Kasper Holten resigns from the ROH

[underthecountertenor]

I am going to order the Copenhagen Ring asap, as I keep hearing good things about it. Maybe KH will be able to revive it personally?

So: what about successors?

The Copenhagen Ring is brilliant. Utterly compelling on, I suspect, a fraction of the budget of the most recent ROH Ring (which I did like but was extravagant, sometimes messily so).

Successors? Not a clue. Just so long as it's not school of Elaine Padmore.

[Prommer]

Agreed on EP. Nice and capable lady but that wasn't a glorious period either.

Anyone who can get the attention of the likes of Richard Jones, Stefan Herheim, and Barrie Kosky - while also finding the next generation of that kind of talent? (Their stagings of Meistersinger at ENO, Parsifal in Bayreuth and Saul at Glyndebourne respectively have been the best productions I have seen in the last five years.)

But not just finding it: choosing it for the right projects (judgement!) - and then nurturing but also managing it.

I have to say, I don't have a perfect candidate in mind.

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

Here we go again. You don't know anything. Yet you feel able to speculate that, in effect, Kasper Holten, Tony Pappano, Alex Beard and the ROH are publicly lying because YOU think that his tenure has been a failure, and you clearly cannot accept that anyone else might have a different view. How arrogant. How unpleasant. With poison like this in London, it's little surprise that Mr Holten prefers to return to Copenhagen, where his children might be more likely to learn good manners and an aversion to poisonous speculation and gossip.

Well said, uttct! There is absolutely no reason to think that there is anything untoward in Holten's decision to return to Denmark. He has been a refreshing appointment at the ROH, open and honest. His productions have had variable degrees of success. I rather liked Onegin and gather that Holten has revised it for this revival, just as he did his Don Giovanni last season. Król Roger was one of the highlights of the 2014-15 season.

As Director of Opera, the current season is the first for which Holten has been entirely responsible in terms of planning, so not everything that's happened "on his watch" is necessarily his fault. Perhaps he should have stepped in more to avoid conflict (the Martin Kušej v Marc Minkowski row re the finale of Idomeneo) or to prevent a few turkeys reaching the ROH stage (Katharina Thoma's Ballo in maschera was lamentable), but he is well respected for the way he's handled his tenure.

Re Holten's replacement, maybe a Director of Opera who doesn't have the distraction of directing his own productions (here and abroad) would have more freedom to intervene. Let's just pray it's not John Berry: http://www.standard.co.uk/goingout/m...-a3135236.html

[Prommer]

Well said, uttct! There is absolutely no reason to think that there is anything untoward in Holten's decision to return to Denmark. He has been a refreshing appointment at the ROH, open and honest. His productions have had variable degrees of success. I rather liked Onegin and gather that Holten has revised it for this revival, just as he did his Don Giovanni last season. Król Roger was one of the highlights of the 2014-15 season.

As Director of Opera, the current season is the first for which Holten has been entirely responsible in terms of planning, so not everything that's happened "on his watch" is necessarily his fault. Perhaps he should have stepped in more to avoid conflict (the Martin Kušej v Marc Minkowski row re the finale of Idomeneo) or to prevent a few turkeys reaching the ROH stage (Katharina Thoma's Ballo in maschera was lamentable), but he is well respected for the way he's handled his tenure.

Re Holten's replacement, maybe a Director of Opera who doesn't have the distraction of directing his own productions (here and abroad) would have more freedom to intervene. Let's just pray it's not John Berry: http://www.standard.co.uk/goingout/m...-a3135236.html

He was so-so. And had to go-go. But now there is an opportunity for real excellence which is what we need!

[underthecountertenor]

Well said, uttct! There is absolutely no reason to think that there is anything untoward in Holten's decision to return to Denmark. He has been a refreshing appointment at the ROH, open and honest. His productions have had variable degrees of success. I rather liked Onegin and gather that Holten has revised it for this revival, just as he did his Don Giovanni last season. Król Roger was one of the highlights of the 2014-15 season.


As Director of Opera, the current season is the first for which Holten has been entirely responsible in terms of planning, so not everything that's happened "on his watch" is necessarily his fault. Perhaps he should have stepped in more to avoid conflict (the Martin Kušej v Marc Minkowski row re the finale of Idomeneo) or to prevent a few turkeys reaching the ROH stage (Katharina Thoma's Ballo in maschera was lamentable), but he is well respected for the way he's handled his tenure.

Re Holten's replacement, maybe a Director of Opera who doesn't have the distraction of directing his own productions (here and abroad) would have more freedom to intervene. Let's just pray it's not John Berry: http://www.standard.co.uk/goingout/m...-a3135236.html

Thanks, IGI. Spot on. I'm greatly looking forward to Onegin, and I must go to Giovanni again when next it appears. I do hope that Król Roger gets a revival: it was magnificent.