“Yannick Nézet-Séguin arrived on Thursday for his first rehearsal since being named the Metropolitan Opera’s next music director,” writes Michael Cooper in Friday’s (3/31) New York Times. “The busy Mr. Nézet-Séguin, 42, already the music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra … will not officially start at the Met until 2020…. In an interview, he … spoke of his desire to present more world premieres at the Met and to take an active role in fostering new work, sketching out plans for collaborations with his distinguished Philadelphia ensemble…. Q: What can you tell us about your plans? A: The reach that the Met can have is like no other opera house. One example is obviously Live in HD… But it can also reach next door in New York…. In Philadelphia we … went out of our walls, to more neighborhood concerts, more outdoor concerts, and were present at very important dates for the city, like the pope’s visit. But we also … welcomed people from the city to pop-up concerts. Q: What will your approach to repertory be? A: We will definitely get involved again in world premieres.… We can workshop them in Philadelphia. We can even play some excerpts symphonically in Philadelphia and then have the world premiere at the Met as a fully staged opera.”
Posted April 4, 2017
