Conductors take the job of music director at the Vienna Opera in the knowledge that they will have to resign some time. Usually in anger.
All the great directors departed early. Mahler, in 1907, after ten years. Karajan in 1964 after seven. Maazel in 1984 after two. Abbado in 1991 after five years.
When Franz Welser-Möst accepted the chalice in 2007, the first Austrian to do so since Karajan half a century before, he made jokes about longevity. When he started work in 2010, however, in harness with a new intendant Dominique Meyer, the prospects seemed bright. His relations with Meyer were mutually respectful and with the orchestra outstanding. The public and local media were supportive. Last season, ticket sales at the Vienna Opera reached a record 99.67 percent. It couldn’t get much better.
So what went wrong? And why so suddenly?
There had been, we hear, a dispute over a forthcoming production of Josephslegende, a Richard Strauss ballet, a work for which the conductor has strong feelings. The choreographer and ballet company felt differently. Tensions simmered.
But this was not the reason for the sudden breach. A meeting was held yesterday in which the music director expressed his views for the company’s medium-term future. They diverged markedly from those of the administration. It was decided that both sides would go home and sleep on the matter.
First thing this morning, Franz came in and submitted his resignation to Meyer with immediate effect. Like Mahler, like Karajan, like Abbado, he will not set foot in the Vienna Opera again. An era is over. Too soon.
The American conductor Marin Alsop has been made an Honorary Member of the Royal Philharmonic Society ‘in recognition of her outstanding services to music’. The presentation was made by the composer Colin Matthews on during last night’s Prom concert in which Marin conducted the BBC Symphony Orchestra in works by Adams and Mahler.
photo: Chris Christodoulou/Lebrecht Music&Arts
The great and much loved baritone, forced into early retirement two years ago due to health issues, is going back on the road with a cabaret act.
His tour launches at the Vienna Opera on September 16.
Support acts: Christoph Eschenbach (piano), Michael Shade (tenor). Not bad for a cabaret beginner.
Details here.
Two articles have now appeared in The Stage, journal of British theatre, calling for a UK ban on Israeli artists.
The magazine claims they do not represent its views.
Unless they balance the content, we shall have to assume that The Stage is now a BDS publication.
The music director of the Vienna State Opera has walked out. The following statement will be issued shortly:
In a letter today to the Vienna State Opera’s Artistic Director Dominique Meyer, Franz Welser-Möst resigned his position as General Music Director of the Vienna State Opera, citing irreconcilable differences of opinion regarding the company’s artistic planning and profile, which could not be resolved despite several meetings. The resignation is effective immediately, and Welser-Möst has withdrawn from all his planned new productions and revival performances in the 2014/2015 season.
We’ll tell you why later.
UPDATE: Why Franz walked out. Click here.
The Welsh baritone and English actress, who took the breath away in Sondheim’s musical at Lincoln Center earlier this year with the New York Philharmonic and Alan Gilbert, are to reprise the roles in a full staging at English National Opera.
It marks Thompson’s first return to the London stage in 25 years, but not her first live singing role. She played the lead in the West End production of Me and My Girl, which beat out Les Mis for Best Musical at the Oliviers in 1985.
It is also the first fruit of ENO’s co-production deal with West End producers GradeLinnit.
Shepherds beware.
Two years ago, musicians in the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra took a $14,000 pay cut to help cover a projected deficit of $1.5 million.
The musicians were assured this was a one-off sacrifice in extraordinary circumstances. Now they are being asked for further pay and job cuts. Their contract expires Saturday night. The management, led by Stanley Romanstein, is threatening a lockout.
However, it has now emerged in the negotiating room that Stanley Romanstein posted a deficit of $2,786,000 in financial year 2013, almost twice as much as the $1.5 million he’d predicted. The loss was caused by Romanstein’s failure to manage the budget and raise donations.
Romanstein, a stranger to humility, is demanding that musicians give up their jobs and part of their health care to pay for his shortcomings. He has rejected an appeal by the orchestra’s music director and principal guest conductor to avert an ‘unhealthy’ situation.
That’s what the Atlanta dispute is really about. It’s quite black and white.
(picture from the 2012 dispute)
UPDATE: Statement tonight by the musicians:
Atlanta, GA September 4, 2014
The current contract of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra musicians expires at midnight on Saturday September 6, 2014. The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Players Association has been engaged in negotiations with ASO management for the last eight months.
Two years ago, the ASO musicians took a $14,000 annual pay cut. The musicians agreed to this because the ASO and Woodruff Arts Center (WAC) management stated that they needed this concession in order to balance the budget, and to create a new business model for the ASO.
The musicians were assured that this cut was a one-time only concession that would be met in equal measure by additional fundraising. CEO Stanley Romanstein has failed to raise the funding necessary to balance the budget. Meanwhile, the WAC rewarded him with a new three-year contract, despite a catastrophic failure to reach budgeted goals during FY13.
It is important to remember this: The ASO musicians account for only a quarter of the ASO’s budget, and once again, the management of the ASO and the WAC are demanding that every single musician shoulders thousands of dollars in additional concessions.
In Ottawa, a replacement has been appointed for Richard Todd, 70, who retires unwillingly.
Read his account (which the Ottawa Citizen would not publish) by clicking here.
Still claiming the title of Turnaround King, Michael Kaiser left the Kennedy Center today with a blot on his record. So weak has been the offering in the past year, so enfeebled the directorship, that no classical artist has made it onto the honors board.
The winners are soul singer Al Green, Hollywood actor Tom Hanks, singer-songwriter Sting, dancer Patricia McBride, and comedian Lily Tomlin.
What was Kaiser doing when his mind should have been on the job? Meddling in Philadelphia. Read Peter Dobrin here.
Modena plans to make the most of its biggest asset, in one of his former homes, the Cassa Rossa. The opening is planned for May 2015, when Milan hosts World Expo.
The ‘classical singer’ joins Bryn Terfel, Damien Lewis and others in welcoming the Nato leaders.
Where was Charlotte Church?
This is from an open letter by Phelim McDermott, a director at Improbable, which has staged productions at the Met, ENO and Sydney Opera House:
Let’s try and break this cycle where performers want revenge for what was done to them. I say this because it’s making theatre bad and it’s making our rehearsal rooms uncreative. Did you know that fear isn’t just isolated to your rehearsal room? It’s infecting other rehearsal rooms too. Our rehearsal rooms can become a place where performers are so bruised that they can’t feel their own bodies anymore. They are so removed from their own sensitivities that they aren’t aware of the atmosphere they are creating because they have been made too afraid to play. It’s a place where they aren’t being supported to trust their own impulses and in turn don’t trust others. It’s taking us into a downward spiral of the lowest common denominator.
Full, fascinating letter here.
