Metropolitan Opera’s new music director to start early after James Levine sex abuse scandal
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, youthful successor to Levine, to take up his baton in September for star-studded season featuring Placido Domingo, Anna Netrebko, Roberto Alagna, Jonas Kaufmann and Diana Damrau
The Metropolitan Opera’s incoming music director, the young Canadian conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, will take charge this autumn, two years ahead of schedule, to make a fresh break after abuse allegations against his predecessor.
Announcing its new season last week, the New York opera house said the 42-year-old Montreal native would lead the troupe in September after freeing up his schedule from guest conducting commitments.
“The orchestra loves him, the chorus loves him, everyone in the building loves him. He is a truly great artist under whom the Met will only thrive,” the opera house’s general manager, Peter Gelb, said.
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The boyish-looking conductor with a shoulder tattoo and youthful flair will offer a quick change in image for the Met, which has faced heat over sexual abuse allegations surrounding Nézet-Séguin’s legendary predecessor, James Levine.
The 74-year-old, whose face has been inextricably linked to the Met after 40 years as music director, has been accused by at least four musicians of fondling them when they were teenage students.
The Met in December suspended Levine, who had already retired as music director amid health problems but had planned to stay active in an emeritus position.
The Met, which, like so many classical music and opera institutions in the US, is constantly worried about its finances, said it was able to bring forward the start of Nézet-Séguin’s tenure after a US$15 million gift.