Seattle Opera announces new general director

Seattle Opera has announced James Robinson as the company’s new General and Artistic Director, effective September 4, 2024. Robinson will succeed Christina Scheppelmann, who will become the artistic director of Brussels’ La Monnaie/De Munt in January 2025.

Robinson, who has been the Artistic Director at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis (OTSL) since 2008, has a notable record of commissioning 11 world premieres, including Huang Ruo’s An American Soldier and Terence Blanchard’s Champion and Fire Shut Up in My Bones. The latter, which premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in the 2021/22 season, was the first work by a Black composer to be performed on that stage.

As a stage director, Robinson has overseen at least 75 new productions. His staging of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, which opened the 2019/20 season at the Metropolitan Opera, won a Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording. In January 2004, he directed Georges Bizet’s Carmen at Seattle Opera, which became the highest-grossing production in the company’s history.

Jonathan Rosoff, chair of the search committee, praised Robinson’s appointment: “We are thrilled to have a leader of James’s calibre join us as General and Artistic Director of Seattle Opera. His steadfast leadership, impressive record of innovation, and deep knowledge of opera will make a significant impact and usher the company into an exciting new era.”

Robinson expressed his enthusiasm for the role: “I couldn’t be more excited to join the incredible staff and board at Seattle Opera. Seattle is an opera town with opera in its DNA, and I am honoured to build on that rich tradition. I look forward to creating art with and for the passionate audiences that have made Seattle Opera what it is today.”