Yannick Nézét-Séguin has been named as the next music director of New York's Metropolitan Opera. The Canadian conductor, 41, will succeed James Levine, 72, who stepped down last month due to ill health. But Nézét-Séguin won't pick up the Met baton full-time until the 2020-21 season due to his current commitments. 'It required some juggling for him to be able to come as early as then,' said the Met's general manager Peter Gelb in The New York Times.
Nézét-Séguin has also been music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra since 2012, and has just extended his contract there until 2026.
‘I’m very, very lucky, of course – maybe the luckiest music director — to be able to have what I believe to be the two greatest, arguably, organisations in the United States, symphonically and operatically: the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Met,’ he told The New York Times.
Levine has been at the helm of the Met since 1976, during which time he has conducted over 2,500 performances. He remains music director emeritus.
In 2017-18 Nézét-Séguin will become music director designate, and will conduct two operas a season. He made his debut with the Met in 2009, with Bizet’s Carmen and next season conducts Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman.
