Théâtre national de l’Opéra Comique Renews Director’s Contract

Conductor Louis Langrée will continue his role at the French opera company until 2029

Louis Langrée was first appointed director of Paris’s Théâtre National de l'Opéra-Comique in 2021 for a five-year term. He has now been renewed for a second three-year term from 2026 to 2029. 

His achievements at the company so far have included expanding audience numbers by more than 19% between 2022 and 2023, and seeing an increase in concertgoers aged between 18 and 35. 

Additionally, he has presented numerous baroque and traditional works among new pieces — including one commission each year. In education, he has brought together the company’s Academy of the Opéra-Comique and the Maîtrise Populaire de l'Opéra-Comique to train new emerging artists. 

Hailing from Mulhouse, France, Langrée studied at the Conservatoire de Strasbourg and began his conducting career at the Opéra de Lyon, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, Orchestre de Paris, and the Bayreuth Festival.

Previously, he served as principal conductor of the Salzburg Camerata and as music director of the Orchestre de Picardie, Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, Opéra national de Lyon, and the Glyndebourne Touring Opera. 

He was also music director of the Mostly Mozart Festival at New York’s Lincoln Center for 21 years, and spent 11 years in the same role at the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, where he is now music director laureate. 

Langrée has conducted the Berlin, Vienna, London, New York, Los Angeles, and Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestras, plus opera productions at the Vienna Staatsoper, La Scala, Royal Ballet and Opera, Opéra national de Paris, and many more. 

His awards include the Diapason d'Or of the Year, Grand Prix de l'Académie Charles Cros, Prix Caecilia, and Diamant de Opéra magazine. He is also a Knight of the Légion d’Honneur and Commander of the French Order of Arts and Letters.

At l’Opéra-Comique, he will continue working with Deputy Director Anne-Sophie Brandalise and the company’s team. 

“[This new appointment] will allow Louis Langrée to consolidate his artistic and cultural project in the service of lyric art and its audiences, and to expand his action around diversity, parity and ecological transition,” reads a press release on behalf of the current Minister of Culture Rachida Dati. 

“In addition, from June 2026 to June 2027, he will lead major works on the historic stage box of the Salle Favart, to modernize it and make it accessible to people with reduced mobility,” it continued. “[Dati] would like to congratulate Louis Langrée for all the work he has done during his first term and for his reappointment as director of the Opéra-Comique.”