OPERA CHIC EXCLUSIVE, PLEASE CREDIT OPERACHIC.COM
Italian conductor Fabio Luisi will soon be officially named Principal Guest Conductor of NYC's Metropolitan Opera: his contract will go from 2010/11 through 2012/13.
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The New York Times confirms that this is indeed the case.
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From The Metropolitan Opera press office at 5pm, April 27:
Fabio Luisi will become Principal Guest Conductor at the Metropolitan Opera, the company’s General Manager Peter Gelb and Music Director James Levine announced today. The Italian maestro, who made his Met debut in 2005 with Don Carlo, will take up the post beginning with the 2010-11 season. [...] In the 2010-11 season, the Italian maestro will return for Ariadne auf Naxos and Rigoletto. Luisi is only the second principal guest conductor in Met history, following Valery Gergiev who held the position from 1998 to 2008.“It is a great honor for me to work with the Metropolitan Opera continuously in the coming years,” said Luisi. “Everything in this company meets the highest artistic standards: music staff, chorus, technical department, stage directors, and the Met Orchestra – one of the very best orchestras in the world – with which I enjoy every minute that we make music together.”