(Credit: Speranza Scappucci official website)

Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège has officially announced that Speranza Scappucci will not renew her term as the Music Director of the house, which is set to expire at the end of the 2021-22 season.

Per an official statement, Scappucci declined the offer made by ORW’s General Director Stefano Pace to extend her term as the Music Director because of many upcoming engagements. The opera house reiterated that Scappucci would return as the Guest Conductor in the 2022-23 season for an important new production which will be announced in due time.

News of Scappucci’s term ending come on heels of recent developments at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège, when tenors Maxime Melnik and Zeno Popescu were dropped from the production of “Lucia di Lammermoor” because of the alleged failure to maintain the highest artistic criteria needed for the success of a production.

Scappucci took to Facebook with a following statement: “A few weeks ago I had to communicate to the theater in Liege that I won’t be able to renew my contract as Music Director of the House: my very busy calendar, made even fuller by covid related cancelled productions around the world that have been rescheduled to the next couple of years, doesn’t allow me to fulfill the duties that such directorship entitles and that I take very seriously.

I will be back as a guest conductor as I love and cherish this theater very much. We will have have spent 5 years together and done great things and for this I’d like to thank everyone at ORW, the whole house, the orchestra, the coro, every department and the Direction. I look forward to the Wagner Strauss concert in January and Simon Boccanegra in June and meanwhile I wish all the best to my colleagues and fellow artists coming to Liege in the next weeks.”

Scappucci withdrew from the production of “Lucia di Lammermoor” at the beginning of November due to surgery. The Music Director of the Opera Royal de Wallonie-Liège is set to return to the stage for a concert performance of Rossini’s “Le Comte Ory” at the Bayerischen Rundfunks on Dec. 12, 2021.