Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Luisi Named Principal Guest Conductor of the Met

Fabio Luisi has been named principal guest conductor of the Metropolitan Opera, effective with the 2010-11 season. He has a three-year contract and will spend two to three months per season in NY.

Dan Wakin Times article here.
Possibly temporary Met News Flash here.

4 comments:

Henry Holland said...

I wonder if this is an audition for the Music Director job, since I have no confidence that Levine can come back full time.

Lisa Hirsch said...

Levine can function as MD with a reduced schedule - I just looked him up and he has conducted an unbelievable 2400 or so performances in 38 years. But, yeah, it could certainly be a tryout of some kind. Luisi has conducted around 45 performances.

carey bell said...

That's great news for them. He's one of the very best conductors I've worked with, both at SFO and SFS. Fantastic!

Lisa Hirsch said...

Hey, Carey!! You made it home from tonight's concert faster than I did, assuming you were playing. Given the size of the orchestra, that seems a safe assumption, but I was in Row E, orch., and couldn't see the woodwinds. (Henry, SFS played the Zemlinsky Lyric Symphony tonight...)

Luisi must have conducted something at SFO that I missed, because darned if I can remember ever having heard him live.

Indeed - the 2002-03 run of Butterfly, which I skipped.