Edward Gardner has been announced as the new music director of the Norwegian Opera & Ballet. He has joined the organisation as artistic advisor and will begin his tenure as music director in August 2024. Before taking on the position, he will conduct several productions including Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera and Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust.
Gardner is already based in Norway as chief conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic, a position he will relinquish at the end of the 2023/24 season – at which point he will move over to the Norwegian Opera and Ballet. He also recently began his tenure as principal conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
It’s not the first time Gardner will join the company, having recently worked with the Norwegian Opera Orchestra in a streamed performance of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. Last year, he conducted music from Strauss’s operas for film LISE, starring soprano Lise Davidsen.
‘I had a fantastic collaboration with the talented musicians there over the past year,’ says Gardner. ‘I look forward to creating performances of the highest quality for Norwegian and international audiences in one of the world’s best opera houses.’
Read all our reviews of Edward Gardner recordings here.
Top image: Edward Gardner with Randi Stene, opera director of the Norwegian Opera & Ballet