Matthew Toogood

Praised for his precision, transparency of sound, and empathy for musical drama, Matthew Toogood is an experienced opera conductor with a repertoire spanning from the earliest operas to world premieres.

Starting in the 2024-25 season, Toogood begins his position as First Kapellmeister at the Tiroler Landestheater Innsbruck, conducting the premieres of Verdi's Falstaff and Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, as well as performances of Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier and Prokofiev's Romeo et Julia. In August 2024, he will make his debut at the Bayreuth Festival, presenting a lieder recital with Jordan Shanahan at the Villa Wahnfried, featuring the first-ever performance of Hawaiian songs in Bayreuth.

In the 2023-24 season, as a guest conductor at the Tiroler Landestheater Innsbruck, he opened the season with Prokofiev's Die Liebe zu drei Orangen, directed by Jasmina Hadžiahmetović, and led the opening season concert. He also conducted the double-bill dance premiere of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater and Stravinsky’s Les noces, choreographed by Edward Clug.

Between engagements in Tirol, Toogood staged and musically directed a sold-out performance of Menotti’s The Medium with Fortitude Productions and collaborated with tenor Theo Rüster on a recital of Schubert’s Winterreise at the Universität der Künst.

In December 2023, Toogood returned to the Komische Oper Berlin to conduct the revival of Offenbach’s Orpheus in der Unterwelt, directed by Barrie Kosky and co-produced by the Salzburg Festival and Deutsche Oper am Rhein. He concluded the season by conducting the revival of Franz Wittenbrink’s Pippi Langstrumpf at the Komische Oper Berlin, having conducted the world premiere in 2022. Previously for the Komische Oper Berlin, he collaborated with Elena Kats-Chernin for the 2017 rewriting of Monteverdi’s Die Krönung der Poppea, directed by Barrie Kosky.

In 2021, Toogood conducted the Australian premiere of Will Todd’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland for the Australian Contemporary Opera Company.

During his tenure as First Kapellmeister and Musical Director of the Opera ad interim at the Konzerttheater Bern (2019-2021), he conducted the Swiss premiere of Szymanowski’s Król Roger, debuted an arrangement of a chamber version of Janáček’s Jenůfa, featured in the magazine Opernwelt, Verdi’s Otello, Smetana’s Die verkaufte Braut, Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, and directed and led Menotti’s The Old Maid and the Thief. Repertoire performances included Puccini’s Madama Butterfly and Bizet’s Carmen.

While Kapellmeister at the Nationaltheater Mannheim (2016-2019), Toogood conducted the world premiere of Vespertine inspired the album from Björk, and led premieres of Spolanski’s Wie werde ich reich und glücklich and the dance production Sanssouci, including works based on JS Bach and Handel’s Dixit Dominus. He conducted a vast array of repertoire performances of Turandot, Die Liebe zu drei Orangen, Hänsel und Gretel, Aida, Norma, Cavalleria Rusticana, Pagliacci, Die Zauberflöte, Don Giovanni, Carmina Burana, Die lustige Witwe, Orpheus in der Unterwelt, La Cenerentola, and My Fair Lady. As an assistant, he prepared productions of Elektra, Salome, Der Rosenkavalier, Parsifal, Tannhäuser, and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. He has made several crossover classical recordings with the Nationaltheater Mannheim Orchestra, including the operatic world premiere of Björk's Vespertine in collaboration with Hotel Pro Forma and Kommando Himmelfahrt, Synth Happens with Andreas Henneberg, and The Glitz.

As a guest assistant conductor, he has assisted Jonathan Nott for Elektra at Théâtre de Genève, Sir Simon Rattle at the Berliner Philharmoniker, Simon Halsey at the Rundfunkchor Berlin, Axel Kober at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, and interned at Oper Frankfurt. He has collaborated in alternative musical performances with Friedrich Liechtenstein and Marie Pohl.

As a recipient of the Swiss Richard Wagner Society scholarship in 2022, Toogood conducted and arranged a chamber version of Siegfried Idyll and the overture from Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in Tribschen, Luzern. He won the JS Bach Prize at University of Melbourne, was a semi-finalist at the 2011 Blue Danube International Opera Conducting Competition, and winner of the 2007 Stonnington Symphony Conductor Prize. He has participated in masterclasses with Jorma Panula, Colin Metters, Johannes Fritzsch, Christopher Seaman, Sebastian Lang-Lessing, and Geoffrey Lancaster, conducting the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, The Queensland Orchestra, and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.

Matthew Toogood has worked for the University of Melbourne Faculty of Music and Berlin Opera Academy (conducting Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos, Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Puccini’s Suor Angelica, and Gianni Schicchi), accompanied the Bundeswettbewerb Gesangs, and taught at the Musik Landesakademie Hessen. He completed his Masters of Music (Conducting) with John Hopkins OBE in 2008.