Hartmut Haenchen is Opernwelt's Conductor of the Year 2017

The periodical Opernwelt has chosen on the basis of a vote of fifty journalists worldwide Hartmut Haenchen as Conductor of the Year 2017. 

Maestro Haenchen was nominated for his four celebrated opera productions in the 16-17 season, Elektra and Tristan und Isolde at Opéra de Lyon (also named opera house of the year), Così fan tutte at Grand Théâtre de Genève and Parsifal at the Bayreuther Festspiele. Christian Merlin of the Paris newspaper Le Figaro also cited Maestro Haenchen's jump-in for Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde at Festival St. Denis...and all this within three months. Opernwelt says, 'It is barely believable that this conductor has been highly treasured for years outside Germany, and only now he conducts for the first time at Bayreuth'.