Dominique Meyer

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Dominique Meyer (2015)

Dominique Meyer (born August 8, 1955 in Thann in Alsace ) is a French economist, manager, political advisor, former general manager and artistic director of the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées . Since 2010 he has been the director of the Vienna State Opera ; his contract ends on June 30, 2020. As early as March 2020, he will succeed Alexander Pereira as director of La Scala in Milan .

Live and act

Dominique Meyer was born in 1955 to a diplomat in southern Alsace . He first came into contact with opera while studying economics at the Paris University of Economics. According to his own statements, he already attended opera and theater performances or concerts every day during his studies.

Immediately after graduating in 1980, he entered French politics. He worked in the Ministry of Industry, in the section that dealt with the organization and promotion of the French record and film industry. In 1984, the then Minister of Culture, Jack Lang , brought him to his ministry as an advisor for culture.

After Lang's departure from the cabinet in 1986, Meyer's request gave him a job as a consultant at the Paris Opera , and in 1989 he became general director. In this role he had to solve the problems surrounding the opening of the Opéra Bastille that same year . This was the famous row over Daniel Barenboim's contract - signed by two ministers at the time.

In 1992, Prime Minister Pierre Bérégovoy brought him back into politics as a cultural advisor . In this role he was involved in founding the TV station ARTE and in preparations for the soccer world championship in France. In 1994 he took over the management of the Lausanne Opera , where he made people sit up and take notice for five years with rarely performed works.

From 1999 he was appointed to the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées as artistic director and artistic director of the privately run house. In addition, he holds lectures on music management and the cultural sector at various universities and continued to try to bring the unusual and new to the stage. " New operas have to be created, but not those that disappear from the repertoire after a few performances, " he explained to the "Neuer Merker". “ The composers have to understand who they are writing music for. "

On June 6, 2007, he received an offer from the Austrian Minister of Culture, Claudia Schmied , to lead the Vienna State Opera from June 30, 2010 with Franz Welser-Möst as General Music Director . He opened his directorship with a performance by Tannhäuser , in which Welser-Möst was at the podium. The first premiere was the first version of the opera Cardillac by Paul Hindemith , which premiered in Dresden in 1926 .

In June 2019 it was announced that he would succeed Alexander Pereira as artistic director of La Scala in Milan in July 2021 .

Dominique Meyer is President of the European Music Theater Academy .

criticism

Sven Hartberger, head of the Klangforum Wien , accused Meyer of being responsible for making the repertoire of the Vienna State Opera into a museum ; no work was younger than 70 in the 2012/13 season. The State Opera Director responded with a series of contemporary premieres (including The Tempest by Thomas Adès in June 2015 and Tri Sestri by Péter Eötvös in March 2016), as well as a composition commission to Olga Neuwirth for the opera Orlando based on Virginia Woolf's novel of the same name, which will be published in 2019 was premiered at the State Opera.

The planned Da Ponte trilogy had to be canceled after the second production by Jean-Louis Martinoty because Franz Welser-Möst refused to continue working with this director. The reviews of the direction of these two productions were negative to devastating, in particular Don Giovanni was “torn in the air by the critics”. The State Opera Figaro from 2011 was then the remake of a Paris production from 2001.

On September 5th, 2014 GMD Welser-Möst announced his immediate resignation due to "artistic differences" with Meyer. On September 15, 2014, the State Opera lost another conductor, Bertrand de Billy . The artist announced: "It was clear to me that under these circumstances there was no longer any point in this house for me."

Awards

See also

Web links

Commons : Dominique Meyer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Dominique Meyer becomes the new head of La Scala in Milan. Retrieved June 28, 2019 .
  2. ^ Walter Weidringer State Opera: Festive, solid season opening , Die Presse, September 7, 2010
  3. ^ Wilhelm Sinkovicz : "Cardillac", that is a Viennese opera miracle , Die Presse, October 19, 2010
  4. ^ Klangforum: Critique of Music Theater in Vienna , Kurier , September 20, 2012
  5. ^ "Figaro": Second Mozart premiere of the new State Opera Directorate , Kleine Zeitung , February 15, 2011
  6. ↑ Resignation costs the star conductor a lot of money , Die Welt , September 5, 2014
  7. ^ ORF: State Opera loses next conductor , September 16, 2014
  8. ↑ Dominique Meyer raised to the officer's rank in the French Legion of Honor. In: ambafrance.org. March 2, 2020, accessed March 7, 2020 .
  9. ↑ Vienna Philharmonic honor Angyan and Meyer. In: musik-heute.de. June 5, 2020, accessed June 6, 2020 .
  10. ↑ In parting, honorary membership for Meyer. In: ORF.at . June 28, 2020, accessed June 28, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Dominique Meyer and Thomas Platzer appointed honorary members of the Vienna State Opera. In: wiener-staatsoper.at. June 28, 2020, accessed June 28, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Meyer, Dominique
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French manager, director of the Vienna State Opera
DATE OF BIRTH August 8, 1955
PLACE OF BIRTH Thann , Alsace