Cincinnati Opera's Marcus Küchle — who serves as the director of artistic operations and new work development — is stepping down from his role in mid-December to a fill a new role at the Tyrolean Festival in Erl, Austria.
A native of Munich, Germany, Küchle has been with the CO since 2001. Prior to that, he worked at the San Francisco Opera and attended grad school at Indiana University. In his time here — which spans nearly two decades — he has "been a champion for new operatic works and collaborations with outside organizations," according to a release.
One of those collabs is Opera Fusion: New Works, a program for which he served as artistic director with Robin Guarino of University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music. The program has workshopped 11 new American operas that include Greg Pierce's Fellow Travelers, Rufus Wainwright’s Hadrian and Jake Heggie’s Great Scott.
Most recently, the series showcased Eurydice, which ran Nov. 8-17. It told the story of the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus but from the perspective of his wife as she awaits rescue from the underworld. This month, Postville: Hometown to the World will unfold Dec. 12-16 in Music Hall's Corbett Opera Center.
According to the info on CO's website, the new work is set in Postville, Iowa — the self-proclaimed "Hometown to the World." Contrary to its name, in 2008 a meat-packing plant in the town was host to a massive U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency raid. More than a tenth of the population was arrested and deported.
Last year, Küchle also led CO Next: Diverse Voices, which seeks to present work by diverse creators telling diverse stories.
Küchle will take a top administrative spot in the Tyrolean Festival Erl, a music fest that spans four weeks in the summer. In 2012, they added a winter fest, which usually runs from Dec. 26-Jan. 6. It takes place in multiple venues and shares a general and artistic director with Oper Frankfurt in Bernd Loebe, which is often dubbed "Opera House of the Year" by Opernwelt. This season, the opera house will show 29 productions. Küchle with return with his wife, Annalisa Pappano, and daughter, Claudia, to the German region of Bavaria, where his family lives, not far from Erl itself.
“The opportunity to return to my roots, and to play a leadership role in the next chapter of a terrific festival in a most gorgeous location in the Austrian Alps, was simply too good to pass up," says Küchle in a release. "At the same time, it will be difficult to leave Cincinnati Opera, our friends, and this city, which has been our home for so many years. I’m deeply grateful to the entire Cincinnati Opera community for the many years of friendship and the groundbreaking art we have created together.”
Patricia K. Beggs, CO's director and CEO, says that Küchle has done "extraordinary" work, citing that his innovative work will leave a mark on the company. And Evans Mirageas, the director of the company, says that Cincinnati Opera remains committed to presenting new works.
“While presenting the great works of Verdi, Wagner, and other masters continues to be at the heart of our mission," Mirageas says in a release, "we will continue to support the careers of contemporary composers. You never know when the next Puccini will be discovered.”