It would be wonderful to attend the performance twice and the second time around only look with one’s ears. The music under the Argentine conductor Alejo Pérez [...] was performed with intensity of the highest order. Jürgen Kesting, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
As a conductor, Alejo Pérez possesses an inherent stylistic awareness and the ability to bring every detail of the most complex score to life. This has consistently secured him a firm place on the international opera and concert scene.
In recent years, the conductor has appeared to great acclaim at the Salzburg Festival, at the Wiener Staatsoper, the Semperoper Dresden, and at Teatro Colón with titles such as Faust, Werther, Katya Kabanova, Parsifal, Der Rosenkavalier and Ariadne auf Naxos. In the 2024/25 season, he will conclude the trilogy of War and Peace, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District and now Khovanshchina at the Grand Théâtre de Genève in collaboration with Calixto Bieito; he will also return to Tokyo Nikikai Opera for a new production of Die Frau ohne Schatten directed by Peter Konwitschny and to the Teatro Municipal de Santiago de Chile for Der Fliegende Holländer staged by Marcelo Lombardero. Symphonic highlights of the season include performances of Mahler's Symphony No. 8 at the Teatro Colón and his debut with the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.
In his role as music director, Alejo Pérez has been forming the sonic identity of the Flemish Opera since September 2019 - a theatre which has received much international recognition in recent years. There, he made strong appearances in new productions including Pelléas et Mélisande, Lohengrin, Don Carlos, Tristan und Isolde, and La Clemenza di Tito. In the 2024/25 season, he can be seen in Flanders with three masterpieces of opera literature: with new productions of Salome (director: Ersan Mondtag) and Wozzeck (Johan Simons), as well as concert performances of Norma.
Alejo Pérez has been a guest with numerous internationally renowned orchestras, such as Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra,Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, SWR Symphony Orchestra, NDR Symphony Orchestra, Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Ensemble Intercontemporain. He also enjoys longstanding working relationships with the Stuttgart Opera (Cherubini’s Medea, The Love for Three Oranges, Werther); Opéra de Lyon (Pelléas et Mélisande, The Stigmatized, GerMANIA, From the House of the Dead), and the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma (La Cenerentola, The Nose, Lulu, The Fiery Angel). In addition, engagements have taken him to the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Tokyo New National Theatre, Opéra de Bastille, the Cologne, Frankfurt, and Leipzig Operas, Norwegian National Opera, Teatr Wielki Warsaw, and La Monnaie de Munt.
Between 2009 and 2012 Alejo Pérez served as music director of the Teatro Argentino de La Plata, to which he brought a new lease of life with internationally acclaimed performances. From 2010, he was one of the main conductors at the Teatro Real Madrid in the era of Gerard Mortier, closely working with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid for concerts and celebrated productions of Rienzi, Don Giovanni, Death in Venice, Golijov’s Ainadamar, and Rihm’s Die Eroberung von Mexico.
The polyglot Argentinian studied both composition and conducting in addition to piano in his native Buenos Aires, and later in Karlsruhe with Peter Eötvös. Formative periods at the start of his conducting career included assisting Peter Eötvös, Michael Gielen, as well as Christoph von Dohnányi at the NDR Symphony Orchestra. In 2019, Alejo Pérez was awarded the Konex Platinum Award for his artistic achievements – one of the highest honours in his home country Argentina.
2024/25 season
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