Major change ahead at La Monnaie
NewsThe board of Belgium’s national opera house in Brussels has chosen a successor to general director Peter de Caluwe, who will step down in 2026, after 18 years in charge.
His replacement is to be Christina Scheppelmann, 58, presently head of Seattle Opera, before that of the Liceu in Barcelona. She is vastly experienced in both subsidy systems, state and private, and is also capable of handling the big beasts of opera, having worked in Washington for 11 years with Placido Domingo.
Of German birth, she has a degree in banking.
But Christina will be past 60 before she hits La Monnaie and they cannot expect to get another 18 years out of her.
This is a major coup for the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie.
Christina Scheppelmann is one on the best administrators in the business.
Combining accounting acumen with daunting multilingual skills, outstanding artistic discernment and profound musical knowledge, I have no doubt she will raise the Monnaie back to the halcyon days of the much missed Gerard Mortier.
Having been treated so shamefully by the upstart opera ingénue Valenti Oviedo at the Liceu in Barcelona, I am sure this appointment will quickly outshine anything on the Rambla.
Too bad La Scala, the ROH or the Wiener Staatsoper didn’t grab her sooner.
The Monnaie has made giant steps since (the giant) Mortier. Today, it is a permanently innovative opera house of which every single production is completely or nearly sold out.
I will always be grateful to De Caluwe for launching Romeo Castellucci in opera. Luckily Scheppelmann says in an interview that “Castellucci has done fabulous things”.
He certainly has and next season looks set to continue the trend. Personally I find him better than Mortier who was too obsessed with Mozart.
agism on this blog? what a surprise. do tell: why do/would they need 18 years out of her?
was poor in Barcelona and generally one shouldn’t stay for too long except you have a Music Director of a capacity like Pappano Petrenko or Muti but those are artists – let the others go and move on ‚Abtreten die Leut‘
Look the disasters of aging Pereira, Lissner etc – they should finally step down for the younger ones
Mortier in Salzburg stayed for too long also and his last years extremely poor so was Holender in Vienna etc
8 years max should be the rule
I detect too many generalisations…beware of know-it-alls…
To be fair to Lissner, he didn’t wait to be old to be an absolute disaster.
An excellent choice. They’re lucky to have her. She’s ‘old school’, as they say…
Oh, I don’t know, didn’t Hef say 80 is the new 40?
For men. I dare say Hef would not keep his women past the age of 20.
It is La Monnaie/De Munt or De Munt/La Monnaie.
We have 2 main languages in Belgium. Please respect this reality.
If you like everything to be so correct, let me just inform you that Belgium officially has not two but three national languages.
There is no reason why an administrator cannot last as long as some orchestra conductors who seem to continue till the crack of doom.