The pit and the podium
Richard Turp - Opera Canada
March 2006

It is difficult to know how to begin talking about the 30-year-old conductor, Yannick Nezet-Seguin. It is all too easy to view him as an enfant prodigue, a man whose apparent meteoric rise to prominence is symbolic of our seemingly insatiable need for instant celebrities. To see him this way may be tempting, but it would do the man and the artist a terrible injustice.

Its tempting because the facts are compelling. A graduate of the Conservatoire de musique in Montreal, he formed his own choral group and period chamber ensemble, La Chapelle de Montreal, in his teens. His apprenticeship also included several months working with a legendary conductor, Carlo Maria Giulini. In June 1998, when barely 23, he accepted Bernard Uzan's invitation to become chorusmaster and assistant conductor for l'Opera de Montreal. Less than two years later, he was named Artistic Director of l'Orchestre Metropolitain du Grand Montreal, a position he still holds today. The rest of Canada quickly caught on. He was named chief guest conductor of the Victoria Symphony Orchestra in 2003, and he has already conducted every major symphony orchestra in Canada. Operatically, he has led a half dozen productions for l'Opera de Montreal, including memorable performances of PeHeas et Melisande, L'incoronazione di Poppea and La boheme, and has appeared with l'Opera de Quebec and Opera Ontario.

Internationally, his career has almost outstripped his Canadian achievements. He has directed major orchestras throughout Europe, the United States, Japan and Australia, as well as conducting several opera productions in the U.S. He has won a host of awards—including the Conseil quebecois de la musique's 1999 Prix Opus for Discovery of the Year and the Public's Choice Award, and the Canada Council's 2000 Virginia-Parker Award—and his recordings with l'Orchestre Metropolitain and also as a piano accompanist have won widespread praise.

Nezet-Seguin is, however, so much more than a collection of facts that cannot explain his galvanizing, charismatic presence in the opera pit and on the orchestra stage. Though small of stature and youthful, he not only commands respect and admiration, but immense affection. His interpretations, mercifully do not always garner universal acclaim, but not for any lack of coherence or conviction. His readings may challenge accepted musical dogma and
confront convention, but not for egotistical reasons. One quickly realizes that, for Nezet-Seguin, personal commitment and professional integrity are synonymous. If you ask him to explain his remarkable progression, the self-effacing conductor seems genuinely stunned. I'm surprised each day by what I've done and am continuing to do. I think I'm incredibly fortunate to live a dream I've harbored since the age of 10, to be an artist who is able to practise his art. I'm also lucky includes the realization that being named artistic director of an orchestra or conducting a major operatic production doesn't mean you've 'arrived.' It's only the beginning, it's your opportunity — no, your duty — to draw up more challenges and continue to evolve."

Among those new challenges are debuts with Vancouver Opera this season, conducting Gounod's Faust, and with the Canadian Opera Company next year, conducting the same work. Nezet-Seguin doesn't believe he was asked to conduct the work merely because he is a francophone Canadian. Nor does he believe he is in danger of being pigeon-holed. "Others might decide you are a specialist of a given repertoire or style, but I've never thought of myself that way. I refuse to. The fact is, I love Faust. It's one of the quintessential works of French romanticism and is incredibly rich, both dramatically and musically."

Leaning across the table, as if for added emphasis, he adds, "Both symphonically and operatically, I've tried to be as wide-ranging as possible in my choices because my tastes are. I've conducted operas by Monteverdi and Berg, but also Mozart, Rossini, Verdi, Puccini, Bizet and Debussy. In each case, it's something I wanted to do, and I knew that, as a learning experience, it would help me grow as a musician and a man. All the conductors I admire never limited themselves either to the concert stage or the opera pit. What I'm trying to do at present is reduce the number of unfamiliar works I perform each season and strike a better balance between the symphonic and operatic repertoires."

Happily for the opera community, he will be doing more opera in the coming seasons. "I'm extremely honored to be asked to conduct these productions in Canada, because I know there are not many opportunities to conduct operas with Canadian companies. Working abroad is wonderfully enriching, but I love to come back to Canada. There is a specificity to my approach that is essentially Canadian. We are neither obsessed with the hierarchy of particular companies or orchestras nor paralyzed by certain develop and refine your interpretation. In North America, we have the tendency to execute much more quickly, to be much more preoccupied by the use of the limited time available. Being able to deal with and benefit from both these realities is, for me, essential."

