Barcelona cancels Keenlyside recital
mainThe British baritone has pulled out of a January 21 concert at the Liceu in Barcelona, citing ‘diary issues’, according to a report from the opera house in the Spanish press. He was invalided out of the opening of Vienna’s Rigoletto last weekend and may need time out to recover. He is down to sing Rigoletto again on December 27 and 30.
UPDATE: The Spanish press reports are incorrect. It’s the Liceu that cancelled, not the singer. Here’s what Simon tells us through a mutual friend: ‘They wrote very nicely to say that in recent times they just cannot sustain and sell recitals of songs in the opera house and so they are cancelling the series…. but they were so nice and offered to collaborate with an orchestral programme of something else that might be easier for them to sell.’
“Diary Issues?” Less than a month before the engagement? The Barcelona date is still listed on his page in the Askonas Holt website. Yet the singer’s own website today states “according to an official communication from the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Simon’s recital, due to take place at the theatre on 21 January 2015, has been cancelled.”
Seems the diary issues are at the Barcelona end!
Liceu direction does not want to have a empty halls. They are severe about that.
Would be nice to write about the Barcelona music world, full of Scandals dear Mr Lebrecht. Liceu has been rescued with 8 million euro from public funds to fill in the deficit due to its poor management. And it’s not the first time…
Palau de la Música is still waiting to put former director Felix Millet on trial after stealing 30 million euros…
It’s about time the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona had a dose of honesty – this is not the first time they have invented an excuse for suspicious calendar changes that paying opera goers are supposed to accept with demur. The institution really seems to think the potential audience is not that smart. If the Gran Teatre del Liceu realizes it can not fill a theatre of the dimensions of the opera house with a recital (they do have some experience in this issue after all: it is a professionally run opera house) – why launch themselves down the road to even promoting it when they know it will have to be inevitably cancelled? Madcap. Or the result of improvisation of the worst kind and for which we are getting an unenviable reputation.