Luisi to Dallas

Fabio Luisi

Barbara Luisi Photograph

Fabio Luisi will succeed Jaap van Zweden as Music Director of the Dallas Symphony. Luisi is best-known in the US as Principal Conductor of the Met, a position he assumed when James Levine's health kept him off the podium for an extended period of time. (You would have thought this would put him in first place to succeed Levine, but no.) He is Music Director Designate for 2018-19 and become MD in 2019-20.

And, from the press release, here is something I dislike intensely:

Best known to American audiences for his acclaimed work as Principal Conductor of the Metropolitan Opera and guest engagements with leading U.S. orchestras, Fabio Luisi currently holds three key European positions: Principal Conductor of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, General Music Director of the Zurich Opera, and Music Director of Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. His previous orchestral posts include tenures as Chief Conductor of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, General Music Director of the Staatskapelle Dresden, Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the MDR Symphony Orchestra Leipzig, and Musical Director of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. He is also Music Director of the summer “Festival della Valle d’Itria” in Italy’s Martina Franca.

It'll be interesting to see whether he resigns from any of his current jobs, which include two festivals, an orchestra, and an opera company. I repeat what I have said before: this kind of multiple appointment situation basically suppresses a lot of talented people and keeps them out of good jobs.

Updated list of openings, etc.:

• Royal Philharmonic Orchestra: currently looking owing to departure of Charles Dutoit
• Orchestre National de Lyon: open now, with Leonard Slatkin's departure
• Opera North: open now, with Aleksandr Markovic's departure
• Opera Theatre of Saint Louis: 2017 is Stephen Lord's final season as MD
• Teatro Regio Turin: Open now with departure of Gianandrea Noseda 
• Minnesota Opera: Michael Christie leaves this year 
• Sao Paulo Symphony: Marin Alsop leaves at some point
• BBC Philharmonic when Juanjo Mena leaves at the end of 2017-18
• Berkeley Symphony, when Joana Carneiro leaves at the end of 2017-18
• Washington National Opera, departure of Philippe Auguin at conclusion of 2017-18 
• San Francisco Opera, departure of Nicola Luisotti at conclusion of 2017-18
• Detroit Symphony Orchestra, which Leonard Slatkin leaves at the close of the 2017-18 season.
• MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony: 2018 departure for Kristian Jarvi
• Scottish Chamber Orchestra: 2018 departure for Robin Ticciati
• Toronto SO: 2018 departure for Peter Oundjian
• Winnipeg SO: 2018 departure for Alexander Mickelthwate
• Orchestre de Paris, when Daniel Harding leaves at the end of 2018-19
• Sarasota Orchestra after Anu Tali  leaves at the end of 2018-2019
• Melbourne Symphony: Sir Andrew Davis leaves at the end of 2019 
• Ulster Orchestra: Rafael Payare leaves in 2019
• Richmond Symphony: Steven Smith leaves in 2019 
• Singapore Symphony: 2019 departure for Lan Shui
• Dresden Philharmonic: 2019 departure for Michael Sanderling
• Sydney Symphony Orchestra: David Robertson will be leaving the SSO at the end of 2019. So he really will be without an orchestral home as of 1/1/2020.
• San Francisco Symphony! when MTT leaves at the end of 2019-20
• Montreal Symphony Orchestra: Kent Nagano is leaving the OSM after 2019-2020. 
• Fort Worth Symphony: Miguel Harth-Bedoya leaves in 2020 
• Royal Opera, when Antonio Pappano leaves in 2020
• Opera de Paris, when Philippe Jordan leaves in 2020
• Atlanta Symphony, when Robert Spano leaves in 2020
• Virginia Symphony: JoAnn Falletta leaves in 2020
• BBC National Orchestra of Wales when Thomas Søndergård leaves for his new job
• Milwaukee Symphony
• Shanghai Symphony Orchestra

Conductors looking for jobs (that is, as of the near future, or now, they do not have a posting):

• Lionel Bringuier
• Robert Spano
• Juanjo Mena
• Antonio Pappano
• Ludovic Morlot
• Sian Edwards
• Jun Markl
• Ingo Metzmacher
• Jac van Steen
• Mark Wigglesworth
• Simone Young 
• David Robertson
• Peter Oundjian as of the end of 2017-18
• Philippe Auguin
• Kwame Ryan
• Ilan Volkov
• Aleksandr Markovic
• Lothar Koenigs
• Henrik Nanasi

And closed:

