Reports: Andris Nelsons walks out of Bayreuth

Reports: Andris Nelsons walks out of Bayreuth

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norman lebrecht

June 30, 2016

We’ve been hearing of tensions for the past two days at Bayreuth’s Parsifal, directed by Uwe Eric Laufenberg with a decidedly Islamist theme.

The conductor Andris Nelsons threatened to walk out on Monday.

Bayreuth slammed down the shutters and refused to take media calls. Frantic negotiations ensued.

It seems Andris finally called it quits today.

One apparent cause for his departure is interference by Bayreuth’s music director, Christian Thielemann.

andris nelsons bayreuth

UPDATE: It’s official.

UPDATE: Conductor comes last.

Comments

  • Peter says:

    Thielemans needs therapy. He is a walking weapon of mass destruction.

    • Sue says:

      Be silent! You don’t know anything about it. Have you been to many of his performances? I have.

      • Gabriel says:

        unfortunately it’s true that the reason for Nelsons walkout are his tensions with Thielemann and not the any problems with then”Regietheater”. there are proven stories (talk to Manuel Brug, he knows it all!) about Thielemann interfering with Nelsons conducting, basically taking over choir rehearsals so Nelson had not much choice but walking out. Thielemann may be a good conductor – at least for a certain kind of repertoire – but as a human being he is – to say the least – “difficult”… or, to say it less polite, quite an asshole!

  • Bennie says:

    No worries, Aldo “The Apache” Raine is available to conduct.

  • Paul Bubendey says:

    While details are scarce, I am VERY proud of Nelsons for standing up for the composer and saying, essentially, “No, I will not be a part of this production, this trash”. Now if more conductor would have the balls to do this, perhaps sanity would return to opera productions. Chereau and Ponnelle showed creative while faithful productions can be done.

    Paul

  • Novagerio says:

    Luckily, the intentioned director Jonathan Meese was revoked in advance!…

  • DESR says:

    Could we have the full, real story, please, Norman?

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