New Bavarian State Opera Directors Have Been Announced In Munich

Serge Dorny And Vladimir Jurowski Will Head Munich State Opera Starting 2021

It was clear that the Berlin Philharmonic’s future music director, subtle superstar Kirill Petrenko, would not remain music director of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich beyond his recently extended contracts’ run in 2021. It was just about as clear that current intendant Nikolaus Bachler would not continue as general manager / intendant of the opera beyond Petrenko’s tenure. The new team coming in, long suspected and now confirmed by the Bavarian Minister for Education, Cultural Affairs, Science and Art, is that of intendant Serge Dorny (from the Lyon Opera) and music director Vladimir Jurowski (from the London Philharmonic).

Die Nachfolge steht! Ab 2021/22 kommen #SergeDorny als Staatsintendant und #VladimirJurowski als Generalmusikdirektor zu uns. Wir freuen uns!
Alle Infos: https://t.co/VkRWvEIIpT pic.twitter.com/NTgBuDCPGU

— BayerischeStaatsoper (@bay_staatsoper) March 6, 2018

(See also Playbill: “It Makes Me Unhappy When Nothing Happens": An Interview with Nikolaus Bachler)

After thirteen very successful years on the job, the Austrian ex-actor Bachler leaves the world’s finest opera house having further cemented that, admittedly subjective, unofficial merit badge. It hadn’t started so smoothly. When he came in, the opera had been in some minor turmoil. Long time intendant Peter Jonas had stepped down in 2006 and with him Zubin Mehta, largely bereft of interesting musical utterances, also left the house. He was replaced with Kent Nagano – himself full of interesting utterances (not all of them intentional), fine repertoire choices, occasional and tremendous highlights, a couple interesting premieres in his wake, but not quite able to put his stamp on the company, be it for a lack of assertiveness or the kind of neat, routine technical skills that veteran orchestral players often cherish above inspiration. Since the search for a successor for Jonas was bungled, Nagano slipped into that rôle for a couple of years (together with Ulrike Hessler), before being nudged out of it again, when the search for an intendant settled on Bachler.

(See also ionarts: Kent Nagano Leaves Munich Amid Controversy)

Alas, Nagano was not Bachler’s choice, and Bachler didn’t make too fine a point about it. That added a tart flavor to Nagano’s departure, but Munich would soon be soothed by the new music director Bachler brought on board: the then rather unknown Far-West-Austrian Kirill Petrenko of Russian origin who had only had a five year appointment at Berlin’s third opera house under his belt and, before that, a position at the South Thuringian State Theater in Meiningen. And what a sensation he turned out to be! One of the hardest working, most demanding conductors of our time, Petrenko – by virtue of his super-earnest personality and sheer skill – gets out of orchestras willingly what other conductors couldn’t force out of them. The results have held audiences in Munich and beyond in thrall. And it led, of course, to the initially unsuspected appointment of Petrenko as the Berlin Philharmonic’s next chief conductor.

(See also Forbes.com: Kirill Petrenko Is The New Chief Conductor Of The Berlin Philharmonic)

Following the rough-and-wily, metaphorically shirt-sleeved Bachler – a shark with a smile and great taste, will be Serge Dorny. A softer-spoken gentlemanly, elegant Belgian, Dorny has presided over the success story that is the Opéra National de Lyon… one of the finest Stagione opera houses there are. Serge Dorny learned his trade under Gerard Mortier in Brussels at the la Monnaie opera house before becoming the director of the Flanders Festival. In 1996 he became the intendant of the London Philharmonic where Franz Welser-Möst had just ended his critically viewed tenure. After four years without a chief conductor, Dorny got the seasoned Kurt Masur on board to guide the orchestra as a ‘luxury patch’, if you will – buying Dorny time to look for the real future of the orchestra. This future was to be Vladimir Jurowski, who first appeared with the LPO in 2001 and became principal guest conductor in 2003. By the time Jurowski became the eleventh principal conductor of the LPO, Dorny was already in Lyon, but the Russian’s appointment had Dorny’s handwriting all over it. In a way, the move of both of them to Munich will finally unite the conductor/intendant team that never was.[1]

Dorny will also find another old acquaintance in Munich, just across the river: With his nose for conducting talent, he had hired Valery Gergiev as early as 1989 to the Flanders Festival. The links to Munich continue, incidentally: After Iván Fischer left Lyon in 2003, Dornie – much like in London – didn’t immediately appoint a successor but sounded out the market for a few years before appointing Kazushi Ono. One of those conductors who regularly led the opera orchestra during that time: Kirill Petrenko. With Dorny’s penchant for new opera, Munich is probably in for a few world premieres under his reign. The quality of productions, always exceptional at the house with a €100 million budget, even under different leadership, is bound to be held up – perhaps just the slightest shade more conservative[2].

(See also Forbes.com: Valery Gergiev Extends Munich Contract To 2025)

Vladimir Jurowski, by now the most famous conductor in the Jurowski-conducting-clan, will present a considerable departure for the orchestra, from Petrenko. Simplified, it will spell messy inspiration vs. exacting brilliance for audiences and performers alike. Charismatic and energetic (and although himself known for scrupulous rehearsals – by London’s standards) he is a force of nature where Petrenko is meticulous, painstaking and tough. Recently appointed chief conductor of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Jurowski will have to leave the LPO by 2021, after a 14 years of a fruitful partnership, to make room for the Munich gig. His track record suggests much to look forward to, although any audience treated to Kirill Petrenko for a long time will likely have a bit of a hang-over time to adjust to the new musical regime.

[1] A few years back, Dorny was to become intendant of the Dresden Semperopera, but in a staggering $1.5m bungle (reflecting badly on the Staatskapelle’s music director Christian Thielemann, even if he may not have be the one to blame) was hired-and-unlawfully-fired before he even got to start his work Dresden.

[2] But still Regietheater, of course, the thinking person’s type of production rather than the petrified travesties found in still so many other places like New York, Vienna et al.