In Madrid, Mortier Sings A Similar Song

In his first press conference since being named the next artistic director of the Teatro Real, Gérard Mortier described hopes and plans notably similar to those he had for New York City Opera before he walked away from the top job there. He says the Real has “enormous potential”; he wants to open the theater to the city and bring in lots of new audience members, including young people; he wants 35 percent of the repertoire to be 20th-century works (and says that, in his experience, “the public reacts effusively to modern opera”).