FROM THE CANADIAN HEARTLAND to the northern climes of Scandinavia, Michael Cavanagh has waited a lifetime to helm one of the world’s most venerated opera houses. That dream came true in Oct. 2019 when he was announced as the newest Artistic Director of the 278-year-old Royal Swedish Opera, with his five-year tenure beginning in earnest this fall.
The Winnipeg, Manitoba-born director, 60, hit the ground running after arriving in Stockholm on Aug. 16th, taking over from RSO’s General Manager of nearly 12 years, the legendary Swedish mezzo-soprano Birgitta Svendén. Founded in 1773 by King Gustav III—his murder in his own theatre in 1792 inspired Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera—the “Kungliga Operan” has showcased Swedish operatics legends such as Jussi Björling, Nicolai Gedda, Jenny Lind, and Birgit Nilsson. The company includes both opera and ballet divisions with the nearly 500-year-old Royal Swedish Orchestra as its backbone, now led by its new American Music Director Alan Gilbert, appointed Jan. 2020.
“It’s a huge honour and I just feel so much gratitude, and also this enormous sense of responsibility for this job” says the effervescent opened after Nov 21 (see review, p. 50) and he’ll return in June for the cycle’s finale, a darkly post-apocalyptic , having negotiated with his new Swedish company to fulfill his freelance contracts with SFO.
