Meet Opernwelt’s Conductor of the Year
mainThe times are truly changing.
Germany’s opera magazine has named Joana Mallwitz, 33, as conductor of the year after her first season in charge at Nuremberg.
Orchestra of the year was Kirill Petrenko’s band at the Bavarian State Opera – for the eighth year running.
Asmik Grigorian was singer of the year for her Salzburg Salome, which was also production of the year.
Opera house of the year was Strabourg’s Opéra National Du Rhin.
The poll was taken among 50 critics from Europe and the US.
Nice to see a young conductor be recognised, but honestly, Mallwitz is not an extraordinary conductor, and certainly not the first female GMD in Germany (think Simone Young, Catherine Rückwardt, Karen Kamensek, etc. all of whom are musically heads and shoulders above Mallwitz). Like so many other awards, this one attempts to show the forward-thinkingness of the jury, and doesn’t really represent the finest conductor of the year.
Exactly.
One Eugene Onegin might not be much to go on, but what I heard from Mallwitz last year in Munich (with the aforementioned orchestra of the year) was first-rate.