(Credit: Peter Hundert I NDR)

American conductor Alan Gilbert has been appointed as the new Music Director of the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm and will begin in the spring of 2021.

Gilbert will combine his new position with the post of Chief Conductor at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the position which he took in the fall of 2019.

In a press release Gilbert said, “It is a great honor to be joining the Royal Swedish Opera as its Music Director. The experiences I have had working with this wonderful company, with its fabulous singers and orchestra, have been unfailingly joyous and memorable, and I am so happy to be able to look forward to many more. It is of course particularly meaningful for me to be coming back to such a musically vibrant situation in my adopted hometown.”

His first appearance at the Royal Swedish Opera as Music Director will be conducting a new production of Wagner’s “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg” in the spring of 2021.

Last season Gilbert conducted the production of Strauss’ “Der Rosenkavalier” in Stockholm, which saw Malin Byström and Johanni van Oostrum alternating in the role of the Marschallin.

This season Gilbert will conduct Puccini’s opera “La Fanciulla del West” at the Royal Swedish Opera in May and June with a cast that includes Malin Byström, Andrea Carè and Aleksey Bogdanov.