Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who has been music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra since 2012, has been named the successor to James Levine as music
director of the Metropolitan Opera in New York.The 41-year-old Canadian, who made his Met debut conducting Bizet’s “Carmen” in 2009, will not assume the new post immediately. He becomes the Met’s music director-designate in the 2017-18 season, leading
two operas per season;
and music director in 2020-21, conducting five productions each season. His initial contract runs through 2025.
His current contract with the Philadelphia Orchestra runs through the 2025-26 season.
Nézet-Séguin tells The New York Times that his gradual entry into Met leadership “doesn’t mean that I will be out of touch. . . . I hope it won’t feel like there’s a wait, or there’s a void.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/03/arts/music/yannick-nezet-seguin-to-succeed-james-levine-as-met-operas-music-director.html
“In many ways, the charismatic Mr. Nézet-Séguin is an exciting choice for the Met. But challenging issues and big questions will face him when he arrives,” The Times’ chief opera critic, Anthony Tommasini, writes:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/03/arts/music/is-yannick-nzet-sguin-worth-the-wait-at-the-met.html
Reassuring Philadelphians of his commitment to their orchestra, Nézet-Séguin tells The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Peter Dobrin: “The conductors I have admired all my life divided their time between [symphonic and operatic] repertoires, and for me it’s a question of keeping those two poles but actually making them geographically closer. . . . So I made the choice to be a very much Northeast American.”
http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/music/classical/20160603_Yannick_Nzet-Sguin_gets_Met_job__will_also_stay_as_Phila__Orchestra_director.html