Semyon Bychkov to succeed Gustavo Dudamel as music director of Paris Opera

The conductor, who was born to Jewish parents in the Soviet Union, says he agreed to take post after some of the opera’s musicians ‘assaulted’ him, saying, ‘You must come to us’

Semyon Bychkov will succeed Gustavo Dudamel as music director of the Paris Opera starting in August 2028, the company’s general director Alexander Neef said Tuesday.

The 73-year-old Bychkov agreed to a four-year contract and will conduct two operas and six symphonic concerts per season, Neef said.

Dudamel quit as the Paris Opera’s music director in May 2023, two seasons into a six-year contract. He announced his Paris departure three months after announcing he was leaving the Los Angeles Philharmonic for the New York Philharmonic in 2026-27.

“After the departure of Gustavo Dudamel from the Paris Opera, there were some what I would call vibrations coming out of the house towards me,” Bychkov said during a telephone interview Tuesday.

He became music director of the Czech Philharmonic in 2018 and in September 2022 agreed to a contract through the 2027-28 season, so Bychkov put off further commitments. He said he was approached again last August at a dinner after a concert by the Paris Opera orchestra at the Ravel Festival in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, near where he lives with his wife, pianist Marielle Labèque.

“During the dinner I was, if I could use the word, ‘assaulted’ by the musicians, saying: ‘You must come to us. The position is free, etc, etc.,’” Bychkov recalled. “That kind of response from the musicians during that dinner was a bit of a trigger in my mind and in my heart.”

Bychkov also said he feels healthy again following lumbar decompression surgery in September 2024 and a hip replacement three months later.

He was born in Leningrad to Jewish parents, left the Soviet Union with his family for Vienna in 1974, then settled in the US one year later. He was music director of the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra from 1980-85 and became a US citizen.

Bychkov was music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra from 1985-89, the Orchestre de Paris from 1989-98 and the WDR Symphony Orchestra in Cologne, Germany, from 1997-2010.

He first conducted the Paris Opera in 2007 and will lead Ralph Fiennes’ opera directing debut on January 26 in Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin.” Bychkov will become music director designate this August.

His Paris tenure will come during major renovations. The stage of Palais Garnier, the ornate building opened in 1875, will be closed for two years after the 2026-27 season, and the Opera Bastille will close for two seasons starting around 2030.

“They’ve done absolutely everything in the genre of opera and ballet,” Bychkov said. “Because of the restoration of both houses they will have to naturally do less of the productions, and I thought that this would present a historic opportunity for the orchestra to develop itself as a symphonic instrument.”