular as "the Kremlin or the Vatican."

Her earlier book, Arthur Fiedler: Papa, the Pops and Me (1994), a memoir of her father, depicted him as more dysfunctional than his avuncular persona let on.

Ms. Fiedler, who graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1967, studied both the piano and viola but never played professionally. She started her career as a public-relations director for the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, then became editor of programs for concerts for the New York Philharmonic before taking the job at the Met. - N.Y. Times News Service