Tilman Michael to become Metropolitan Opera chorus director, succeeding Donald Palumbo
Tilman Michael will become chorus director of the Metropolitan Opera next season following the retirement of Donald Palumbo after 17 years as chorus master
NEW YORK (AP) — Tilman Michael will become chorus director of the Metropolitan Opera next season following the retirement of Donald Palumbo after 17 years as chorus master.
Michael, 49, was chorus master at the National Theater in Mannheim, Germany, then has held the same job at Oper Frankfurt since 2014–15. He spent 10 years assisting the chorus master at the annual Richard Wagner Festival in Bayreuth.
Michael worked with Met music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin in 2019 during performances of Shostakovich's 13th symphony with the Rotterdam Philharmonic and the choir of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Nézet-Séguin and Thomas Lausmann, the Met’s director of music administration, approached Michael for the job last year.
Lausmann attended a performance of Verdi's “Don Carlo” in Frankfurt and Michael traveled to the Met to listen to the chorus in Verdi's “La Forza del Destino” and Puccini's “Turandot." His hiring was announced Tuesday.
