Simone Young is the first woman to hold a leading position in a major European opera house. “After a sudden — and sensational — announcement by Opera Australia last year that the company would not renew Ms. Young’s contract, she accepted the top positions at Hamburg, a trifecta of sorts: music director and general manager of the opera, and director of the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra. She has big plans for Hamburg, where she has negotiated a contract starting in August 2005 that puts her in charge of the purse strings.”