
Teodor Currentzis is a Greek-Russian conductor famed for the
unorthodox operatic interpretations he has issued from the
relatively remote cities of Novosibirsk and Perm. The Guardian has
called him "the conducting equivalent of Glenn Gould morphed with
Kurt Cobain." Born in Athens in 1972, Currentzis studied piano and
violin as a child. A prodigy, he entered Greece's National
Conservatory at 12, as a violinist, switching to composition
several years later. In the 1994 he moved to Russia and began
studying conducting with the nonagenarian Ilya Musin at the State
Conservatory in St. Petersburg, graduating in 1998. He pointed out
that with Greece's long history of military dictatorship, including
the one in force when he was born, a move to Russia was in no way
surprising, and indeed he has become an icon of intellectual
freedom in the music sphere among progressive forces in his adopted
country. He is a naturalized Russian citizen. In 2004, while he
held the position of music director of the Novosibirsk State Opera
and Orchestra, Currentzis founded and became artistic director of
MusicAeterna, leading both the choir and ensemble in period-style
performances. In 2006, he also started the Territoria Modern Art
Festival in Moscow. Remaining in Novosibirsk until 2010, Currentzis
became the artistic director of the Perm State Opera and Ballet
Theater. He was the recipient of the Golden Mask theatrical award,
and he received awards for his performances of Henry Purcell's The
Indian Queen, Alban Berg's Wozzeck, Sergey Prokofiev's Cinderella,
and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Le nozze de Figaro. Currentzis
remains director of MusicAeterna and has toured Europe with new
productions of Purcell's The Indian Queen and other Baroque operas.
He made several recordings of the Alpha label, beginning in 2008,
and including one of the Shostakovich Symphony No. 14, Op. 135, one
of his few non-operatic releases. But it is his approach to Mozart
that has made headlines and attracted the attention of the
multinational Sony label. With blistering tempi, furious attacks
influenced by his historical Baroque performance background, and an
international group of singers handpicked to keep up with him,
Currentzis' cycle of Mozart operas (Don Giovanni was recorded in
Perm in 2016) has excited, and to an extent polarized, critics and
listeners. Currentzis, who reportedly changes romantic partners
annually like some do their automobiles, has stated that he is
happy in Perm, in the Ural mountains, and has no plans to leave.