(New York) Yannick Nézet-Séguin is transforming the Metropolitan Opera in New York from top to bottom.
When the 48-year-old conductor leans forward to stretch his arms out and accentuate the vibrato or stretches high for a fortissimo during a concert, the red soles of his patent leather Christian Louboutins become visible. He almost leaves the ground, a visual contrast to the final years of his predecessor James Levine, who had been coaching seated since 2001 and from a motorized wheelchair in his last five seasons due to Parkinson’s disease.
“I still feel like we’re at the start of our journey together,” Yannick Nézet-Séguin said during a rehearsal break last week. I can appreciate the progression of our understanding of the music, our common understanding and our confidence, so that I feel more that – I hate to say Yannick’s orchestra, because that’s not what he’s take action – I’m just here to ensure continuity. »
Finishing his fifth season as musical director, the Quebecer will lead the Met on its first international tour since 2011, performing concerts from June 27 to July 2 in Paris, London and Baden-Baden, Germany.
Yannick Nezet-Séguin has directed eight new productions and five revivals as musical director, among the 23 productions he has directed since his debut in 2009.
Musical director of the Philadelphia Orchestra since 2012-2013 and of the Orchester Métropolitain de Montréal since 2000, Yannick Nézet-Séguin has teamed up with Met General Manager Peter Gelb to guide the 140-year-old Met, towards more contemporary music in order to reach a wider audience.
For years, the Met was synonymous with James Levine, its main strength as music or artistic director from 1976 to 2016, known for his bushy hair and focus on Verdi, Wagner and Mozart.
“With the exception of the Vienna Philharmonic, major orchestras need musical directors to create unifying forces artistically,” said Met Chief Executive Peter Gelb. It was still the same group of wonderful musicians, but they were artistically rudderless, without having a musical director. »
Among a Met record of 2,552 performances from 1971 to 2017, Mr. Levine has conducted only two operas written after 1951: John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles (1991) and The Great Gatsby (The Great Gatsby) by John Harbison.
Yannick Nézet-Séguin has conducted five since becoming musical director, a varied assortment of Dialogues des Carmélites by Poulenc, Champion and Fire Shut Up In My Bones by Terence Blanchard, Eurydice by Matthew Aucoin and The Hours by Kevin Puts.
The Quebecer is set to direct Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking, Daniel Catán’s Florence en Amazonia (Florencia en el Amazonas) next season and Jeanine Tesori’s Grounded opening in 2024-25.
“What is striking is the very wide range of his tastes. I think for a long time, certainly in the Levine years, sometimes it seemed like there was one new play per decade,” commented Matthew Aucoin, who is early on in adapting Dostoyevsky’s Demons for the Met.
“What’s really solid about the kind of aesthetic ecosystem that Yannick nurtures is that it eases the pressure to see each piece be a singular masterpiece in the same tradition. And it also quite exposes the audience to some idea of the true diversity of music that is out there. You have to write bad operas to get to good ones. Verdi knew it. »
Yannick Nézet-Séguin has given a new face to the Met with his hairstyle and his attire. He dyed his short hair blonde ahead of the 2019-20 season and swapped a conductor’s uniform of tuxedos and tailcoats for outfits created by the Met’s costume department: colorful shirts and sometimes flowery, a boxing robe for Champion and a blue conductor’s jacket with golden straps for Puccini’s La Bohème.
“He likes to be a player who plays for the gallery, Mr. Gelb said, but it’s more like icing on the cake, because the most important thing is that he is deeply sound musically. . »
Initially hired by the Met in 2016 for a term as music director beginning in 2020, Yannick Nézet-Séguin moved up his arrival to 2018-19. Twelve orchestra musicians have been hired since Yannick Nézet-Séguin became designated music director in 2017.
“With Jimmy, he would just sit on the podium, shape the music and everyone would come to him one way or another. And it was more of eye contact communication, sometimes a wry smile on his face, mentioned Donald Palumbo, the Met’s choirmaster since 2007. With Yannick, you always feel there’s an active process going on with him trying to get things out of the choir and the orchestra. »
Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducted the original French version of Verdi’s Don Carlos, the first performances of Wagner’s Lohengrin since 2006, and in February directs the return of Verdi’s La Force du Destin (La Forza del Destino).
In 2024-25, he will direct a new staging of Strauss’s Salomé by Claus Guth, as well as a revival of La Femme sans ombre (Die Frau ohne Schatten) and, in the following years, a new staging of L ‘Ring of the Nibelung (Der Ring des Nibelungen) by Wagner, whose director has not yet been chosen.
He led a group of 143 people that traveled to Paris last weekend and needed 76 suitcases of equipment in a 747-400 freighter. Concerts include Aucoin’s Heath (King Lear Sketches), which premiered at Carnegie Hall last week. The new music became more central than he had imagined.
“After Fire, I went to see Peter and I said, look, the public is sending us a message here,” said Yannick Nézet-Séguin. We have to take care to welcome all the communities in our room and so we have to reprogram and think: how can we build on these communities? »
The enthusiasm of the Quebec musical director stimulates composers who perceived the Met as a museum.
“This new approach to programming that the Met has undertaken is obviously very exciting, not just for me, but for all composers around the world, that they have put contemporary music at the center of what they do,” said Kevin Putts. The first time the orchestra plays the piece, you can feel its excitement. It’s really important for a composer to feel that enthusiasm. »
To celebrate Pride Month, the bandleader streamed a performance of the classic Somewhere (There’s a Place for Us) on his Facebook page.
