Gustavo Dudamel to be Paris Opera Music Director

[pherank]

Gustavo Dudamel, Superstar Conductor, Will Lead Paris Opera

In a coup, the venerable company has hired as its next music director the rare classical artist to have crossed into pop-culture celebrity.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/16/arts/music/gustavo-dudamel-paris-opera.html

[On Pointe]

Fascinating that Dudamel considered watching ballet an important aspect of his musical education as a conductor.  Now he'll get to conduct for the great Paris Opera Ballet,  or,  as the article dubs it,  "the in-house dance company".

[pherank]

2 hours ago, On Pointe said:

Fascinating that Dudamel considered watching ballet an important aspect of his musical education as a conductor.  Now he'll get to conduct for the great Paris Opera Ballet,  or,  as the article dubs it,  "the in-house dance company".

It's an unexpected choice to make for a symphony music and art director - I still don't know why he's doing it - but it does open up a plum position in the U.S. Perhaps for someone like Marin Alsop?

Edited April 17, 2021 by pherank

[Helene]

Dudamel has been an opera conductor for quite some time.

What's more interesting is that he came up through La Sistema and is dedicated to the program.  I wouldn't be at all surprised to see him be involved in outreach.

It's hard to fathom that he's only forty.

[On Pointe]

55 minutes ago, pherank said:

It's an unexpected choice to make for a symphony music and art director - I still don't know why he's doing it - but it does open up a plum position in the U.S. Perhaps for someone like Marin Alsop?

Not really.  He intends to keep his position in LA.

[pherank]

6 hours ago, On Pointe said:

Not really.  He intends to keep his position in LA.

I see how the contracts overlap, I just don't see how it's really possible to do all those things at once - effectively. In a shrinking classical music world, is it really the best choice to make?
 

[dirac]

8 hours ago, Helene said:

Dudamel has been an opera conductor for quite some time.

What's more interesting is that he came up through La Sistema and is dedicated to the program.  I wouldn't be at all surprised to see him be involved in outreach.

It's hard to fathom that he's only forty.

This.

From the L.A. Times:

Quote

Dudamel will remain here at least through the 2025-26 season, Smith emphasized, and the conductor will not change the number of weeks he spends in L.A. Dudamel’s involvement in Youth Orchestra Los Angeles, which is opening a Frank Gehry-designed center in Inglewood this year and contemplating another one in South Gate along the L.A. River, should only increase.

“The appointment,” Smith said, “opens up the possibility for real collaboration with Paris Opera.”

 

[Helene]

Almost every major symphony conductor is also the conductor of another organization, whether it be an opera house, which often includes ballet in rep, or another orchestra, and they do guest conducting work, sometimes a great deal of it, like Dudamel does.  In the middle tier, they often are involved in one or more organizations, some of them small ones they created themselves or festivals.  For conductors of small orchestras, they have to if they need to earn a living.  It's always a trade-off for all but the "major" organization to decide whether it's worth someone's name, reputation, fundraising appeal, and orchestra development, just for a start, vs. dedicated time, just as when they hire guest conductors.  Whether that's good or bad, it's very common.  

Also, in the European opera houses, and probably big orchestras, there is a layer of management, which, in the case of Paris Opera, is exceedingly strong, as anyone who saw the Millepied doc witnessed, and there's a lot of administration that he wouldn't have to worry about  There are union contracts that strictly limit working conditions and pay, and the role that Dudamel will play is much less about administration than it might be in the US or Canada, all of which is in the hands of the uber-leader, Neef. .  Also, in the major companies, if the lead conductor actually leads six of twenty productions, that is a huge number.  A conductor can do a lot of the rest of the work remotely, learned even before the pandemic and Zoom.

I remember when Salonen said that Gergieve liked to conduct so much, because it was the only time his cell phone wasn't ringing.

[pherank]

9 hours ago, Helene said:

I remember when Salonen said that Gergieve liked to conduct so much, because it was the only time his cell phone wasn't ringing.

I think that's a common sentiment among conductors. I realize that this "sharing" of talent goes on everywhere, but...

it just strikes me as another one of these "missed opportunities". Why not hire someone in the "middle ranks" of classical music that is promising (and not simply Euro White male)?
I'm sure Neef had great reasons though.  😉

[pherank]

Relating to my remarks above...

Beginning in September, Marta Gardolińska will become the first female (and first Polish) musical director of the Opéra national de Lorraine in Nancy, one of the five national operas outside of Paris. As it happens, Gardolińska will be working with the LA Philharmonic on a Hollywood Bowl performance this September (Dudamel is a supporter of her work).

Meanwhile, "as Marin Alsop leaves the Baltimore Symphony after 14 years, the field is taking a step backward: 25 major American orchestras, no female music directors."

I think I read somewhere that the number of female directors and conductors remains around 5% in Europe, but I'm searching about for some confirmation of that...

