The Macron Caninet, meeting this morning, approved Alexander Neef as the next chief of the Opéra.
Here’s a statement from his present employer, the Canadian Opera Company:
Today, Canadian Opera Company General Director Alexander Neef was named the next General Director of Opéra national de Paris. The official announcement was made in Paris at a meeting of the French Cabinet. Neef’s term will begin in the 2021/2022 season, succeeding Stéphane Lissner as current head of Opéra national de Paris; until then, the COC General Director will remain in Toronto, guiding the company through to the close of its 2020/2021 season.
“The Canadian Opera Company has been my home for more than a decade and I am humbled and honoured by the welcome and support that I have received throughout my time here,” says COC General Director and Opéra national de Paris General Director Designate Alexander Neef. “The personal connections that have taken root in this city and in this country will certainly endure, regardless of where I find myself in the world.”
“Canada is rich with artistic talent and I could not have asked for a better place in which to create, to innovate, and to collaborate in the true spirit of opera as an art form,” continues Neef. “The COC’s exceptional reputation on the world stage is a testament to the dedicated people across all levels of the organization; their hard work is our company’s signature. I am proud to see Toronto considered synonymous with the world’s best opera and will always champion the COC’s contributions to opera and the excellence of Canadian artists.”
Paris holds particular significance for Neef who began his career at the city’s renowned international opera house as head of casting, alongside former general director Gerard Mortier. “To be able to return to Opéra national de Paris at this point in my life and career feels especially poignant,” says Neef. “As one of the oldest and most distinguished opera houses in the world, I am inspired by the challenge of preserving the company’s rich history and tradition while seeing it continually adapt and evolve in a fast-changing arts and culture landscape. This is certainly an extraordinary opportunity that bears an enormous responsibility for which I feel immense gratitude.”
“The Canadian Opera Company congratulates Mr. Alexander Neef on his appointment as General Director of Opéra national de Paris,” says Canadian Opera Company Board Chair Justin Linden. “Mr. Neef’s selection is a testament to his hard work, dedication, and achievements throughout his career – particularly here in Canada. We the board, the staff, the artists, and the supporters of Canadian opera, strongly support his appointment and look forward to his future achievements.”
UPDATE: Neef told the NY Times Mr. Neef that Macron interviewed him for 45 minutes for the post, which is a presidential appointment.“For someone who is running a country, I found it incredible he took so much time,” he said.
The Bayreuth Festival has chosen the Finnish conductor Pietari Inkinen to lead the 2020 new production of Wagner’s Ring des Nibelungen, directed by Valentin Schwarz.
Inkinen has been chief conductor of the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbruecken Kaiserslautern since 2017, as well as chief conductor of the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra and the Prague Symphony. From 2008 to 2016 he was music director of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.
In 2013 he conducted Opera Australia’s first full Ring Cycle, repeated three yyears later. In 2018 he led their production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, directed by Kasper Holten. He will conduct Tristan und Isolde for Opera Queensland next year, with Simon O’Neill, a regular partner, as Tristan.
It’s a bold choice on Bayreuth’s part.
Sources in the BBC Philharmonic said there were two extras from the Baltimore Symphony in their expanded brass section at the seventh BBC Proms last night. Baltimore lists five horns on its website. This concert employed seven in its horn section.
(London can afford that; Baltimore can’t.)
Unfortunately, no Baltimore names appeared in the programme book.
If you know who our Balti-guests were, tell them they sounded terrific.
Any doubts about the surprise appointment of a little-known Israeli, Omer Meir Wellber, as music director of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra were blown apart last night at a BBC Prom of uncommon intensity.
Aside from a warm-up Mozart piano concerto in which the Korean soloist Yeol Eum Son barely touched the sides, every piece in a complex programme clocked in with a rising degree of energy and excitement.
The first symphony by the patriarchal Israeli composer Paul Ben Haim, written in 1940, had hora rhythms along with echoes of Hollywood and Mahler. Dated at times, the symphony was rethought by Wellber in its wartime context, trembling with anxieties and distant hope. A huge orchestra and near-capacity hall were gripped by the novelty.
After the interval, Schoenberg’s Five Orchestral Pieces were played for sheer beauty, each unlinked aphorism a picture at its own exhibition. This atonal work had its world premiere at the Proms in 1912. A century later, it sits beneath BBC orchestral fingers like bedrock heritage.
Schumann’s fourth symphony seemed at first too heavy to end a long concert on a hot summer’s night.
But Welber delivered an ice-cream sundae, rippled through with rich colours, rushing to the bottom of the glass. I have not heard the Manchester-based BBC Phil blast forth like this in years, or Schumann played with such hunger. Wellber has something of the Kirill Petrenko in his calisthenic movements and searing concentration. There is a cracking new era about to begin in the Manchester concert halls.
Happy birthday to the German baritone Christian Gerhaher, getting younger by the day.
Opera Australia has announced concert performances of Andrea Chenier, starring Jonas Kaufmann, Ludovic Tézier and Eva-Maria Westbroek.
Kaufmann has just cancelled his hometown appearances at the Munich opera festival through to the end of this month, pleading ill-health.
If he’s feeling that unwell, a long flight to Australia for just three shows might not be the ticket to recovery.
The Savannah Philharmonic has chosen Keitaro Harada as its next music director.
Harada, 34, has earned his spurs these past four years as associate conductor of Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops.
The troubled Sussex festival announced this morning that the US mezzo-soprano Elizabeth DeShong has withdrawn from the title role in the new production of Handel’s Rinaldo ‘for personal reasons’.
Ours not to reason why.
What is remarkable is that the festival has replaced her with another member of cast, the Polish countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński, who was due to sing Eustazio. (That role will now be taken by the US American countertenor Patrick Terry, a member of ovent Garden’s Jette Parker Young Artists Programme.
Like for like?
Not really. Handel was not definitive whether this role – like Julius Caesar and others – was gender-specific. His casting was impetuous.
Orlinski is certainly eye-catching and hot news. Makes you wonder all the more about those ‘personal reasons’.
Gareth Bimson has retired after 36 years as principal trumpet in the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
His older brother John played 39 years as principal horn BBC Northern S.O 1967 -72; 3rd and first horn London Symphony Orchestra 1972 -76; co principal and principal, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra 1976 -2006.
Was there ever a longer serving pair of brass brothers?
The Cleveland Orchestra has called in a late replacement this weekend for Bramwell Tovey, who is receiving medical treatment.
Making her Cleveland debut will be rising conductor, Gemma New, possibly the first New Zealander to lead a major US orchestra.
