When the curtain \u2014 adorned with a newly commissioned 70-foot artwork titled \u201cThe Things We Know,\u201d by Los Angeles-based artist Enrique Mart\u00ednez Celaya \u2014 rises at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Rihab Chaieb stands seductively at the top of a marble staircase, draped in an intricately patterned black-and-white ball gown, as pairs of flamenco dancers pose, stomp and wave their hands to the orchestral rhythms. She is Carmen: desirable, defiant and driven. Georges Bizet\u2019s \u201cCarmen\u201d has been performed again and again all over the world, but not like this. Bizet\u2019s masterpiece is the first production in LA Opera\u2019s 2026-27 season, and it is the first conducted by LA Opera\u2019s new music director, Domingo Hindoyan. It also happens to be one of his favorites.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have many favorites, but one of my favorite operas is what I\u2019m doing now,\u201d said Hindoyan from his office inside Dorothy Chandler Pavilion about 10 days before the first performance of \u201cCarmen,\u201d which opened Oct. 17. \u201cI love the story. I love the musicv \u2014 how it\u2019s put together with the drama. \u2018Carmen\u2019 is a very well-known opera, which also makes it a bigger challenge, because everyone knows it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hindoyan is taking the baton from James Conlon, who led LA Opera for 20 years. And like another celebrated maestro, Gustavo Dudamel, who just left LA this year for the New York Philharmonic, Hindoyan also got his start playing the violin in El Sistema, the National Network of Youth and Children\u2019s Orchestras of Venezuela.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have three main influences,\u201d Hindoyan shared. \u201cFirst of all, it\u2019s my father, a very accomplished violin player, now retired. Since a very early age, I heard him studying and practicing at home every day. I attended concerts every Sunday or Thursday night.\u201d<\/p>\n
The second influence was El Sistema, and the third was his mentor Daniel Barenboim, the former conductor of Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, where Hindoyan served as first assistant conductor from 2013 to 2016, soaking up valuable insights that he has carried with him to every role since.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is very difficult to just choose one thing,\u201d Hindoyan stated about all that he learned from Barenboim. \u201cBut mainly the relationships between music and life, or between harmony, melody, expression and analysis \u2014 all these that affect what life is. Also, the process of music-making \u2014 every time he started from scratch with a big passion and a big commitment. Through the years, even now that I\u2019m not his assistant, things come to my mind from him.\u201d<\/p>\n
After receiving his master\u2019s degree in conducting from the Haute \u00e9cole de musique de Gen\u00e8ve, Hindoyan bounced around the globe, from Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin to the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra to the Polish National Radio Symphony.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince I was playing violin in an orchestra, I was extremely curious of what\u2019s happening around me,\u201d Hindoyan said about his attraction to conducting. \u201cIt\u2019s a curiosity of the repertoire, the massive sound of an orchestra and the process of building everything and taking all these scores that exist only on paper and bringing them to life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hindoyan is also a natural leader. He has to be in order to get his musicians to, in his words, \u201cbreathe together.\u201d He understands theirs is a relationship built on collaboration and trust; he is not the only knowledgeable one in the room.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe musicians are equally well-shaped and educated as I am, so we all work together for a special purpose,\u201d he said. \u201cI request things from singers and try to understand them, what they want, what they need, and put it together with what the music needs. That\u2019s the whole idea of being a conductor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arriving in Los Angeles in the wake of Conlon\u2019s departure, Hindoyan is ready for the upcoming season of satire (\u201cCandide\u201d), secrets (\u201cNabucco\u201d) and a set by David Hockney (\u201cTurandot\u201d). He said the season has \u201ca little bit of my signature on it, but it\u2019s not that I pick whatever I want. There are many factors that are taken into consideration to build a season. It depends on the city, the work we have done before, what are the long-term plans.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is not Hindoyan\u2019s first time conducting for LA Opera. He made his debut in November 2024 as a guest for Charles Gounod\u2019s \u201cRom\u00e9o et Juliette.\u201d That experience piqued his \u2014 and his family\u2019s \u2014 interest in LA.<\/p>\n
\u201cLA is a very special part of the world,\u201d he shared. \u201cMy family loves it. They just want to come as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
His wife, Sonya Yoncheva, an opera singer whom he met in Geneva, and his two children arrived a few days after he settled in. Although she has her own thriving career, the two have worked together in Berlin and Switzerland, where they lived for 20 years, and \u201cLA won\u2019t be an exception,\u201d Hindoyan assured.<\/p>\n
One of Hindoyan\u2019s first tasks as music director is to connect with new audiences and bring new people into the house. And not just bring them in for the first time but entice returning patrons.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will try my best to give as much emotion and impact on stage so that audiences want to come back a second time,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd this is only to performances that mark people with emotion. They want to come and see this kind of storytelling where many of the arts come together: voice, orchestra, design, acting. It\u2019s beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hindoyan has lived in a few cities around the world and traveled to even more. Now, the cosmopolite is ready for his next act.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have musical homes,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd LA is my new musical home.\u201d<\/p>\n