The season begins with a flourish as the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra of New York arrives for two concerts, joined by its music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin. This first evening is devoted entirely to Richard Strauss.
Since making his debut conducting the MET Orchestra in 2009, Yannick Nézet-Séguin has returned to perform with his musicians every season, and in 2018 he became the company’s third music director. Their Strauss program, featuring soprano Elza van den Heever, highlights their affinity with the world of opera: alongside the symphonic poem A Hero’s Life , they perform the suite arranged by the composer from Der Rosenkavalier , as well as the final scene from Salomé . When Salomé kisses the lips of the prophet Jokanaan, whose beheading she has just demanded, Herod orders her death. Remarkably intense, this “love-death” is a kind of symphonic poem with voice, displaying Strauss’s full lyrical genius. Performers Metropolitan Opera Orchestra of New York Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor Elza van den Heever, soprano
Source: paris.fr — photo: Yannick Nezet Seguin © Evan Zimmerman