Looking to future seasons. the Met has joined with the Royal Opera and theSalzburgFestival to commission Thomas Ades' "The Exterminating Angel, " based on the Luis Bunuel film.
Over the following years Mr Kaplan was invited to conduct flagship ensembles at La Scala in Milan, in Munich and Vienna, to open the prestigious Salzburgfestival and to give the work its Chinese premiere in Beijing.
Even if his contract is not renewed beyond 2001, and there are several rivals plotting for his job, Mr Mortier has irrevocably changed Salzburg arguably by bringing it closer to the festival's adventurous spirit when it began back in the 1920s.