Having reached an age you'd never guess from her recent photo below, the Royal Opera House's Head of Opera, Elaine Padmore, is set to retire at the end of this season.
Her replacement is Kasper Holten, currently Artistic Director of the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen (coincidentally, the position Padmore held before her Royal Opera House appointment).
Holten announced in 2009 his decision not to renew his Copenhagen contract when it expires in July 2011, and since then he has written and directed Juan, a movie based on Mozart's Don Giovanni. He is also an opera director in his own right, best known internationally for the Copenhagen Ring. It's not clear at this stage whether he plans to direct any productions for the Royal Opera House, but I wouldn't be surprised.
His contract with the Royal Opera House runs to 2016.
UPDATE - check out the ROH press release for more background.
