Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra Music Director Robert Spano has a new title to add to his resume: music director designate for the Washington National Opera.
He will officially take over the role of music director for the opera’s 2025-2026 season, which will mark the start of his three-year contract with the company.
While his calendar will include more performances at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., he will still be a mainstay at Fort Worth’s Bass Performance Hall, conducting the symphony.
“One of the things I had hoped for myself when I left Atlanta was to have more opera in my life. And this happened, and it’s kind of a miracle, and it’s just wonderful,” Spano said in an interview with the Report. “It’s a typical thing for conductors to be pigeonholed as either a symphonic conductor or an opera conductor but, in fact, both present unique and exciting challenges.”
The four-time Grammy winner made his debut conducting the Metropolitan Opera in 2018 and first took the stage with the Washington National Opera a few years later with the world premiere of “Written in Stone.”
“Robert Spano is one of the world’s most respected and beloved conductors, and he has a particular talent for leadership as a music director, a position he has held to acclaim several times in the symphony world but not yet in the opera world,” Washington National Opera’s General Director Timothy O’Leary said in a press release.
“When our WNO Orchestra musicians worked with him on ‘Written in Stone’ — an ambitious, complex and meaningful project for our company — there was an instant rapport and musical bond. We are thrilled to welcome him to the WNO family.”
Conducting styles for an orchestra and an opera are unique but complementary, Spano said.
“One’s experience as a conductor of opera informs symphonic music tremendously, because you start to see how the music has its own dramatic and narrative element,” he explained.
Spano pointed to composer Gustav Mahler as a prime example of the symbiosis between orchestras and opera.
“He was a great opera conductor, but he never wrote an opera. But yes, his symphonies are very operatic in the way they unfold, very theatrical and often narrative. He’s not the only composer to embody that, but he’s certainly emblematic of it. … Symphonic and operatic work have a wonderful dynamism between them.”
As a maestro, Spano is no stranger to managing a packed schedule, which is something he hopes Fort Worth patrons will find reassuring.
“I’ve gotten some messages, ‘Are you moving to Washington?’ No, I’m not. In fact, it’s not changing my commitment here in any way,” he said. “I’m still involved in all the other things we do. … That’s all working out beautifully, (and) that’s a good thing because I feel like we’re still just getting started here.”
Marcheta Fornoff covers the arts for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at marcheta.fornoff@fortworthreport.org. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here
This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.