An intrinsically communicative artist, Nezet-Seguin is passionate about music, his sense of vocation so cogent that it is almost tactile. A visionary in his responsibility to his art, there is nothing pretentious, aloof or detached about him. And though highly intelligent, there is nothing remote or intellectualized about his manner or methods. Approachable and sensitive, it is not surprising that his first contact with the COC has remained with him. "I remember i was most touched that [COC General Director] Richard Bradshaw should come and see me during a rehearsal with the Toronto Symphony. We spoke at length and established a wonderful rapport. The engagements at Vancouver Opera and the COC doubtless represent an international window of opportunity for me, but more importantly, they help destroy the myth that this is necessarily a cold, inhuman business and that companies never give youngsters a chance."

The international window of opportunity opened even wider when Nezet-Seguin accepted an invitation to make his European opera debut next season, He is to conduct an intriguing double-bill of Poulenc's La roix humawe and Massenet's Le portrait de Manon for the prestigious Liceu in Barcelona. In addition, he will be returning to Toulouse for a concert performance of Pelleas et MeUsande with I'Orchestre du Theatre de la Capitole, with which he enjoys a particularly close relationship. Two other important engagements with high-profile singers are also slated for next season. First, he makes his Paris debut with the Orchestre national de Paris and bass-baritone Bryn Terfel, and also with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Anna-Caterina Antonacci, in a performance of Berlioz's Les nuts
d'été. "She's a fascinating performer. I conducted her in a concert this season, and we just hit it off. She sang 'Le spectre de la rose' as an encore. It was simply amazing. When the CBSO asked her to do the whole cycle, she agreed, and I was asked to conduct."

The number and variety of star singers he has worked with, including soprano Renee Fleming and contralto Eva Podles, is indicative of his growing reputation as a singers' conductor.
"What is fascinating about working with these artists is to realize how simple and fragile everything is for them. They have amazing technical and interpretative abilities, to be sure, but also considerable powers of concentration and assurance. They constantly search and question everything, which enables them to develop and evolve. But this questioning also brings with it a large degree of fragility."

Nezet-Seguin is equally renowned for his rapport with young singers. "There are few basic differences in the way I work with young singers and established stars. In both cases, I try to establish a climate of confidence and respect that will lead to as good a performance as possible. I sometimes think I'm a gardener; I try to prepare the ground in order that a plant may be allowed to fully flower. Yes, established stars have experience and baggage that young singers don't have, but the aim is the same. Sometimes, the means to achieve it are different. That is why i speak of as good a performance as possible. I don't really believe in an ideal performance. I start out knowing what I feel about an opera, but I leave room to manoeuvre within my conception to accommodate the singers. It is above all a collaborative process. I can and must give direction and coherence, but I can't ignore an artist's input—or limitations, for that matter. If I do, it's certain we'll be miles away from 'as good a performance as possible."

What are the operatic challenges he would like to take up in the future? "There's so much I'd like to do. First, I would love to return to certain works I've already performed, especially Pelleas et Melisande and Wozzeck, which was such a defining experience for me when we did the work at the Orford Festival. More Mozart, particularly Idomeneo, and, of course, Verdi, especially Don Carlos. Massenet's masterpiece, Werther, is a work I particularly love, primarily for its orchestration and also for the way Goethe's novel was adapted into such a fabulous music drama. I'd love to tackle Richard Strauss, first with Salome and Elektra. Perhaps that's the road that would allow me one day to conduct Wagner s operas, but i'm giving myself a long time to prepare for that, because there's so much to assimilate and so many elements to integrate into any work of Wagner's. I think that's enough to be getting on with !"

The burst of spontaneous and unbridled laughter that follows is typical of the man. Come to think of it, it's not deciding where to begin that's difficult when talking about Yannick
Nezet-Seguin, it's imagining where his incredible voyage of discovery will end. EH