Tilman Michael to change into Metropolitan Opera refrain director, succeeding Donald Palumbo
NEW YORK — Tilman Michael will change into refrain director of the Metropolitan Opera subsequent season following the retirement of Donald Palumbo after 17 years as refrain grasp.
Michael, 49, was refrain grasp on the Nationwide Theater in Mannheim, Germany, then has held the identical job at Oper Frankfurt since 2014–15. He spent 10 years aiding the refrain grasp on the annual Richard Wagner Competition in Bayreuth.
Michael labored with Met music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin in 2019 throughout performances of Shostakovich’s thirteenth symphony with the Rotterdam Philharmonic and the choir of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Nézet-Séguin and Thomas Lausmann, the Met’s director of music administration, approached Michael for the job final yr.
Lausmann attended a efficiency of Verdi’s “Don Carlo” in Frankfurt and Michael traveled to the Met to hearken to the refrain in Verdi’s “La Forza del Destino” and Puccini’s “Turandot.” His hiring was introduced Tuesday.
“The Metropolitan Opera Home is a particular home and some of the necessary opera homes on the planet,” Michael mentioned. “In fact, New York is a really, very, fascinating and vibrant metropolis which supplied I believe many alternatives.”
The orchestra and refrain are central components of the corporate, which presents as much as seven performances of 4 works in any week and 18 operas throughout a season. The refrain has 74 common members plus 85 additional choristers.
Michael spent a day working with the Met refrain, as did different candidates, Met common supervisor Peter Gelb mentioned.
“Yannick and Thomas had been satisfied that he was the proper individual for the Met,” Gelb mentioned. “He was one of many main candidates from the start who was invited to return to the Met and to check out, to have a working session or two with the refrain.”