• Dallas Symphony: Fabio Luisi assumes the position of Music Director in 2019-20. He has an initial five-year contract.
• Orchestra of St. Luke's: Bernard Labadie starts with the 2018-2019 season 
• Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra: Thomas Zehetmair starts with the 2018-2019 season
• BBC Concert Orchestra: Bramwell Tovey started in 2018 
• Toledo Symphony: Alain Trudel starts with the 2018-2019 season
• Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich: Paavo Jarvi starts with the 2019-2020 season
• Netherlands Radio Philharmonic: Karina Canellakis starts with the 2019-2020 season 
• Sylvain Cambreling has replaced the late Sir Jeffrey Tate at the Hamburg Symphony
• San Diego Symphony: Rafael Payare starts in 2019 
• Yomiuri Nippon Symphony: Sebastian Weigle starts in April 2019
• Vienna RSO: Marin Alsop starts with the 2019-2020 season
• Elim Chan becomes chief conductor of the Antwerp Symphony in 2019-20
• Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra: Jaime Martin starts with the 2019-2020 season 
• Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège: Gergely Madaras starts with the 2019-2020 season 
• Kent Nagano is now the Generalmusikdirektor of the Staatsoper in Hamburg
• WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne: Cristian Măcelaru starts with the 2019-2020 season
• Israel Philharmonic: Lahav Shani starts with the 2020-2021 season 
• Bayerische Staatsoper when Vladimir Jurowski joins in 2021.
• Vienna Symphony: Andrés Orozco-Estrada starts with the 2021-2022 season
• Clarinetist Martin Frøst becomes chief conductor of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra in 2019 when Thomas Dausgaard leaves for Seattle.Thomas Zehetmair is going to the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra in 2019
• Matthias Bamert is going to the Sapporo Symphony in 2018 
• Lorenzo Viotti was named music director of the Gulbenkian Orchestra, as of 2018
• Joana Mallwitz appointed GMD in Nuremberg, effective 2018
• Philippe Jordan to the Vienna Staatsoper / VPO (Dominique Meyer not planning to appoint a WSO MD; his contract expires in 2020.)
• Semyon! Bychkov! fills the vacancy at the Czech Philharmonic, following the death of Jiří Bělohlávek
• Dennis Russell Davies becomes music director of the Brno Philharmonic, which had been open since 2015, as of the 2018-19 season.
• Nicola Luisotti becoming an assistant music director at the Teatro Real, Madrid, 2018.
• Seattle Symphony, where Thomas Dausgaard will succeed Ludovic Morlot in 2018-19; announced early October, 2016
• Vancouver Symphony; Otto Tausk comes on in 2018

Dallas Opera, 2017-18

Well, well, one of the more unusual operatic seasons in the US, and it's in Dallas. Good for you - I will finally make my first visit, maybe two, to Texas. Once again, I steal liberally from OT. The Dallas Opera web page about the season is here.

October 20- November 5 2017: Samson and Dalila
October 27-November 12 2017: La traviata
February 9-17 2018: Erich Wolfgang Korngold's The Ring of Polykrates
March 9-17 2018: Michel van der Aa's Sunken Garden
April 13-29 2018: Don Giovanni

The items of interest are obvious: the American premieres of both Korngold's The Ring of Polykrates and Michel van der Aa's Sunken Garden. I don't know van der Aa's music, and I admit that I poked this opera and The Secret Garden for the similarity of their sets. But, yeah, I'd really like to see it! And that's partly because I don't know his music at all.

I need to mention that the great British baritone Roderick Williams is in Sunken Garden. I've seen him twice, once in the Britten War Requiem at SFS and once in Harrison Birtwistle's Yan Tan Tethera, and he is one of the best you will ever hear.

There's some attractive casting elsewhere, too, most notably Mariusz Kwiecien as Don Giovanni.

You'll Need a Scorecard for This

Anna Netrebko withdrew just last week from upcoming  Norma productions at both the Metropolitan Opera (opening night, 2017-18) and the Royal Opera (fall, 2016-17). Now the Met has announced what will happen instead. Presumably the ROH, Dallas Opera, and Vienna State Opera (just wait) have done the same.

• Sondra Radvanovsky replaces Netrebko in the Met opening night 2017-18 production. (In my opinion, this was a predictable and desirable casting, and let me say that Rad was terrific in SF the other year.) She is also singing Leonora in Calixto Bieito's new staging of La Forza del Destino in the same season, which will be her company role debut.
• For this to happen, the Vienna State Opera released Radvanovsky from her scheduled appearances as the Trovatore Leonora....
• ....which will instead be sung by Anna Netrebko. In other words, they are swapping engagements.
• Netrebko is still singing the Trovatore Leonora and Tosca at the Met in 2017-18.
• MEANWHILE in London, Sonya Yoncheka (!) will sing Norma at the ROH in the fall of 2016-17. I did not see this one coming.
• The Met released Yoncheva from scheduled appearances as Mimi in La Boheme so that she could sing Norma in London.
• Ailyn Perez is available to sing Mimi in the Met performances originally to be sung by Yoncheva....
• ...because she decided to postpone her role debut as Tatiana at the Dallas Opera this fall.

Whew! Fast work, y'all.

What I want to know (not covered in the Met's four-company press release): when will Sonya Yoncheva sing in San Francisco, and what will she be singing?