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Late Blessings. Lewis himself had to surmount certain obstacles, not the least of which was the opposition of his father, a Los Angeles real estate and automobile salesman who felt that the only music career open to a Negro was as a lowly jazzman. When he was five, his mother sneaked him off to a piano teacher, later encouraged his lessons on the double bass, an instrument he "got stuck with" in order to fill a gap in his high-school orchestra. He also played on the school football team and his father hoped that he might make a career out of it. But when young Henry won a job in the bass-fiddle section of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and a music scholarship to the University of Southern California, his father finally bestowed his blessings. Drafted in 1954, he toured Europe as conductor of the Seventh Army Symphony. "I conducted every day for a year," says Lewis, "an opportunity few conductors get. It was a time to make all the mistakes, a luxury you can't afford when you're conducting a major symphony. The fact that I'm at La Scala now I probably owe to the Seventh Army."
Returning home, the scholarly-looking Lewis founded the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra in 1958, led it on a 14-country junket through Europe. After serving for three years as associate conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where his quietly authoritative approach was a perfect complement to the flamboyant attack of fiery Zubin Mehta, the orchestra's resident conductor, Lewis this year was appointed music director of the Los Angeles Opera Company. Now 33, he lives with his wife, Mezzo Soprano Marilyn Home, in a fashionable home in North Hollywood complete with swimming pool. Says Wife Marilyn, who is white: "The question of race is not half as much a problem as these two egos of ours rolling around the same house."
Lewis' triumph at La Scala has already won him an invitation to return next season. Says La Scala Artistic Director Francesco Siciliani: "If he could do so much with Gershwin, imagine how he will make Puccini sound!" Yet for all the accolades, Lewis says he felt he had really arrived when, after opening night, he visited the elegant Biffi Scala, which is to Milano operagoers what Sardi's is to Broadway theater. At his appearance, the chef marched out of the kitchen, cried "Bravissimo, maestro!" and pointed to the latest addition to the menu—a beef fillet smothered in a sauce made of mustard, cognac, sour cream and a heavy dose of pepper. Its name: bistecca Enrico Lewis.