Breaking: British conductor heads Vienna opera

The Volksoper Wien has announced a successor to its music director Omer Meir Wellber, who will leave at the end of the year ‘for personal reasons’. He will become GMD of Hamburg State Opera in September 2025.

Wellber will hand over the baton in Vienna to his principal guest conductor, Ben Glassberg. He starts on January 1, 2024.

Wellber says: ‘It is wonderful that with Ben Glassberg a new music director is coming to the Volksoper, whom I brought in as a young conducting talent and who has connected so perfectly with the orchestra and the house. I am delighted that Ben Glassberg is taking on the task, and I am sure that he will continue to drive the excellence of the house.’

Glassberg, 29, was previously music director of Glyndebourne Touring Opera.