‘I’m there to just curate’: Metropolitan Opera musical director Yannick Nézet-Séguin on updating a New York institution
- The Met’s musical director hesitates to call its players ‘Yannick’s orchestra’, but he has changed the opera company’s repertoire to add more contemporary music
- Nézet-Séguin’s enthusiasm stimulated composers who saw the Met as a museum. ‘The first time the orchestra plays the piece, you sense his excitement,’ says one
Yannick Nézet-Séguin is remaking the Metropolitan Opera from the bottom up.
When the 48-year-old conductor leans forward to extend his arms and emphasise vibrato or stretches high for a fortissimo during a concert, the red soles of his patent leather Christian Louboutins become visible.
He nearly leaves the ground, a visual contrast to the final years of predecessor James Levine, who conducted while seated from 2001 on and from a motorised wheelchair during his final five seasons because of Parkinson’s disease.
“I still feel that we are at the beginning of our journey together,” Nézet-Séguin says.
“I can appreciate maybe the growth in our understanding of music, common understanding and the trust, so it feels much more like – I hate to say Yannick’s orchestra, because it’s not what it’s about – I’m there to just curate.”