Noseda Appointed Next General Music Director Of Zurich Opera House

Andreas Homoki, intendant and artistic director of Zurich Opera House, will remain in his position until 2025. The announcement that his contract had been extended for an additional three years by the Opernhaus Zürich Board of Directors was made on Monday, July 2 at a press conference. Ballet director Christian Spuck's contract extension (also until 2025) was also announced. Both have been responsible for the Opernhaus Zürich's artistic profile since 2012.

Music Director Fabio Luisi will devote himself to new endeavors starting in 2021. In a mutually agreed upon decision, Luisi will leave his post at the Opernhaus Zürich a year earlier than planned, in order to provide his successor with ample time for artistic design and planning. Andreas Homoki presented renowned conductor Gianandrea Noseda as the new General Music Director starting with the 2021/22 season.

In the last year, Noseda appeared at the helm of the Philharmonia Zürich as music director of the new production of Prokofiev's The Fiery Angel, as well as for the revival of Verdi's Macbeth. In both productions, he inspired audiences, the media, and musicians alike.

A new production of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen is planned for the final phase of Andreas Homoki's artistic directorship. The tetralogy has accompanied the Opernhaus Zürich ever since its opening. The first complete Ring cycle in the city on the Limmat appeared from 1891 to 1897. The most recent Ring cycle was created in 2000 and 2002 under the musical direction of Franz Welser-Möst, in a production by Robert Wilson.

Andreas Homoki and Gianandrea Noseda's interpretation - their first collaboration - will be the eighth Ring cycle presented at the Opernhaus Zürich.

Markus Notter, Chairman of the Board of Directors: "With the entire Board of Directors of Opernhaus Zürich, I am very pleased that Andreas Homoki and Christian Spuck will continue their successful work until 2025. The Opernhaus Zürich is a beacon in the Swiss cultural landscape and has international appeal. Andreas Homoki and Christian Spuck both play a large part in this. In the first six years of his time here, Andreas Homoki and his team have contributed to make the house more open, and to making opera, ballet, and concerts more accessible to audiences of all kinds. The audience's acceptance and recognition of their work is reflected in excellent visitor numbers.

I thank Fabio Luisi for his outstanding work with the orchestra, for his exciting conducting, and for his high level of professionalism, with which he - as a committed GMD and great artistic personality - has helped to shape the Opernhaus Zürich. With Gianandrea Noseda, we have won a highly qualified and internationally renowned conductor for the post of the General Music Director. We are pleased about this and wish him all the best in Zurich in a good start to his upcoming endeavors.

Together with the audience, over the next seven years I'll continue to expect exciting and moving opera and ballet evenings, innovative directorial perspectives, contemporary choreographies, and unusual viewpoints at the highest level of performance, in each and every performance.

We can especially look forward to an additional musical color in the repertoire.

After twenty years, a new Ring des Nibelungen by Richard Wagner will once again be presented at the Opernhaus Zürich and attract Wagnerians from Switzerland and abroad to Zurich."

Andreas Homoki, Intendant and Artistic Director: "I would like to thank the Board of Directors of Opernhaus AG for the confidence they have placed in me, and I am delighted with the decision to renew my current contract. I am just as pleased that my ballet director, Christian Spuck, has declared his willingness to continue his extraordinarily successful work with the Ballet Zürich.

I have the utmost respect and also understanding for Fabio Luisi's decision not to extend his contract as General Music Director, even as I greatly regret his decision both artistically and personally. I am looking forward all the more to our joint projects in the next three seasons. And I'm additionally pleased that, as my long-time friend and artistic partner, he will also continue his work at the Opernhaus Zürich as a guest conductor far past 2021.

With Gianandrea Noseda we have won one of the most distinguished conductors of the international opera and concert scene. I am very much looking forward to working with this exciting musician and artist. Beginning in the spring of 2022 I will be working with Gianandrea Noseda on a new interpretation of the Der Ring des Nibelungen tetralogy by Richard Wagner. I am all the more pleased, as this special work is bound like no other with Zurich and with Wagner's stay in the city on the Limmat."

Gianandrea Noseda, General Music Director from September 2021: "To me, Opernhaus Zürich is one of the world's great theaters. I remember well the wonderful experiences I had in Zurich while leading the performances of Macbeth and Fiery Angel in 2017.

To be appointed the next General Music Director is a great honor. Thank you to Andreas Homoki for offering me the opportunity to work with him and the entire Opernhaus Zürich on a new production of The Ring Cycle which will form the center piece of our programming. We will also present German repertoire I have always wanted to perform along with many other operatic works. The artists of Opernhaus Zürich, from the orchestra to the chorus, singers to the ballet dancers, form one of the elite houses in the world. I look forward to joining Andreas and the entire Opernhaus staff in 2021."