A second generation of women in charge

The Opéra in Lille has not made many headlines over the past two decades. Since 2001 it has been capably managed by Caroline Sonrier, a former mezzo-soprano with a green agenda who has waited for the end of the company’s centenary year to announce her retirement. Sonrier has been the least self=-promoting of opera intendants, an exemplar of quiet efficiency.

Her successor was announced today. Barbara Eckle (pictured) is a Swiss, Oxford-educated dramaturg who has been working at the Ruhrtriennale. She was once Lorin Maazel’s artistic coordinator at the New York Philharmonic.

What’s remarkable here – and rare – is that the baton is being passed from one woman to another. Mostly, where a woman has changed the culture – think Deborah Borda in Los Angeles and New York, Deborah Rutter in Chicago, Ulrike Hessler in Dresden – power has reverted to a male pair of hands.

Lille has just broken that mould.

Who’s next?