David Agler
David Agler is Artistic Director of the Wexford Festival Opera. He has previously served as Music Director of the Vancouver Opera, Principal Conductor of the Australian Opera, Resident Conductor of the San Francisco Opera, Principal Guest Conductor of the Oper der Stadt Köln, conductor and Administrator of the Spoleto Festival, Artistic Director of the Opera Festival of New Jersey, and Music Director of the Syracuse Opera.
Notable opera companies with whom he has appeared include the Santa Fe Opera, Seattle Opera, The Western Australian Opera, The Netherlands Opera, Reggio Emilia, Pittsburgh Opera, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Opera Theater of St. Louis, Edmonton Opera, Manitoba Opera, and L’Opera de Montreal.
As a symphonic conductor, he has led concerts with the San Francisco Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Winnipeg Symphony, Warsaw Philharmonic, National Arts Center (Ottawa) Orchestra, CBC Vancouver, Netherlands Radio Symphony, Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Chamber Symphony and Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony.
Recent guest conducting engagements include productions of Dead Man Walking and Ariadne auf Naxos for Calgary Opera, Un Ballo in Maschera for Opera Colorado, Tosca, Bluebeard’s Castle, and Romeo et Juliette in Vancouver, Tosca for Opera Pacific, Transatlantic for the Minnesota Opera, Manon and Salome for L’Opera de Montreal, Manon for the State Opera, Pretoria, South Africa and for the Florentine Opera, Milwaukee, The Cunning Little Vixen for Portland Opera, Si j’etais Roi by Adolph Adam for the Wexford Opera Festival, Orphee ed Eurydice by Gluck and Il Barbiere di Siviglia for Opera Colorado and New York City Opera, Gluck’s Il Trionfo di Cielia.for Teatro Comunale Rossini in Lugo, Italy, Le Nozze di Figaro for Opera Colorado and the New National Theater, Tokyo, Madama Butterfly for L’Opera de Montreal, Die Zauberflöte for the New York City Opera, Dialogues of the Carmelites for the Calgary Opera, La Boheme for Boston Lyric Opera, and The Rape of Lucretia for the Opera Festival of New Jersey. He has also led concerts with L’Orchestra Metropolitain in Montreal and the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, and with the BBC Northern Ireland Orchestra. This past season, he conducted Puccini’s Turandot for the Utah Opera.
This season, he will return to the Minnesota Opera to lead the world premiere of William Bolcom’s Dinner at Eight, after which he will debut with San Diego Opera conducting La Traviata.
As Music Director for Vancouver Opera, Mr. Agler earned special acclaim for productions of repertoire from the twentieth century, including Peter Grimes, The Makropolous Case, The Dialogues of the Carmelites, Jenufa and Susannah.
As Principal Conductor of the Australian Opera, Mr. Agler conducted new productions of Un Ballo in Maschera, Carmen, Peter Grimes, The Turn of the Screw, L’Incoronazione di Poppea, and The Rake’s Progress, in addition to numerous revivals.
Notable accomplishments during his tenure in San Francisco was the formation of a new orchestra for the opera and the development of the San Francisco Opera Center and the American Opera Project. For a time, he was Director of the EXXON/Affiliate Artists Program. He also conducted the world premieres of John Harbison’s Winter’s Tale, Kirk Mecham’sTartuffe, and the American premiere of Tippett’s Midsummer Marriage, and new productions of The Rake’s Progress, L’Incoronazione di Poppea, Death in Venice, and Elegy for Young Lovers.
