Jobs for the boys around the Danish table
OperaA few days ago, the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen signed the young Frenchwoman Marie Jacquot as chief conductor to universal acclaim.
Today, it has announced a new director of music, a man called Martin Brommann who will be Jacquot’s boss on the management team. Brommann is a former oboist who has worked for the past two years as director of the choir and orchestra of the Malmö Opera.
His recruitment is part of a management reorganisation presided over by managing director Kasper Holten, formerly of Covent Garden. It looks like the sort of thing they do at the BBC.
What’s the issue? Don’t all opera houses have an administrative director above the chief conductor?
ROH has a director of opera who sits above Pappano (Oliver Mears); Berlin has an Operndirektor (Tobias Hasan); Stockholm has an opera chief (Michael Cavanagh) who oversees Alan Gilbert, etc.
Conductors are not administrative leaders, not even necessarily artistic ones. They don’t manage full productions and permanent staffs. And they’re not in the house year-long.
The Swede a good solid choice.
A very decent man.
Marie recently conducted Korngold’s Op 5 Sinfonietta, one of the few conductors to programme it. I don’t know why it’s not played more often, because it’s Korngold’s finest orchestral work.
She worked also with the Gothenburg Orchestra recently. More than a good reference.
Martin Brommann is an excellent choice for this post. With him it most certainly is not “jobs for the boys”. An oboe player of distinction, with many years of management under his belt means that he is one of the few artistic managers who actually knows what music is about.
‘Look, I’m a woman conductor! Place the lucrative contract in my left hand’.
What’s not to like in that comment? Seriously?