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Breaking: Royal Opera picks Dane to succeed Elaine

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norman lebrecht

March 18, 2011

The Royal Opera House Covent Garden has gone to Copenhagen for its next head of opera. Elaine Padmore was running Det Kongelige Theater when she got the call from the Queen.

Her successor, it’s just been announced, is Kaspar Holten, who succeeded her in Denmark eleven years ago (I know, he looks straight out of school).

He’s best known for a Ring Cycle and his website has been paralysed by the career upgrade.

Here’s the news in Danish.

And British director Keith Warner is taking over from Holten in Copenhagen. So it’s a swap.

Here’s the press announcement:

PRESS RELEASE: For Immediate
release

18
MARCH 2011
KASPER HOLTEN TO JOIN ROYAL OPERA
HOUSE

The Royal Opera House announced today that Kasper Holten has been appointed
Director of Opera, to succeed Elaine
Padmore when she leaves at the end of the 2010/11 Season.

A native of
Copenhagen, 37 year old Kasper Holten has been Artistic
Director of the Royal Danish Opera since 2000, where he successfully led the
move into Copenhagen‘s new opera house in
2005.

As a director he has staged more
than 60 productions of opera, drama, operetta and musical theatre in
Denmark,
Sweden,
Norway,
Finland,
Iceland,
France,
Austria,
Latvia,
USA and
Russia. His production of Wagner’s Ring in Copenhagen 2003-2006 received
international acclaim.

Other key productions include Le nozze di Figaro (Theater an der
Wien), Tannhäuser
(Copenhagen), A Clockwork Orange
(Stockholm), My Fair Lady
(Copenhagen) and Die Tote Stadt
(Helsinki).

In 2010 he created Juan – a modern cinematic version of Mozart’s Don Giovanni. It has been shown in film
festivals in Korea,
Switzerland,
Sweden,
Ukraine,
Lithuania,
USA,
Germany and
Turkey and will be on general release in
cinemas in Denmark from 7 April
2011. It
will later be released in cinemas in the
UK and other
countries.

Kasper Holten studied theatre and music at the
University of Copenhagen, and has worked as assistant
director to John Cox, David Pountney and Harry Kupfer. He was artistic director
of Aarhus Sommeropera Festival 1997-2000. He was a member of the Danish Music
Council 1995-99 and the Danish Radio and TV Council 2000-2008. He has been
associate professor at CopenhagenBusinessSchool since
2007.

Announcing the appointment, Tony Hall, Chief Executive of the Royal Opera
House said: “I am thrilled that Kasper Holten is to join the senior
management team. He has done some
fantastic and innovative work as a stage director and at the same time he has
confirmed the Royal Danish Opera’s status as a major player in the international
opera world. He joins The Royal Opera
after ten years of superb artistic achievement, but also at a time of new
economic challenges and further expansion in the digital arena. I look forward to working with
him.”

These sentiments were echoed by Antonio Pappano, Music Director of The Royal Opera: “This is an enormously challenging job and
Kasper’s first two Seasons are packed full of exciting large scale productions.
I have enjoyed all our conversations so far and I eagerly anticipate further
creative planning discussions for future Seasons when he arrives in September.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank
Elaine Padmore for her wonderful
friendship, support, counsel and leadership over the last ten years, and wish
her every success in her future ventures.”

Kasper Holten said “I had promised myself to
focus more on my artistic work when my
contract in Copenhagen expires this summer after 11
exciting years. But if there is one job in the world that I cannot resist, it is
this one. To work with Antonio
Pappano, Tony Hall and
Peter
Katona in what I regard as the leading
opera house of the world is an incredible opportunity for me. I will do my very
best to contribute to further developing ROH as a leading opera house of the
world with exciting productions, broad outreach and a standard of artistic
quality second to none.”