The English National Opera will call for the contract of his incoming music director after finding out that he has also accepted another music director in New Zealand.
Eno announced in May that André de Ridder, a German conductor, would be his music director, who will take up the post in autumn 2027 from September.
The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra (NZSO) announced this week that Mr. De Ridder would officially issue his music director from September 2027.
“I am very excited and I feel really honored to have been selected to become the next music director of this orchestra and to experience and contribute unique musical and cultural landscape through New Zealand,” he said in a statement on the Facebook page of the NZSO.
But Norman Lebrecht, a leading music expert and former Telegraph columnist, dismissed the double appointments as “absurd” due to the great distance and an difference in 11 hours.
He told the Telegraph: “New Zealand is the other side of the watch. Basically, you cannot communicate.
“With a company in the crisis, such as Eno, you absolutely need a firm hand on the pin. You have to have a decision -maker there.”
If the second job was in the same time zone, Eno could call his music director, said Life Right and added: “If he is in New Zealand, you can actually not have any real discussions because it will last after 11 a.m. or 11 a.m. at 11 a.m.
“The whole position is absurd.”
Mr. Lebrecht wrote on his slipped CD website and said: “This should be a simple way, or, or, or if something goes wrong in London or Auckland, Ridder is right there to do it right.
“Unmitiateded Piffle”
Observers argued that international conductors take different places that leaves little time for a second job.
Despite the award -winning excellence of many of his productions, Eno has thrown itself from one crisis to another.
Years of turbulence have experienced strikes and protests against cuts, while the fears of his survival by the plan of Arts Council England, to draw its financing, were triggered, unless the company found a basis outside the capital.
The upcoming season of ENO, from September, will contain 12 productions and concerts in London and Manchester, both new productions and revival.
Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s political satire, rise and fall of the city of Mahagonny are staged in 2026, which marks the first engagement of Mr. de Ridder as music director.
He is currently General Music Director of Theater Freiburg in Baden-Württemberg. Previously, he had carried out Gerald Barry’s The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant in 2005.
The representative of Mr. de Ridder, Anna Wetherell von Harrisonparrott, the classic music agency, said that the two jobs are “not really matching”.
She added: “New Zealand has its winter festival, which is every year in August when Eno does not operate.
“With New Zealand, he signed up to three seasons – [from] March to December 2027, 2028 and 2029 – so it will probably … two weeks at the beginning of the year, three in the middle and three at the end. “
When asked where his home will be, she said: “It is unclear for the time being. He could move somewhere in the UK.”
Mr. Lebrecht described Eno as “shadow of his former self” and found that the former music director had said that the job was unsustainable: “This is the music director of the English National Opera.
“Nevertheless, Eno had to go to Germany because we have no unemployed who are unemployed and pretty good.”
John Allison, the editor of the Opera Magazine and a Telegraph Music critic, said: “People can say that the management of a national company leaves little time for anything else. Unfortunately, Eno is not exactly the most busy national full-time opera company.
“But it is also not a trust vote where André de Ridder believes that Eno could be in a few years if he starts in New Zealand. It is not impossible for him to do both jobs, but it is not necessarily an ideal look.
“Eno has no crisis for a long time. It is currently a different kind of crisis because nobody knows exactly where it is going, supposedly after Manchester. But who knows whether the artificial road that has imposed them will still be here if the move is to take place?
“Strong leadership”
An ENO spokesman said Mr. de Ridder was “appointed a strict process” and added: “We are all looking forward to working with him in the coming years.
“It is absolutely standard for the leading conductors to have more than one contribution international.
“It is simply not true that Eno is in a state of the crises. With a strong leadership and a clear plan for the future programs both in London and in Greater Manchester, as we announced in May, Eno is progressing with an exciting season 2025/26.
“This includes 12 productions and concerts in London and Manchester, the expansion of our work by new shipping partnerships as well as learning and participation programs and the expansion of our offer of free tickets for under 21 years.”
Mr. de Ridder was contacted for a comment.