Yannick
Nézet-Séguin CreditJonathan Tichler/Metropolitan Opera
For the first time in four
decades, the Metropolitan Opera has a new music director. The company announced
on Thursday that it was passing the baton long held by James Levine to Yannick Nézet-Séguin, music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra, known for vital, visceral
music making.
The generational shift to Mr.
Nézet-Séguin, 41, from Mr. Levine, 72, who stepped down last month after years of uncertainty and cancellations because of
health problems, comes at a challenging time for the Met, the nation’s largest
performing arts institution — and for opera.
While the company had a number
of artistic successes this season and enjoys a broad global reputation thanks
to its high-definition cinema simulcasts, it is facing financial hurdles that
have forced it to make cuts in its $300 million budget and wrest concessions
from its union workers. This season it filled only 72 percent of its seats, on
average.
The energetic, media-savvy Mr.
Nézet-Séguin is meant as a shot in the arm for an organization struggling at
the box office and whose musical leadership has been in flux. As Mr. Levine has
ailed in recent years, Peter Gelb, who had already assumed more artistic
control when he became the Met’s general manager, took on an even greater role
in choosing repertoire and artists.
But to land the Montreal-born
Mr. Nézet-Séguin, one of the most sought-after conductors in the world, the
company had to agree to a long engagement period. Because his schedule is
booked for several years, he will not officially take up the Met post until the
2020-21 season, leaving the company without a full-time music director in the
meantime.
And Mr. Nézet-Séguin (his full
name is pronounced yah-NEEK nay-ZAY say-GHEN) plans to divide his duties
between the Met and another storied American institution, the Philadelphia Orchestra, which he has led since 2012. He announced on Thursday that he had extended
his contract as music director there through the 2025-26 season.
“I’m very, very lucky, of
course — maybe the luckiest music director — to be able to have what I believe
to be the two greatest, arguably, organizations in the United States, symphonically
and operatically: the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Met,” Mr. Nézet-Séguin
said in a telephone interview from Japan, where he was on tour with the
Philadelphians.
He recorded a video greeting
to send the Met musicians on Thursday morning, and in a video chat that the
company arranged with Mr. Nézet-Séguin, David Chan, the orchestra’s
concertmaster, brought up the elephant in the room.
“As you know, we are at an
important juncture in classical music,” Mr. Chan said, addressing his new music
director. “There is a trend toward replacing honored traditions while failing
to present any meaningful innovation. So today it’s more critical than ever to
offer our audiences something new while preserving the artistic priorities at
the heart of our great art form.”
When Mr. Levine announced this
spring that he was retiring to become music director emeritus, several company
members expressed concernat the thought of a long transition. Mr. Nézet-Séguin said that he planned
to take an active role as the steward of the company’s musical affairs almost
immediately.
Mr. Nézet-Séguin leading the
overture to Dvorak’s “Rusalka” in 2014.
By METROPOLITAN OPERA
But his podium appearances
will be limited over the next few years: Beginning in the 2017-18 season, when
he takes on the title of music director designate, he will conduct two operas a
season; in 2020-21, when he officially becomes music director, he will conduct
five. His initial contract will then run for five years, with options for
multiple renewals. The Met declined to say how much he would be paid.
“It’s true that in the pit I
won’t be more present, which doesn’t mean that I will be out of touch — rather
the contrary,” he said, adding that he planned to start discussions with the
musicians right away. “I hope it won’t feel like there’s a wait, or there’s a
void.”
Long waits (and simultaneous
posts) are not unusual in the classical music world, where major organizations
and top talents typically plan their schedules four or five years in advance.
Mr. Gelb said that the Met was lucky to get the conductor by 2020.
Mr. Nézet-Séguin, who has led
a number of critically praised productions at the Met since making his house
debut in 2009 with a new production of Bizet’s “Carmen,” will tackle Wagner
there for the first time next season with a revival of “Der Fliegende
Holländer.” In the coming seasons, he is scheduled to conduct operas by
composers including Wagner, Strauss, Puccini, Poulenc and Verdi — including a
new production of “La Traviata” in 2018-19.
Mr. Nézet-Séguin, a powerfully
built man who stands 5-foot-5, is very likely the first Met conductor with a
turtle tattoo on his shoulder. (Mr. Gelb said that they had not inspected any
other conductors.) Born the youngest of three children in 1975, he took piano
lessons and joined a choir as a child, deciding at a young age that he wanted
to conduct. He was 16 when he attended his first opera at the Met: Puccini’s
“La Bohème.”
“Somewhere, somehow, in one
corner of my brain and my heart there was the thought that maybe one day, one
day,” he said. “So this is the fulfillment of this dream.”
His path to the Met began in
2000 with his first major appointment, leading the Orchestre Métropolitain in Montreal. He plans to step down from another post, the music
directorship of the Rotterdam Philharmonic, after the 2017-18 season, but will
remain involved with his Canadian orchestra. Among the words of congratulations
on Thursday was a tweet from Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, who
called the Met position “a tremendous achievement.”
Mr. Nézet-Séguin said that he
and his partner, Pierre Tourville, an assistant principal violist with the
Orchestre Métropolitain, divide their time between Montreal and Philadelphia
and would look for an apartment in New York. The short train ride from New York
to Philadelphia allowed him in the past to conduct a Saturday matinee of “La
Traviata” at the Met, followed by an evening performance of Bach’s “St. Matthew
Passion” in Pennsylvania.
The music director role is
evolving. It is rare for opera houses to expect the kind of commitment Mr.
Levine made to the Met in his early years, when he seemed to conduct nonstop;
he has racked up more than 2,500 performances with the company. The Vienna State Opera decided not to hire a new
music director to succeed Franz Welser-Möst after he abruptly resigned in 2014.
Mr. Nézet-Séguin said that he
considered the Met “the standard-bearer of our art form in the world,” and that
he looked forward to conducting a variety of works there, including forgotten
masterpieces that he would like to revive and new works, including world premieres.
“It’s not a question of
arriving as a leader and wanting to change completely the direction of the
ship,” he said of his plans. “It’s more about my own personality coming
through.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/03/arts/music/yannick-nezet-seguin-to-succeed-james-levine-as-met-operas-music-director.html?ribbon-ad-idx=2&rref=arts/music&module=Ribbon&version=context®ion=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Music&pgtype=article
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