Met names principal guest
OrchestrasThe Metropolitan Opera has appointed Daniele Rustioni as its principal guest conductor to cover for Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s ever more extensive commitments elsewhere.
Rustioni’s three-year engagement starts next season. He made his Met debut seven years ago and has shown willing ever since. Aged 41, he is music director until next summer at Opéra National de Lyon. He recently concluded a stint at the Ulster Orchestra.
He was on the shortlist to succeed Antonio Pappano at Covent Garden, but the orchestra preferred the Czech Jakub Hrusa.
Norman, would you please slow down your typing and run a spell check every once in a while? This blurb has even more than your normal allotment of blunders.
When it is so obvious that the music director is unable to fulfull his basic duties of just showing up for work, it’s time to make him an ultimatum, make a full time commitment to the Met or go be the full time conductor of the Montreal Mickey Mouse Orchestra or Tinseltown biopic consultant.
Rudolph Bing would never have countenanced such blatant disrespect.
Rudolph Bing didn’t need no stnkin’ Music Director.
The MET orchestra under Bing was not comparable to the way they have played while having a regular music director. They were often sloppy–just listen to a number of old airchecks and the difference is apparent.
Yes and the orchestra was generally quite ugly and ragged in those days.
YNS was installed by french canadian billionaire jacqueline desmaris. as long as her estate continues its funding, he will remain the position
Or just give Rustioni the full time job.
Rustioni is a great conductor and a very nice human being. The MET is extremely lucky to have him. I wish him was nothing but the best.
Rustioni is a better opera conductor than Yannick.
Having heard both, nah. Rustioni couldn’t manage the dynamics in Berlin – in that respect, he might be luckier at the Met, where the house is more forgiving. But the first quality of an opera conductor is – listen to the singers. Might have been a one-off, one hopes.
A principal guest conductor does not “cover” for the music director
They tried this with the far better conductor Fabio Luisi and then hired Nezet-Seguin for the job. Nezet-Seguin is bathing in his opwn id and has little time for the MET and should be replaced, as should Gelb. This is why the MET would not let Levine take other jobs for decades. Back then there was a far bigger stable of capable conductors to provide steady performances. I suspect this will not last long.
Yes – what happened to Fabio Luisi? I would be pissed if I were him…
Luisi is at Dallas Symphony, quite successfully, and just finished a Ring cycle there this fall.
The music director at a major opera house still only conducts a minority of the performances/productions. Having a principal guest who might take on 2-3 productions a year instead of more one-time guest conductors makes a lot of sense. Remember Gergiev had this role for a couple years. So whatever one things of YNS, it’s good to have such a person at a place as big as the MET.
What the Met needs is a Principal Guest General Manager.
That’s serious out-of-box thinking!
Rhe ROH bogged it up, missed first Yannick and then Rustioni.
And so got Hrusa.
I thought Hrusa had a rather good reputation as a conductor.
Of course, I think that Rustioni is pretty good as well. His career has gone a bit more slowly, but maybe it allowed him time to learn the nuts-and-bolts of conducting properly at lesser orchestras.
Cover for Yannick? The Met plays 7 operas a week, from October to May – 18 productions this year. There’s plenty of room for a principal guest – in fact, they’ve always had one (Gergiev, then Luisi under Levine, for instance). Armiliato was the de fact principal guest for a while.