The function of this Wednesday’s opera ‘Mitridate, re di Ponto’ will be the last that Ivor Bolton conducts in the pit of the Teatro Real as musical director of the institution, a position he has held since September 2015 until the end of the current season.
His debut at the Real was much earlier, in 2007, with ‘Leonore’, by Beethoven, in a concert version and leading the National Choir and Orchestra of Spain.
Thus, at the end of July this year, the British director will culminate 10 years –two successive terms– at the helm of the Resident Orchestra and Choir of the Teatro Real, a stage that began in September 2015, after his official appointment on February 10, 2014.
In addition to concerts, the British director has conducted 24 opera productions at the Teatro Real, covering five centuries of music, among which Mozart’s operas –‘Mitridate, re di Ponto’, ‘Lucio Silla’, ‘Idomeneo, re di Creta’, ‘The Marriage of Figaro’, ‘Don Giovanni’ and ‘The Magic Flute’–; or Handel –‘Rodelinda’, ‘Partenope’, ‘Orlando’ and ‘Theodora’–.
In 2023, Bolton was appointed Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire by King Charles III of England at the proposal of the UK’s Council of Ministers, «for his services to music«. The Teatro Real also acknowledged his significant contribution to the improvement of its orchestra by awarding him one of its prizes in the same year.
Ivor Bolton’s trajectory at the Teatro Real is associated with that of Joan Matabosch, who proposed him as musical director of the Teatro Real after a long period without that position being filled by decision of Gerard Mortier, artistic director of the institution between 2010 and 2013.
«Ivor Bolton’s legacy to the Resident Orchestra of the Teatro Real has been to develop its flexibility and its chameleon-like ability to adapt to all styles. From meticulous work on the repertoire of the 18th and 20th centuries, which Bolton knows, masters, and defends with passion, he has managed to shape the orchestra and enhance the ability of its musicians to listen to each other, adapt to antagonistic rhythmic, harmonic, and vocal discourses, always conducting with admirable respect and empathy towards the musical and dramatic syntax of operatic productions. That is why he is a wonderful collaborator for great stage directors, who love working with him,» Matabosch valued in a statement.