Norwegian Opera & Ballet Appoints New Music Director

Prior to becoming Music Director, in the spring of 2023,  Edward Gardner will lead the Norwegian Opera and Ballet in productions of Verdi's Un ballo in maschera and Berlioz's The Damnation of Faust.

He has previously worked with the ensemble, heaving led a streamed version of the second act of Richard Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde. In the spring of 2021, he conducted music from Richard Strauss’s operas, for the film LISE with soprano Lise Davidsen.

As current Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Gardner also serves as Chief Conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic — a role from which he will step down at the end of the 2023/24 season.

From 2007 to 2015, he was Music Director of English National Opera and was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). A passionate supporter of young talent, Edward founded the Hallé Youth Orchestra in 2002 and regularly conducts the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain.

“Norway is still a young opera nation and approaches the tradition in a free way that I find very stimulating,” Gardner said in a press release. ”There is a freshness in the way music drama is created here that I would like us to pursue in every performance. Each time the audience arrives at the Opera, they should encounter something extraordinary.” 

“Ed performed Wagner and Richard Strauss with us last season and proved his unique musical capacity, his operatic sensibility, his professionalism and his winning interpersonal expertise,” said the organization's Opera Director, Randi Stene. “With him on board, the future of opera in Norway looks brighter than ever. I am very much looking forward to our close collaboration.”