Montrealer Yannick Nézet-Séguin tapped as Met Opera's new musical director
'Fulfillment of a lifelong dream,' says 41-year-old conductor
Yannick Nézet-Séguin will succeed James Levine as music director of the Metropolitan Opera, but will not take over until the 2020-21 season.
Nézet-Séguin will become music director designate in 2017-18 and start to collaborate on planning the company's schedule, often done five years in advance or more. He will conduct two operas per season as music director designate and five operas per season once he assumes the role.
"I can't recall a day in my life when I've been more joyful," Nézet-Séguin said Thursday during a webstream chat with stakeholder leaders of the Met.
To be "the next caretaker of the music in this house is just a dream come true," said the young Montrealer, who was speaking from Japan, where he is currently on tour with the Philadelphia Orchestra.
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The 41-year-old Canadian, considered the favourite to replace Levine, has been music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra since the 2012-13 season and of Montreal's Orchestre Metropolitain since 2000. He has been chief conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic since 2008-09 and intends to give up that role at the end of the 2017-18 season.
Yannick was the clear choice of the company...He is the right artist at the right time to lead us forward.- Peter Gelb, Metropolitan Opera
"Yannick was the clear choice of the company," Met general manager Peter Gelb said in a statement.
"He is the right artist at the right time to lead us forward."
'Temple of song'
New York's Met is "the high holy temple of song, as I call it," acclaimed Canadian tenor and radio broadcaster Ben Heppner told CBC in Toronto Thursday morning.
Landing such an important and influential post — arguably one of the top three classical music jobs in the world — says something about the caliber of Canada's opera talent.
"We've already got a good reputation as singers. We've got a good bunch of singers in the world right now," said Heppner, considered one of the world's foremost tenors before his retirement from the opera and concert stage in 2014.
"Now, to have this very, very public, prominent position as conductor at the Met, I think it's just the best."
A regular since 2009 season
Nézet-Séguin made his Met debut in the 2009-10 season conducting a new production of Bizet's Carmen and returned every year since, including opening the 2015-2016 season with Otello.
He is slated to return to New York in the fall to prepare for the company's revival of The Flying Dutchman, his first time tackling a Wagner opera for the Met.
"You have demonstrated to us your warmth, spirit and boundless energy. You have such a wonderful way of drawing out the best [in everyone]," clarinetist Jessica Phillips, chair of the Met's Orchestra committee, told the conductor during the webstream Thursday.
"We are so delighted in your appointment to music director. It truly is the product of the fruitful relationship we have developed over the years."
He will become just the third person with the music director title at the Met following Rafael Kubelik in 1973-74 and Levine.
"Becoming the music director of the Metropolitan Opera is the fulfillment of a lifelong dream for me," Nézet-Séguin said in a statement.
"I am truly honoured and humbled by the opportunity to succeed the legendary James Levine and to work with the extraordinary orchestra, chorus, and staff of what I believe is the greatest opera company in the world. I will make it my mission to passionately preserve the highest artistic standards while imagining a new, bright future for our art form."
Levine, who turns 73 on June 23, was music director or artistic director of the company from the 1976-77 season until the company announced in April he was stepping down because of Parkinson's disease. He is now music director emeritus.
With files from CBC News