A new conductor for Melbourne’s ‘Ring’

Opera Australia has announced that Finnish conductor Pietari Inkinen will conduct the Melbourne production of Wagner’s ‘Ring’ later this year.

Here’s the full statement issued earlier today:

“Opera Australia has appointed the outstanding young Finnish conductor Pietari Inkinen as the new conductor for The Melbourne Ring Cycle 2013. Mr Inkinen will join Opera Australia at the start of September, when the second phase of rehearsals recommences. He will work with the Ring Orchestra and full cast of singers throughout Sept-Nov, and then conduct all performances of the Ring Cycle from Mon 18 November through Friday 13 December 2013.
“Pietari Inkinen is firstly an outstanding musician,” Terracini said. “He is an impressive conductor with terrific stick technique, and he really demonstrates an innate understanding of, and affinity, with Wagner’s music. His passion for the piece is palpable.”
Pietari Inkinen said, “I am thrilled to be joining this excellent artistic team and very much looking forward to working with the fantastic director Neil Armfield and wonderful cast of singers.”
At 33 Mr Inkinen is young, but considered a star of his generation, having performed as a violinist and conducted from an early age, earning the praise of artists and critics alike. He was a stand-out amongst the pool of candidates, highly recommended by artists including John Wegner and Simon O’Neill.  Mr Inkinen studied at the Sibelius Academy, and was appointed Music Director of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra at just 27 and Principal Guest Conductor of the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra a year later. He has also conducted orchestras of such renown as the Israel Philharmonic, La Scala Philharmonic, LA Philharmonic, Dresden Staatskapelle, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Bayerische Rundfunk and Maggio Musicale, to highlight just a few.
Ultimately, his youth has nothing to do with it, Terracini said. “If you’re good enough, you’re old enough. It’s exciting to have a young conductor of immense talent working with Neil Armfield on this life-changing project.”
The artistic director had already approached Inkinen when he began to receive emails from singers praising the conductor’s immense talents. Among the big names who have sung under his baton are the acclaimed New Zealand tenor Simon O’Neill and well-known singer of Wagner, John Wegner. Last year, Inkinen brought New Zealand its very first concert performance of one of Wagner’s Ring operas, and critics were dumbfounded. “Superlatives are inadequate to do the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra’s Die Walküre justice … Pietari Inkinen sustained a sumptuous, perfectly paced orchestra flow, springing into passionate bloom for the young lovers, ushering in the Valkyries with whiplash thrills,”wrote William Dart in the New Zealand Herald.
Pietari Inkinen conducted the first two operas of the Ring Cycle – Die Walküre and Das Rheingold– at Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Italy earlier this year but financial difficulties have forced the opera theatre to postpone its remaining 2013 season including the final operas of the Ring Cycle, which were scheduled for late 2013. Palermo’s loss is Melbourne’s gain, as the cancellation has enabled Inkinen to become available to take up the opportunity with Opera Australia, and to join the project very well prepared.
Lyndon Terracini is confident he will bring the very best out of the stellar international cast gathered in Melbourne to perform in Opera Australia’s first Ring cycle. He said, “As Peter Craven wrote in his wonderful article on the Ring in The Australian, finding the perfect conductor for The Ring is not easy. But we think we’ve got pretty close to it.”