Major maestro moves: Two Italians go for a job swap

It is being announced in Zurich that Fabio Luisi will leave a year early, in 2021.

Luisi recently became music director of the Dallas Symphony.

His successor, without a moment’s hesitation, will be Gianandrea Noseda, who lost Torino Opera last month in a political putsch. Noseda is music director in Washington DC.

It’s not known if the two Italian maestros discussed the swap privately, but we’re told that it took no more than a short phone call and a brisk meeting for the Zurich intendant, Andreas Homoki, to reel in Noseda with the promise of a stable administration and an early Ring cycle.

Homoki, who has run Zurich snce 2012, has been rewarded with a contract extension to 2025. He has handled this transition with great aplomb.

You read it first on www.slippedisc.com

UPDATE: Press release follows now:

Andreas Homoki, intendant and artistic director of Zurich Opera House, will remain in his position until 2025. The announcement that his contract had been extended for an additional three years by the Opernhaus Zürich Board of Directors was made on Monday, July 2 at a press conference. Ballet director Christian Spuck’s contract extension (also until 2025) was also announced. Both have been responsible for the Opernhaus Zürich’s artistic profile since 2012. 

Music Director Fabio Luisi will devote himself to new endeavors starting in 2021. In a mutually agreed upon decision, Luisi will leave his post at the Opernhaus Zürich a year earlier than planned, in order to provide his successor with ample time for artistic design and planning. Andreas Homoki presented renowned conductor Gianandrea Noseda as the new General Music Director starting with the 2021/22 season.

In the last year, Noseda appeared at the helm of the Philharmonia Zürich as music director of the new production of Prokofiev’s The Fiery Angel, as well as for the revival of Verdi’s Macbeth. In both productions, he inspired audiences, the media, and musicians alike.

A new production of Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen is planned for the final phase of Andreas Homoki’s artistic directorship. The tetralogy has accompanied the Opernhaus Zürich ever since its opening. The first complete Ring cycle in the city on the Limmat appeared from 1891 to 1897. The most recent Ring cycle was created in 2000 and 2002 under the musical direction of Franz Welser-Möst, in a production by Robert Wilson.

Andreas Homoki and Gianandrea Noseda’s interpretation – their first collaboration – will be the eighth Ring cycle presented at the Opernhaus Zürich.

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