Yannick Nézet-Séguin signs contract extension through 2029–30 season

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by Opera Charm Team

August 21, 2024

The Metropolitan Opera tannounced the contract extension of its Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer Music Director, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, through the 2029–30 season. Only the third Music Director in the company’s history, Nézet-Séguin began his tenure in the 2018–19 season. This six-year extension acknowledges the deepening partnership between Nézet-Séguin and the Met Orchestra and Chorus, as well as his committed artistry and leadership. The extension encompasses a new production of Wagner’s Ring cycle, which begins in the 2027–28 season and culminates with full cycles in the spring of 2030.

Over the next six years, Nézet-Séguin will conduct four to five operas each season, encompassing both the new work that has been a hallmark of his artistic collaboration with Peter Gelb, the Met’s Maria Manetti Shrem General Manager, and the core repertory. Nézet-Séguin’s conducting highlights in future seasons include the Met premieres of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Mason Bates, with a libretto by Gene Scheer; El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego by Gabriela Lena Frank, with a libretto by Nila Cruz; Lincoln in the Bardoby Missy Mazzoli, with a libretto by Royce Vavrek; The Highlands by Carlos Simon, with a libretto by Lynn Nottage and Ruby Aiyo Gerber; and The Wedding Banquet by Huang Ruo, with a libretto by James Schamus. In addition to all four operas of the Ring and a new staging of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde (both productions by director Yuval Sharon), Nézet-Séguin will conduct a new staging of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro by Robert Carsen and revivals of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Wagner’s Parsifal, and Puccini’s Tosca, among other operas.

“The Met is very fortunate to have one of the world’s greatest conductors as its Music Director and is even more fortunate to now have him on board through the 2029–30 season,” said Gelb. “His extraordinary achievements to date with both new works and classic repertoire are a preview of what is to come. Yannick’s tenure will be defined, in part, by the new Ringcycle that is created under his watch. My job is to deliver a new Ring to Yannick that has the potential to be one for the ages in terms of casting and production. With Yannick conducting, Lise Davidsen as Brünnhilde, and Yuval Sharon directing, the possibilities are unlimited.”

“Being Music Director of the Metropolitan Opera and being a part of the Met family is one of my greatest joys as a conductor and musician. I am humbled and proud each day to bring old and new operatic works to life with the illustrious Met Orchestra, the unparalleled Met Chorus, and the artists, creators, musicians, and friends that only the Met can bring together. In the past seasons, we have seen our audiences come alive and embrace new works by Blanchard, Aucoin, and Puts, which help us commit renewed energy to the familiar works of Mozart, Verdi, Puccini, and Strauss,” said Nézet-Séguin. “I am thrilled to continue this musical journey through 2030, with world-class art that will tell the stories of our ever-evolving humanity, and I am full of gratitude for all that is to come.”

The Met Orchestra and Met Chorus also expressed their excitement for further collaboration with Nézet-Séguin.

“The Met Orchestra Musicians are delighted to continue our partnership with Yannick. Under his leadership, the Orchestra has reentered the spotlight, shining as world-class interpreters of both operatic and symphonic repertoire. We eagerly anticipate continuing our fruitful collaboration,” said Stephanie Mortimore, Principal Piccolo and Chair of the Orchestra Committee, on behalf of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.

“We look forward to many more years of creative collaborations with Maestro Nézet-Séguin on both standard and new works as we strive together to uphold and expand the musical and dramatic excellence of the Metropolitan Opera,” said Lee Steiner, member of the Met Chorus and Chorus Committee Chair, on behalf of the Metropolitan Opera Chorus.

The new Ring will be staged by acclaimed American director Yuval Sharon and will star Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen as Brünnhilde. Sharon will make his Met debut during the 2025−26 season with a new production of Tristan und Isolde (conducted by Nézet-Séguin, with Davidsen as Isolde), and his new Ring cycle will be the Met’s first since the Robert Lepage staging that debuted in the 2010–11 and 2011–12 seasons.

“Wagner’s works are opera’s equivalent to Homer or Shakespeare: Each opera is its own complex cosmos, with endless potential for reinterpretation. To explore these works and create productions of Tristan and the Ring specifically for the Met with Yannick is the honor of a lifetime and an imaginative process I am thrilled to undertake,” said Sharon.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s Tenure: Artistic Achievements

Nézet-Séguin made his Met debut in 2009, leading the premiere of a new production of Bizet’s Carmen. He has taken the Met podium in every season since, conducting more than 200 performances of 24 different operas, as well as a number of galas and concerts with the Met Orchestra and Chorus. Highlights of his tenure as Music Director include the Met premieres of Fire Shut Up in My Bones by Terence Blanchard with libretto by Kasi Lemons and Championby Blanchard with libretto by Michael Cristoffer, The Hours by Kevin Puts with libretto by Greg Pierce, Dead Man Walking by Jake Heggie with libretto by Terence McNally, Eurydice by Matthew Aucoin with libretto by Sarah Ruhl, and Florencia en al Amazonas by Daniel Catán with libretto by Marcela Fuentes-Berain; new productions of Berg’s Wozzeck, Wagner’s Lohengrin, and Verdi’s La Traviata, Don Carlos, and La Forza del Destino; and revivals of Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites, Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, and Puccini’s Turandot, Tosca, and La Bohème, among many others. Nézet-Séguin has also shown his commitment to creating a more representative art form by championing conductors and composers who did not traditionally have a space in opera.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s Tenure: Awards and Touring

The Met has been awarded the Grammy Award for best opera recording for the last four years in a row, two of them conducted by Nézet-Séguin: Champion (2024) and Fire Shut Up in My Bones (2023). His tenure has included a return to touring for the Met Orchestra for the first time in 20 years, with tours to Asia in 2024 and Europe in 2023, as well as numerous performances with the Met Orchestra and Met Orchestra Chamber Ensemble at Carnegie Hall.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s Tenure: Artist Development

During the six seasons in his role as Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer Music Director, Nézet-Séguin appointed nine principal position players, including Concertmaster, Principal Associate Concertmaster, Principal Second Violin, Principal Viola, Principal Clarinet, Principal Horn, Principal Timpani, Principal Harp, and Principal Librarian. Additionally, he became Artistic Director of the Met’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program in 2019, overseeing the training of dozens of talented young artists, who have gone on to sing in the biggest houses and greatest stages around the world.

