Golden debut for conductor

Orchestra joins Nézet-Séguin for curtain calls

Yannick NézetSéguin took the rare step of bringing the entire orchestra on stage for curtain calls after his first performance as music director of New York’s 135-year-old Metropolitan Opera.

The 43-year-old Montrealer led this week’s première of a new production of Verdi’s La traviata by Tony Award-winning director Michael Mayer, starring Diana Damrau, Juan Diego Flórez and Quinn Kelsey.

In addition to his new role as Met music director, Nézet-Séguin is music director of Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain and the Philadelphia Orchestra. He was also principal conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra from 2008 to 2018.

As Met music director, he succeeds James Levine, who made his conducting debut with the Met in 1971 and was music director from 1976 until 2016. Nézet-Séguin assumed the role of director for the 2018-19 season, two years earlier than anticipated after the suspension (and later firing) of director emeritus Levine, who was accused of sexual misconduct before and during his tenure at the Met.

Nézet-Séguin will conduct three Met operas and two Met Orchestra concerts at Carnegie Hall in each of the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons.

After Tuesday’s debut, gold confetti was dropped over Nézet-Séguin during his curtain call, and the orchestra emerged from the wings to take bows behind him — rather than remain in the pit or stand as it does on other nights.

As audience members left, they were handed small bottles of Prosecco labelled “Vintage Yannick,” with the date and the title of the opera.