Jakub Hrůša, music director of the Royal Opera House, is preparing to conduct his first Parsifal, staged by Evgeny Titov, one year into his tenure. Next season, he will conduct complete cycles of Wagner's Ring, staged by Barrie Kosky, marking his first performances of all four operas within a single week.
A bold approach to Wagner
Hrůša first conducted Wagner at the Royal Opera House in 2022 with Lohengrin, which he called “one of the absolute highlights of my life”. He chose not to gradually add the Ring operas to his repertoire, instead taking on Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung all in the space of a week.
“Is it too bold? I find it wonderful!” he said. “I could have chosen to do it in my own way, in 10 years’ time, somewhere else – but I’m here, I’m the music director, the Ring should be done and wants to be done in its entirety, and I am courageous.”
Following Pappano’s legacy
Hrůša worked with Kosky on Carmen in 2018 and on Janáček’s Katya Kabanova at the 2024 Salzburg festival. The first three instalments of Kosky’s Ring were led by Antonio Pappano, with Götterdämmerung scheduled for January, also with Pappano. Pappano’s 22-year tenure as music director was the longest in the Royal Opera House’s history.
“I think when someone leads an opera house successfully for such a long time, it has two effects,” Hrůša said. “There’s this positive habit, an expectation of quality. But the longer the tenure has gone on in this way, the more necessary it is to consider the change positively. So there’s no contradiction between gratitude and love for Tony [Pappano] and eagerness to have a change. The only thing I’ve heard in the house, before I started and after, is: ‘We want you to do it in your own way.’”
Repertoire and collaboration
Titov’s production of Parsifal is described as dystopian and advertised with the line “What if the light is a lie?”. Hrůša said theatre should provoke to reach “the core of an important question about our lives”. He noted that nearly half of tickets sold by the Royal Ballet and Opera last season went to newcomers.
His repertoire includes Puccini, Janáček and Britten last season, and Wagner, Janáček and Verdi this season. He praised Glyndebourne productions of The Turn of the Screw and A Midsummer Night’s Dream for building his confidence with Britten. He described his role as collaborative, saying, “I always try to turn it into enrichment of my own vision rather than fighting.”
Hrůša has been chief conductor of the Bamberg Symphony for the past decade and will become chief conductor of the Czech Philharmonic in two seasons’ time, following his late teacher Jiří Bělohlávek. He said, “The core of what conductors do is non-verbal, and in a show there’s so much you can influence: the energy, momentum, atmosphere, detail, security, freedom – it’s an endless list.”
Parsifal is at the Royal Opera House from 1-17 October.