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Alice Lechner

Alice Lechner comes from a music-loving family. Her first encounter with the opera universe was at the tender age of six. The grandeur of the stage productions and costumes, the backstage chatter, and last, but definitely not least, the music left her in awe, beginning with Mozart’s Don Giovanni. The overall feeling that opera awakens in anyone who gets a glimpse into this part of artistic eternity, that each and every day passes the test of time, was what drew her to stay and be a part of this world. The Opera House of Brașov became her second home, and the people who worked there were her second family.

Since then, Alice has devoted her spare time to maximising her musical knowledge through instrumental studies, studying both piano and violin for a short time. In the following years, her number one passion stepped out of the limelight and graciously gave way to Law Studies.
Since 2018 she has been studying Law at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași.

Her passion for opera, even if it is no longer her top professional priority in terms of career, it has most definitely become her priority during her free time. Wanting to experience the best of both worlds and extend her musical horizons, she regularly attends opera performances throughout Romania and abroad.
With OPERA Charm Magazine, Alice aims to nurture her creative side to help it flourish and bloom and to discover, alongside the magazine’s readers, the fascinatingly complex world of opera.

Currently, she is an LL.M. in Business Law at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași.

Oana Zamfir

Oana Zamfir is a second year MA student at the “George Enescu” National University of Arts, at the Department of Musicology.

She studied violin for 12 years at the “Stefan Luchian” High School of Art in Botosani, later focusing on the theoretical aspects of music. In 2019 she completed her bachelor studies in Musicology as a student of the National Academy of Music “Gheorghe Dima” in Cluj-Napoca. Her research during 2018-2019 brought to the forefront elements of the archaic ritual within works of composers who activated during the communist period, giving her the opportunity to start a research internship at the “Carl von Ossietzky” University in Germany. In this context, she recorded conversations with members of the Sophie Drinker Institute in Bremen, and had access to documents directly from the Myriam Marbé archive.

Since 2019 she has been a teacher of Music Education and Theoretical Music Studies, making full use of interactive methods in the musical training of students and working, at the same time, with the children’s choir founded in the first year of her activity.

Her interests include pursuing a degree in interior design in 2020.

Alexandru Suciu

Alexandru Suciu inherited his passion for art growing up in a family of several generations of musicians. He began his musical studies at the “Augustin Bena” School of Music in Cluj, where he studied piano and guitar. Even though his main study direction was philological, his passion for music prevailed. He began his academical journey at the Faculty of Letters of the “Babeș-Bolyai” University, studying Comparative literature and English. He continued by studying Opera Singing at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Music Academy. He also graduated the Musical Education section, followed by Artistic Directing at the Musical Performing Arts department.

His multidisciplinary education opened the doors towards research, which is seen both through his participation in national and international conferences and symposia, such as the Salzburg Easter School PhD-forum, organized by the Salzburg Universität or the Silesian Meeting of Young Scholars, organized by the Institute of English at the University of Silesia, as well as the collaboration with Opera Charm Magazine.

During his student years, he won several prizes, including the Grand Prize at the “Paul Constantinescu” National Musical Interpretation Competition, the Romanian Composers and Musicologists’ Union Prize at the same competition, the First Prize and the Schubert Prize at the “Ada Ulubeanu” Competition.

He further developed his artistic skills by specializing in courses and masterclasses held by personalities such as Vittorio Terranova, Giuseppe Sabbatini, Marian Pop, Ines Salazar, Riccardo Zanellato, Paolo Bosisio, Valentina Farcaș and Manuel Lange in contexts such as the Internationale Sommerakademie für Operngesang Deutschlandsberg, Corso Internazionale di Canto Lirico I.M.C. Licata or the Europäische Akademie für Musik und darstellende Kunst Montepulciano. Besides his activity on-stage, he currently teaches Opera Singing Didactics, and Pedagogical Practice within the Department for Teacher Education and Training at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Music Academy.

Cristina Fieraru

Cristina is a 24 year-old Romanian soprano & a student at the National University of Music Bucharest, where she pursues the MA program in Vocal Performance.

She made her debut in Pamina from “Die Zauberflöte” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at only 19 years old at the Bucharest National Opera House, as a member of the Ludovic Spiess Experimental Opera Studio. Over the years she made her debut in roles such as Contessa d’Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Mimì & Musetta (La Bohème), Alice Ford (Falstaff), Erste Dame (Die Zauberflöte) in her university’s opera productions.
Her passion and experience extends in the field of choral music, too.

She has been part of our dream team since the fall of 2021. For a good period of time she took care of OPERA Charm’s social media and took you on the monthly journey through the history of opera through our Legends rubric – and a few times through the Theaters around the World rubric.

Her little soul rubric – from 2021 to present – is definitely the Conductors of the Future, where, every month, she gives you the chance to meet a young star of the world of conducting and, of course, to find out what’s the most charming feature of opera in these artists’ views.

BIANCA L. NICA

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