Quotes about Michael Christie

“A champion of fresh work” – The Denver Post 

“Michael Christie conducted with remarkable precision and flair.” – Chicago Tribune

“The rapidly shifting opera world seems to promise a minefield of challenges in the decade to come — more production-sharing, the need to invigorate the repertoire, and to do smaller-scale versions of cumbersome big works. Few conductors seem as well poised to meet this period of adjustment as Michael Christie.” – Opera News 

“…One of 25 people expected to break out and become major forces in the field in the coming decade” – Opera News  

“Michael Christie is a director open to adventure and challenge” – The New York Times 

“If Michael Christie represents the future of music in this country, the future looks promising indeed.” – Cincinnati Enquirer   

“A top-notch conductor of new works” – St. Louis Post-Dispatch 

“Conductor Michael Christie melds fire and ice.” – Star Tribune 

“Michael Christie, in his Lyric debut as conductor, drew poetic commentary from the Lyric Opera Orchestra” – Chicago Tribune 

“His conducting…revealed total emotional conviction, natural long-line phrasing, and mastery of orchestral color.” – Musical America 

“The (R)EVOLUTION OF STEVE JOBS opened brilliantly as a mainstage production of the Atlanta Opera, in its East Coast premiere, under Tomer Zvulun’s taut direction and Michael Christie’s smart baton. To say the audience greeted the work joyfully would be an understatement.”
– Broadway World 

“The Atlanta Opera Orchestra, under the baton of Michael Christie, was at the top of its game. They sounded fully engaged in the music, contributing mightily to the opera’s vital energy and forward momentum.” – EarRelevant 

“This year’s specialties were Octavio Cardenas’ winning production of La Bohème…conducted with brisk mastery by the great Michael Christie” – The Independent (Kansas City) 

​“Conductor Michael Christie led an assured, stylistically sound, and dramatically pliable reading, inspiring the exceptional DMMO orchestra to respond with an ensemble effort that ranged in effects from luxuriant, to lush, to contemplative, to crackling. Maestro Christie excelled at accommodating his singers, partnering them with great finesse.” – Opera Today  

“Michael Christie conducted with splendid brio and welcome crispness.” – Opera News 

“[Christie] brings his expertise in new music to bear on this classic score, leading the LOC orchestra with urgency and dramatic sensitivity. [Verdi’s La traviata]” – Schmopera 

“Michael Christie elicited from the Lyric Opera Orchestra a performance that brought forth the subtleties of Mozart’s majestic score beautifully.” – Opera Warhorses 

“Michael Christie led the orchestra in a sprightly pace; the chorus were in good voice.” – Bachtrack 

“Conductor Michael Christie, who has made recent marks bringing new American opera to the stage … did excellent work. He encouraged the singers to indulge in their rattled characters’ most intimate reflections without losing grip of the music’s exciting forward motion. [Verdi’s La traviata]” – Chicago Sun Times 

“And in an impressive Lyric Opera debut, conductor Michael Christie led the Lyric orchestra in the life-affirming energy of the opera’s grand waltzes and familiar ‘brindisi’ drinking song, and in the pathos of love and intimations of death. Viva Verdi. [La Traviata]” – WWTW Chicago 

“Michael Christie, music director of Minnesota Opera, had a strong debut at the podium, conducting [Dead Man Walking] with authority.” – Washington Classical Review 

“And Bates’ score, led with suave assurance by conductor Michael Christie, constantly finds ways to encapsulate a character or a dramatic situation that are accessible but rarely obvious.” – San Francisco Chronicle 

“From the opera’s fragile prelude to the Champagne brilliance of the soiree that first fills the stage to the last strains that accompany Violetta’s death, Verdi’s dramatic tapestry flowed from the Lyric Opera Orchestra. Christie led with a consummate sense of both the opera’s instrumental voice and its interplay with the characters before him. [La traviata]” – Chicago on the Aisle 

“Wei Wu sings well as Jobs’s Buddhist mentor Köbun, whose wisecracks undermine his supposed function, Jessica E. Jones sings exquisitely as the mother of Jobs’s child, and Michael Christie presides over an expertly executed performance. Santa Fe Opera has a hit on its hands.” – Financial Times 

“Michael Christie, Minnesota Opera’s music director and chief conductor, presided in the pit last Saturday night, giving careful guidance to the pulsating yet delicate electro-acoustic score by 40-year-old Mason Bates, recently named the most-performed composer of his generation.” – Minnesota Post 

“Michael Christie conducted with precision and pizzazz, and a couple of orchestral interludes truly got the adrenaline pumping. One of them, at about the opera’s one-hour mark, accompanies projected images charting the meteoric rise of the company and its growing complication as a corporate organism. I wouldn’t be surprised if it were extracted to stand as a frenetic orchestral showpiece in its own right.” – Santa Fe New Mexican 

“Yet the highest praise should be reserved for those given the tallest task: conductor Michael Christie and the orchestra. From the hypnotic, slow-building opening to the final triumphal entry into Valhalla, they offer non-stop transportation to a magical world.” – Pioneer Press 

“The true star of the opera in my book, however, was undeniably Maestro Michael Christie, who, like an elite athlete, exerted just enough energy to convey exactly what he wanted from his orchestra, one of the best in the business in my book.” – Opera Sense 

“Both the subtle colorings and pummeling intensity came through in the compelling performance the conductor Michael Christie drew from the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.” – The New York Times 

“Conductor Michael Christie, who has shown great skill and sensitivity in the past with everything from Puccini to John Adams, once again directs the orchestra…in a persuasive performance.” – KDHX 

“Conductor Michael Christie drew crisp, idiomatic playing from the orchestra” – Star Tribune 

“Christie…shows why he’s an outstanding conductor in the pit.” – Post-Bulletin 

“Conducting with restraint and precision, Christie captured the American spirit — its determination, resourcefulness and optimism — with a steady rhythmic pulse.” – The Press Democrat 

“Christie…is an elegant conductor with balletic arm movements and a firm grasp of rhythm. He is at once restrained and expressive, an expert at using his undulating arms to lead the orchestra in thunderous crescendos and whispering diminuendos.” – San Francisco Classical Voice 

“Minnesota Opera has put together an excellent ensemble, while conductor Michael Christie and the orchestra do fine things with the score [for Heggie’s Dead Man Walking].” St. Paul Pioneer Press 

“The work’s virtues [Heggie’s Dead Man Walking]…are made abundantly clear in this thoughtful, often gripping, production [with] deft pacing by conductor Michael Christie.” Star Tribune 

“The results were close to perfection … [Christie] has crafted a smart, cohesive, and accessible playlist of mostly Italian masters, and in the process, has presented the RPO in a new, refreshing light.” – Rochester City Newspaper 

“’Figaro’ is a long show that flies by, thanks to crisp conducting by Michael Christie, fast-paced direction by Lawless and a versatile scenic design by Leslie Travers.” – Post-Bulletin 

“Michael Christie and the MN Opera Orchestra delivered a fine performance, and the house (which was unsurprisingly full) was energized and engaged throughout.” – Life in Revue