Yannick Nézet-Séguin Conducts Strauss and Wagner in 2017-2018 Season

Summary: Music Director Designate Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Strauss and Wagner in the 2017-2018 season at the Metropolitan Opera.

Music Director Designate Yannick Nézet-Séguin holds Met Opera's conductor's baton in late winter and early spring performances in the 2017-2018 Met Opera season: Yannick Nézet-Séguin @nezetseguin, via Twitter Feb. 15, 2017

Music Director Designate Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Strauss and Wagner in the 2017-2018 season at New York City’s Metropolitan Opera.

The Metropolitan Opera’s Music Director Designate, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, becomes the company’s official music director in the 2020-2021 season. His designated title balances the title of Music Director Emeritus bestowed upon James Levine, who retired as music director at the end of the 2015-2016 season.

During the 2017-2018 season, Nézet-Séguin appears on the conductor’s podium. His appearances take place in late winter and early spring 2018.

On Monday, Feb. 5, 2018, Nézet-Séguin is scheduled to conduct six of seven performances of Parsifal by Wilhelm Richard Wagner (May 22, 1813-Feb. 13, 1883). He opens and closes the production on Monday, Feb. 5, and Tuesday, Feb. 27, respectively. In addition, he also conducts performances on Saturday, Feb. 10; Tuesday, Feb. 13; Saturday, Feb. 17; and Tuesday, Feb. 20.

American conductor John Keenan is conducting the opera’s Friday, Feb. 23, performance. On Nov. 1, 1990, Keenan made his conducting debut at the Metropolitan Opera in the 1990-1991 season’s production of Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Jan. 27, 1756-Dec. 5, 1791).

The Met’s Music Director Designate’s second conducting performance for the 2017-2018 season takes place with the next month’s performances of Elektra by Richard Georg Strauss (June 11, 1864-Sept. 8, 1949). He conducts five of the production’s six performances.

On Thursday, March 1, Nézet-Séguin opens Strauss’s one-act, Greek mythology-themed tragic opera. He conducts the next four performances: Monday, March 5; Friday, March 9; Monday, March 12; Saturday, March 17.

On Friday, March 23, American conductor Paul Nadler conducts the season’s closing performance of Elektra. Nadler’s conducting debut at the Metropolitan Opera took place Nov. 25, 1989, with the 1989-1990 season’s production of Rigoletto by Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (Oct. 10, 1813-Jan. 27, 1901).

Nézet-Séguin’s Metropolitan Opera debut happened during the 2009-2010 season. On Dec. 31, 2009, he opened the season’s new production of Carmen by Georges Bizet (Oct. 25, 1838-June 3, 1875). Opening night also marked the debut of the new production’s director, English film, opera, television and theatre director Sir Richard Eyre. Nézet-Séguin conducted five more performances of Sir Richard Eyre’s new production between Jan. 5 and Jan. 21, 2010.

Since his 2009 debut, Nézet-Séguin has returned for conducting performances in every subsequent season. He conducted Verdi’s Don Carlo during the 2010-2011 and 2014-2015 seasons. In the 2011-2012 season, he conducted Faust by Charles-François Gounod (June 17, 1818-Oct. 18, 1893). During the 2012-2013 season, Nézet-Séguin conducted Verdi’s La Traviata. In the 2013-2014 season, he conducted Rusalka by Antonín Dvořák (Sept. 8, 1841-May 1, 1904).

For the 2015-2016 season, Nézet-Séguin conducted performances in September, including opening night, and in October of the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Verdi’s Otello. He shared the production’s podium with Hungarian conductor Adam Fischer.

Adam Fischer conducted the production’s spring performances, including closing night. Fischer’s conducting debut at the Metropolitan Opera occurred April 14, 1994, with the 1993-1994 season’s production of Verdi’s Otello.

American theatre director Bartlett Sher directed the season’s new production of Otello. Sher’s debut as Metropolitan Opera production director occurred Nov. 10, 2006, with the 2006-2007 season’s production of Il Barbiere di Siviglia by Gioachino Antonio Rossini (Feb. 29, 1792-Nov. 13, 1868).

During the Metropolitan Opera’s 2016-2017 season, Nézet-Séguin conducted all five performances of Wagner’s Der Fliegende Holländer. The three-act opera opened Tuesday, April 25, and closed Friday, May 12.

The takeaway for Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s conducting of operas by Strauss and Wagner in the 2017-2018 season is the Music Director Designate’s committed involvement with the Metropolitan Opera’s past eight seasons despite his international status as an in-demand conductor and his obligations as music director of Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Rotterdam Philharmonic.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin officially becomes Met Opera's Music Director in the 2020-2021 season: The New York Times @nytimes, via Twitter June 2, 2016

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Music Director Designate Yannick Nézet-Séguin holds Met Opera's conductor's baton in late winter and early spring performances in the 2017-2018 Met Opera season: Yannick Nézet-Séguin @nezetseguin, via Twitter Feb. 15, 2017, @ https://twitter.com/nezetseguin/status/831990187802652678

Yannick Nézet-Séguin officially becomes Met Opera's Music Director in the 2020-2021 season: The New York Times @nytimes, via Twitter June 2, 2016, @ https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/738351471788462080

For further information:

“Debut: John Keenan.” MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 302390 Don Giovanni {405} Metropolitan Opera House: 11/1/1990.
Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=302390

“Debut: Paul Nadler.” MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 298610 Rigoletto {654} Metropolitan Opera House: 11/25/1989.
Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=298610

“Debuts: Bartlett Sher, Catherine Zuber, Christopher Akerlind, Rob Besserer.” MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 351644 New Production Il Barbiere di Siviglia {551} Metropolitan Opera House: 11/10/2006.
Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=351644

“Debuts: Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Richard Eyre, Rob Howell, Irene Bohan, Elizabeth Caballero, Maria Kowroski, Martin Harvey.” MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 353274 New Production Carmen {946} Metropolitan Opera House: 12/31/2009.
Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=353274

Marriner, Derdriu. “2017-2018 Metropolitan Opera Season Schedules 26 Productions.” Earth and Space News. Monday, June 19, 2017.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/06/2017-2018-metropolitan-opera-season_19.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “Music Director Emeritus James Levine Conducts Mozart and Verdi in 2017-2018.” Earth and Space News. Monday, July 3, 2017.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/07/music-director-emeritus-james-levine.html

The New York Times @nytimes. “Yannick Nézet-Séguin will succeed James Levine as the Metropolitan Opera’s music director.” Twitter. June 2, 2016.
Available @ https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/738351471788462080

“Yannick Nézet-Séguin Named the Metropolitan Opera’s Music Director.” The Metropolitan Opera > About > Press Releases. June 2, 2016.
Available @ http://www.metopera.org/About/Press-Releases/YannickNezet-Seguin/

Yannick Nézet-Séguin @nezetseguin. “Excited to conduct Parsifal+Elektra in 1st season as Music director designate@MetOpera.” Twitter. Feb. 15, 2017.
Available @ https://twitter.com/nezetseguin/status/831990187802652678