Roland Kluttig, chief conductor of the Graz Opera, will leave the house at the end of the 2022/23 season after his contract has expired. “At my own request,” it said on Friday (May 20) in a broadcast. Which seems strange: Because last Monday (May 9th) the German explicitly confirmed in a conversation with our newspaper that he would like to stay in Graz for a few more seasons. In addition, he would have settled in very well in his private life. However, the designated opera director Ulrich Lenz had not spoken to him about an extension up to this point. Lenz, who will follow Nora Schmid in 2023, who will take over the Dresden Semperoper, allegedly wanted someone else.
When he started in 2020, Kluttig had already emphasized that seven years were ideal for building something up. The well-versed conductor led, among other things, the production of “The Passenger” by Mieczysław Weinberg, which was also produced on CD and DVD. Also this year in February he conducted the Austrian premiere of “Morgen und Abend” by Georg Haas.
During his tenure in Graz, Kluttig made his debut at the Salzburg Festival. In his last season in Graz, the program includes new productions of Benjamin Britten’s “War Requiem”, Bedřich Smetana’s “The Bartered Bride”, Leoš Janáček’s “Katja Kabanova” and the revival of Verdi’s “Don Carlo”. Kluttig will say goodbye with Robert Schumann’s “Scenes from Goethe’s ‘Faust'” and Gustav Mahler’s third symphony.