He conducted regularly at the Vienna State Opera, including the world premieres of Cerha's Der Riese vom Steinfeld and Reimann's Medea.

He also conducted the premieres of operas by Pascal Dusapin, Hans Werner Henze, Luca Lombardi, Krzysztof Penderecki, and Manfred Trojahn, among others.

[5] His version of Elektra was described as a "nervously twitching soul document of a threatening family constellation" with brief idyllic moments of light.

[5] He conducted regularly at the Theater an der Wien, including the world premieres of Anno Schreier's Hamlet and Christian Jost's Egmont.

[4] He conducted the premiere of Pascal Dusapin's Faustus, the Last Night at the Staatsoper Berlin in a coproduction with Opéra National de Lyon in 2006, and a reviewer noted that he "securely organised the sound architecture".

[10] He returned to Zürich in 2013 to conduct Tri sestry by Péter Eötvös, a work requiring orchestras at different locations in the theatre.

[1][3][5] Stefan Herheim, director of the Vienna State Opera, said in memory of their first interaction for Berg's Lulu: "I got to know Michael as an artist whose satisfaction depended on whether he managed to get the best out of his counterpart fetch".