The Royal Swedish Orchestra

From having been a royal institution under Gustav Vasa, the orchestra has been at the heart of the Royal Opera since its inception in 1773, bringing together all its disciplines. The orchestra is normally found in the orchestra pit between the main stage and the stalls. But like the Royal Swedish Opera Chorus, members of the orchestra also participate in lunch concerts and at surprise events. The Royal Swedish Opera music director and international conductor Alan Gilbert is head of the Royal Swedish Orchestra since 2021. Below you can hear him speak about his career, the profession of conducting and working with the Royal Swedish Orchestra.

World famous conductor and Royal Court Kapellmeister Alan Gilbert divides his time between Stockholm, where he is the music director of the Royal Swedish Opera, and Hamburg, where he is chief conductor of the Elbphilharmonie. 

»I am so looking forward to conducting the premiere of Rusalka«, says Alan Gilbert. »I think it is a wonderful opera. Dvořák actually composed many operas, but most of them are forgotten. Rusalka deserves not only to be remembered but regularly programmed everywhere, it’s just such a masterpiece. It is a fairytale, it contains elements of Czech folk music, and it has absolutely ravishing orchestral colours. I’m very excited that we’re bringing it for the first time to Sweden. Netia Jones, the director, has quite a personal take on the story – which I think is good. These old masterpieces should be able to withstand interpretation and new treatment.«

Alan Gilbert conducted the premiere of the Royal Swedish Opera’s new production of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro early in 2025. In the autumn, he will conduct, for the first time, Die Zauberflöte, another classic Mozart opera.

»I love Die Zauberflöte. It is a piece that is so popular and well known, and I think that it has a special place in Swedish culture, after Ingmar Bergman’s film version. I adore that film and have seen it many times. One of my most important missions as music director is to create an identity with the music of Mozart, a style and an approach that is ours. There are many ways to play Mozart, and the point is not to find the most correct or authentic way to perform his music, but I think it’s important for us to find the way that we do Mozart. I think that so much of what we do here is growing out of the world of Mozart.«

Alan will also conduct several concerts at the Royal Swedish Opera during the season.
»The annual free concert at Gustav Adolfs torg, which concludes the Stockholm Culture Festival, is a great tradition that we have here, and this is the first time that I am conducting it. I went to the concert last year, it was a great vibe there. Such a big crowd, and people were really enthusiastic. It’s a really nice way for us to connect to the city. In November, I will conduct A Faust Symphony by Franz Liszt, a wonderful piece. Liszt was a very important composer, he had a huge effect on romanticism. Wagner would not be what he became if it had not been for the daring path that Liszt had taken. This is an interesting piece, with a tenor solo and chorus – it’s a very dense and rich piece of music, it will be great for our orchestra to explore. And in January, in the first of our concerts celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Royal Swedish Orchestra, I will conduct Beethoven’s ninth symphony. I have done that many times, but never in an opera house. The third movement is magnificent, and the last movement is, from a human standpoint, one of the greatest things ever created. It has a vision of music that actually changed music.«