TEXTBOOK CAREER
Bertrand de Billy makes his debut conducting "Die Zauberflöte" at the Salzburg Festival
A textbook career of our time: Bertrand de Billy was born in 1965 in Paris, educated – as to be expected – at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique, subsequently he held a few minor positions with orchestras. Then he was appointed first kapellmeister in Dessau and from 1996 to 1998 held the same position at the Volksoper in Vienna.
Success Story
The success story of Bertrand de Billy takes off with breathtaking speed: he receives invitations to conduct at opera houses all over the world, in London, Paris, Brussels, Berlin, Vienna, Hamburg, Munich and of course in America. The climax for the time being is that the Gran Teatro del Liceu in Barcelona appointed him principal conductor for the re-opening of the opera house destroyed by fire.
Glorious colours of sound with the Rso Vienna
From autumn 2002 Bertrand de Billy is also the new principal conductor of the Radio Symphony Orchestra of Vienna, an orchestra he already worked with during the Wiener Klangbogen Festival in 2000. In Massenet’s Werther he inspired the orchestra to produce “unimaginable glorious sound colours”, according to Reinhard Kager writing in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. At the Vienna Volksoper de Billy’s conducting of Boris Godunov was particularly impressive.
Festival debut conducting "Die Zauberflöte"
Now Bertrand de Billy is to present his visiting card as an opera conductor at the Salzburg Festival. Artistic director Peter Ruzicka has appointed him for the revival of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. After a one-off “excursion” to an exhibition hall on the outskirts of Salzburg, Achim Freyer’s poetic staging set in a circus arena returns once more to the Felsenreitschule.
Gerhard Rohde