Well, well - two new appointments to important opera jobs in the US go to respected British managers - Glimmerglass to Michael McLeod, at present the Executive Director of the New Haven Symphony and for years the organizational genius behind Sir John Eliot Gardiner - he of the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra and much else. And the Houston Grand Opera General Director in succession to David Gockley is Anthony Freud, current boss of the Welsh National Opera. David Gockley takes over in San Francisco next season.
Anthony Freud is a member of our Neue Stimmen jury so I look forward to spending five days with him in October. We will surely then discuss the odd situation of there being only one "career" opera manager in charge of a British company - Richard Mantle at Opera North in Leeds. The Scottish Opera post is vacant and now the Welsh will of course be looking for a successor to Anthony.
Meanwhile the most authoritative British managers are working outside the UK - most notably Sir Peter Jonas in Munich, Nicholas Payne in Brussels, Anthony Whitworth Jones in Porto, and Karen Stone in Dallas. I should also add Felicity Jackson, Director of the Florida Grand Opera Young Artists Program. They are now joined "in exile" by McLeod and Freud. This should be cause for concern.
Anyway it will be great to have Anthony in Houston - he has a splendid combination of personal and professional attributes which will ensure his success in Texas. And I am sure he will be as happy and refreshed there as I have been fortunate enough to be in Chicago.
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