Paris (AFP)

Olivier Mantei, current director of the Opéra Comique, has been appointed by the President of the Republic to head the Philharmonie de Paris for five years, the Ministry of Culture announced on Wednesday.

He will succeed Laurent Bayle, the "father" of the prestigious concert hall inaugurated in 2015 and has since become a benchmark in the world in terms of acoustics, programming and educational projects.

Olivier Mantei, appointed on the proposal of the Minister of Culture Roselyne Bachelot and in agreement with the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, will take office on November 1, 2021 for a five-year term.

A discreet personality in the lyric scene and in classical music, the 56-year-old from Nantes has solid experience in conducting, from the Bouffes du Nord to the Opéra Comique.

"When he takes up his post at the Philharmonie, Olivier Mantei will leave the Opéra Comique and will not occupy any function in the Bouffes du Nord and Athénée theaters of which he is a shareholder," the ministry said in a press release.

He was reappointed in June 2020 at the head of the Opéra Comique, until 2023, and will therefore have to leave this post two years earlier.

At the head of the Opéra Comique, he has brought up to date French works that are rare or considered out of fashion and he has commissioned creations, such as the recent contemporary opera "L'Inondation", directed by Joël Pommerat.

This doctor in musicology was among the unfortunate candidates for the post of new director of the Paris Opera, the "big brother" of the Opéra Comique in the capital.

The Minister of Culture praised "the exceptional work of Laurent Bayle who designed, implemented and managed the first years of existence of this unique facility in the world that is the Philharmonie de Paris".

Olivier Mantei will propose "a programming policy open to all musical aesthetics, to combine proximity and excellence" and "will also have the mission of developing the production and international distribution activity" of the Orchester de Paris, the resident orchestra at the Philharmonie.

He will be able to count on the institution's successful projects: "Démos", free orchestras for children in underprivileged areas;

the Music Museum;

the inauguration scheduled for September of the Children's Philharmonic, a space for games and music awareness.

Without forgetting "the changes made necessary by the context of the health crisis" of Covid-19.

© 2021 AFP