In Thursday’s (6/30) Seattle Times, Melinda Bargreen reports, “The Seattle Symphony’s brand-new music director, Ludovic Morlot, has just accepted another new appointment, with a major European opera house: La Monnaie, in Brussels, Belgium, where he begins a five-year contract as chief conductor in the fall of 2012. … Will these new responsibilities stretch Morlot’s attention at a time he is settling into his new Seattle Symphony job, which officially starts Sept. 1? ‘Definitely not,’ Morlot says, speaking on the phone from Melbourne, Australia, where he is conducting the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. … ‘We will figure out year by year how everything will work out. When I start at La Monnaie, my guest-conducting engagements will become very sparse.’ … Morlot sees the Brussels post as ‘a great opportunity, because it is a chance to conduct both opera and orchestra. I also will have only artistic responsibilities, no administrative ones’ (as he does in his Seattle Symphony job). Among his first assignments will be a production of Debussy’s opera ‘Pelleas and Melisande’ (early in 2013). … Seattle Symphony’s new executive director, Simon Woods, says Morlot’s new post is ‘only positive news for Seattle. It confirms the international stature of our music director.’ ”
Posted June 30, 2011
