Maestro move: German city picks a Brit
mainWe’ve been informed, a bit belatedly, that the new general music director at Mannheim Opera is to be Alexander Soddy. He will succeed Dan Ettinger next year.
Oxford born, Alex was a chorister at Magdalen before reading musicology at Cambridge. After assisting Simone Young in Hamburg, he has been music director in Klagenfurt, Austria, since 2012. He’s 32, managed by the same Vienna agent as Young and Berlin Phil chief Kirill Petrenko.
Way to go.
So where’s Dan Ettinger going? He’s wonderful, and a great pianist to boot.
This is a great appointment! He was also Petrenko’s head of music and main assistant for the Ring in Bayreuth. He’s made waves in little Klagenfurt, with the Salzburg press describing him as one of the most exciting talents to come onto the opera scene in years. Finally, a conductor who is doing it the old fashioned way and not being propelled to stardom after a competition win!