"Pê‰l Christian Moe is an extraordinary judge of voice, and we know his expertise will make an important contribution to our artistic planning," Mason said. "Along with Lyric's music director Sir Andrew Davis, Lyric's artistic administrator Andreas Melinat, and me, Pê‰l will be involved in planning Lyric's future seasons."

Moe was born in Oslo and trained there and in London. He has worked for the Norwegian Opera and the record company Deutsche Grammophon, where he was director of vocal productions, as well as at the Paris Opera under former director Hugues Gall. Since 2004, he has been an independent casting and repertoire consultant, working with Glyndebourne Opera, Lille Opera, and Emmanuelle HaÇm's Le Concert d'Astr_e.

The veteran artist manager Matthew A. Epstein was the Lyric's artistic advisor from 1980 to 1999 and its artistic director from 1999 through last season. The company declined to renew his contract, citing Epstein's artistic differences with Mason.