Semyon Bychkov to Succeed Gustavo Dudamel as Paris Opera Music Director

In Tuesday’s (1/6) Associated Press, Ronald Blum writes, “Semyon Bychkov will succeed Gustavo Dudamel as music director of the Paris Opera starting in August 2028, the company’s general director Alexander Neef said Tuesday. The 73-year-old Bychkov agreed to a four-year contract and will conduct two operas and six symphonic concerts per season… Dudamel quit as the Paris Opera’s music director in May 2023, two seasons into a six-year contract. He announced his Paris departure three months after announcing he was leaving the Los Angeles Philharmonic for the New York Philharmonic in 2026-27…. Bychkov became music director of the Czech Philharmonic in 2018 and [has] a contract through the 2027-28 season… Bychkov was music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra from 1985-89, the Orchestre de Paris from 1989-98 and the WDR Symphony Orchestra in Cologne, Germany, from 1997-2010. He first conducted the Paris Opera in 2007 and will lead Ralph Fiennes’ opera directing debut on Jan. 26 in Tchaikovsky’s ‘Eugene Onegin.’ Bychkov will become music director designate this August…. Bychkov said, ‘Because of the restoration of both houses they will have to naturally do less of the productions, and I thought that this would present a historic opportunity for the orchestra to develop itself as a symphonic instrument.’ ”