Q. What's the difference between a conductor and God?
...
A. God doesn't think he's a conductor.
Yannick Nézet-Séguin was named the future Music Director of the Metropolitan Opera in 2016, effective with the 2020–2021 season, and conducted regularly at the Met thereafter. When the legendary great conductor James Levine was dismissed, for abuse and harassment, in 2018, the company announced that Nézet-Séguin would take the title of music director two years early, as of the 2018–2019 season.
It wasn’t as though he needed a job. Yannick – everyone calls him that (or refers to him as YNS). He clearly invites it, identifies on his Twitter account as ‘Globe-trotter, loves Tennis, cats + people, father of Philadelphia Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera, Orchestre Métropolitain Mtl, uncle of Rotterdam Philharmonic’. From all accounts, he doesn't think he's God.
And it wasn’t as though he was a stranger to the Met’s incomparable orchestra – as the productions on offer this week show, he’d been guest conducting there for a decade. But his arrival in the official role at the Met, already coloured by the firing of Levine, was impeded by Covid19. In April, Yannick conducted the Met Gala at Home, to great praise. Listen here to their Va Pensiero.
Now’s our chance to focus on the part in every opera played by a conductor, the man (usually) with (since Wagner) his back to the audience.
It's a role increasingly challenged, with the days of the God Conductor theoretically ending. But does the conductor need power, and does the opera need to be driven? Listen here to Antonio Pappano, ROH Chief Conductor, as he thinks through these issues.
Now watch Yannick Live with Carnegie Hall .
For the Met, and its audiences, there are many questions about the appointment. for the audiences there is the fascination of another very media-worthy figurehead. The first openly gay Met Music Director, yes, and the youngest, he is also the most (apparently) democratic, radical, modern....????
Here are some comments from observers on the new Maestro at the Met...
'No revolutionary, Nézet-Séguin emerges as a moderate revisionist. He'll question tradition. '
'Beefcake doesn't hurt. A Music Director is a figurehead, a walking corporate logo. YSN could boost audience figures without even raising his baton.'
'Drawing transparent, glowing playing from the orchestra, Mr. Nézet-Séguin had this score seeming not just refined but musically significant.
And here are the week's offerings from the Met (our dates)
Monday, November 16
Thomas Adès’s The Exterminating Angel
Starring Audrey Luna, Amanda Echalaz, Sally Matthews, Sophie Bevan, Alice Coote, Christine Rice, Iestyn Davies, Joseph Kaiser, Frédéric Antoun, David Portillo, David Adam Moore, Rod Gilfry, Kevin Burdette, Christian Van Horn, and John Tomlinson, conducted by Thomas Adès. From November 18, 2017.
No it's not conducted by YNS - the Met's week starts Tuesday our time. But the composer himself conducted this performance of a very extraordinary modern opera.
Tuesday, November 17 Verdi’s Don Carlo Starring Marina Poplavskaya, Roberto Alagna, Simon Keenlyside, and Ferruccio Furlanetto, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. From December 11, 2010.
Wednesday, November 18 Gounod’s Faust Starring Marina Poplavskaya, Jonas Kaufmann, and René Pape, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. From December 10, 2011.
Brilliantly cast as well as conducted - though Kaufmann had trouble being elderly. NYTimes review here remarks it was 'conducted by the impressively gifted Yannick Nézet-Séguin and starred the charismatic tenor Jonas Kaufmann in the title role.'
Thursday, November 19 Dvořák’s Rusalka Starring Renée Fleming, Emily Magee, Dolora Zajick, Piotr Beczała, and John Relyea, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. From February 8, 2014.
Friday, November 20 Verdi’s La Traviata Starring Diana Damrau, Juan Diego Flórez, and Quinn Kelsey, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. From December 15, 2018.
Saturday, November 21 Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites Starring Isabel Leonard, Adrianne Pieczonka, and Karita Mattila, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. From May 11, 2019.
Sunday, November 22 Puccini’s Turandot Starring Christine Goerke, Eleonora Buratto, Yusif Eyvazov, and James Morris, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. From October 12, 2019.
Monday, November 23 Berg’s Wozzeck Starring Elza van den Heever, Tamara Mumford, Christopher Ventris, Gerhard Siegel, Andrew Staples, Peter Mattei, and Christian Van Horn, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. From January 11, 2020.
Lyn 13 Nov (to be updated)