[volcanohunter]

Oksana Lyniv is about to become the first woman to conduct at the Bayreuth Festival.

https://www.bayreuther-festspiele.de/en/programm/auffuehrungen/der-fliegende-hollaender/

https://m.dw.com/en/the-bayreuth-festival-to-have-a-female-conductor-for-the-first-time/a-55003920

[volcanohunter]

Dudamel is leaving Paris tout suite.

 

[pherank]

34 minutes ago, volcanohunter said:

Dudamel is leaving Paris tout suite.

It seems to be difficult to last in Paris, or sit comfortably there. Although this may be entirely Dudamel's doing.

[volcanohunter]

Philippe Jordan held the post for 12 years and had his contract extended twice, so it can be done. However, if, like Benjamin Millepied, someone goes in there with an intent to overhaul the institution, they're likely to get slammed hard by the rebounding door on the way out.

[volcanohunter]

Judging by his bio on the Paris Opera site, Dudamel conducted only one ballet gala. Otherwise he conducted a handful of operas and a concert of symphonic music in each of his two seasons. This is not unusual. Antonio Pappano does not conduct the Royal Ballet, and Riccardo Chailly does not conduct La Scala's ballet company. There are specialists for that.

[Josette]

Dudamel brought about 12 POB dancers for two performances at the Hollywood Bowl last summer and he conducted.  It was a wonderful show, probably for the first time that many, many of the audience had seen ballet, or ballet at a such a high level.  

I live in L.A. and regularly have watched/heard Dudamel conduct at Disney Hall.  I recall a performance where he conducted Apollo, which was performed by Roberto Bolle with Stella Abrera as Polyhymnia.  

Dudamel had been slated to conduct the first three performances of The Dante Project at the Palais Garnier when POB premiered it this May, with composer Ades to follow, but about six to eight weeks before the performances, the POB website showed that Ades would conduct the ballet for the first two performances, and Dudamel was not conducting.  (I was there for the first four performances.)   I do not keep an eye on Dudamel's schedule and am not going to research it or speculate, but the baton change is interesting to note. The Dante Project score was a commission or partial commission by the L.A. Philharmonic, which regularly performs Ades's works.   Dudamel had conducted The Dante Project, music only, three times at the LA Music Center in April of 2022 (I attended twice, it was brilliant and appreciated by a diverse audience, Ades was in the audience and seemed quite happy, and I had the opportunity to speak with him).  It has been recorded, with Dudamel conducting L.A. Phil. 

Off topic: The Dante Project as a ballet is a co-production by The Royal Ballet and POB.  I saw both companies dance it multiple times and will see it again in London in December of 2023.  It will be performed by The Royal Danish Ballet in November of 2023.

Edited May 26 by Josette

[Fosca]

On 5/26/2023 at 1:26 AM, volcanohunter said:

Antonio Pappano does not conduct the Royal Ballet, and Riccardo Chailly does not conduct La Scala's ballet company. There are specialists for that.

Daniel Barenboim once directed a Swan Lake premiere at Berlin, Kent Nagano directed ballet in Munich when he was Music Director at the National Theatre, Simone Young directed John Neumeier's "Purgatorio" with Mahler music, when she was Music Director at Hamburg. Some famous conductors take an interest in ballet music, but it's rare. Gergiev often directed ballet, also abroad. 

[volcanohunter]

Gergiev insisted on conducting Tchaikovsky's ballets when they were being committed to video, but it has never been the usual practice, he doesn't stoop to conduct Minkus, and he really doesn't know what he's doing. There was a hilarious video that was posted on the eve of the Mariinsky's 3D Swan Lake transmission. Presumably it was a test run. At the conclusion of the Black Swan adage, Ekaterina Kondaurova and Timur Askerov were taking their bows. Kondaurova exited into the wings, and as Askerov began to move into position for his variation, he made a small bow to Gergiev. (Obeisance to his boss.) Gergiev took that as a cue to begin the music, and Askerov was forced to run frantically into position in four short oom-pahs. If Gergiev had conducted Swan Lake with any sort of regularity, he would have known that Siegfried's variation begins upstage left, not downstage center.

Or take a look at the DVD of the Vainonen Nutcracker and the very sloppy exit of the snowflakes, presumably because the tempo was all wrong. The corps had their backs to the hall and couldn't see what he was doing, but they were clearly confused by what they were hearing.

Edited May 27 by volcanohunter

[dirac]

Richard Bonynge, who will be 93 this year, recorded many ballet scores, including rarities, but if I recall correctly he did not conduct ballet live.

[pherank]

On 5/27/2023 at 3:07 AM, volcanohunter said:

Or take a look at the DVD of the Vainonen Nutcracker and the very sloppy exit of the snowflakes, presumably because the tempo was all wrong. The corps had their backs to the hall and couldn't see what he was doing, but they were clearly confused by what they were hearing.

I rather thought he only had one tempo: fast.