Robert Houssart
© Zach
‘Rhythmic swing and precision’
‘The direction entrusted to Robert Houssart is precise and measured. Everything is clear and well controlled, without weakening the Dantesque effects of Adès’ composition which take hold of the audience'
Lara Othman, Olyrix, The Exterminating Angel, Opéra national de Paris
Robert Houssart brings the improvisatory flexibility of his early training as an organist to a very extensive repertoire of opera, ballet, and new music. Born in Haarlem, he was raised in the UK and studied at Cambridge and Manchester. He appears at companies such as the Opéra National de Paris, Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden, Opernhaus Zürich, Opéra National du Rhin, Strasbourg, Teatr Wielki Opera Narodowa, Warsaw and Grand Theâtre de Genève.
Houssart made his debut with the Australian premiere of Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre at the Adelaide Festival. From 2015-2024 he was resident conductor at the Royal Danish Opera and Royal Danish Ballet, Copenhagen, and has conducted more than 300 performances there. His projects have included new operas such as Hans Abrahamsen’s The Snow Queen (world premiere), Louise Alenius’s Manualen (world premiere), Thomas Adès’s The Exterminating Angel and Powder Her Face, Matias Vestergaard’s Lisbon Floor (world premiere), Haugur Tómasson’s Gudruns Lied, alongside a core repertoire of Mozart, Verdi, Puccini, Bizet, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Debussy, Wagner, Strauss, Bernstein, and his advocacy of Entartete Musik such as Weill and Korngold.
His ballet credits include Giselle, The Nutcracker, Swan Lake and Johan Inger’s A Swan Lake, Onegin, Romeo and Juliet, Cinderella, Blixen (Dean), Countertime (Marston), The Dante Project (MacGregor/Adès), and Et Folkesagn.
‘I think of orchestral pieces as fantastical animals that start to breathe when we begin to play them. You’re in an enclosure with this mythical beast, trying to understand it, touch it and not let it bite you’
