Don’t want to play Maestro’s comeback? You can opt out.

Charles Dutoit’s return to Montreal next year has not been universally applauded, reports Arthur Kapitanis in the Gazette. It is being quietly intimated that any musicians who have bad memories can drop out of the concert. Here’s what Arthur writes:

‘I think this will be a great concert and I am very much looking forward to it,’ Stéphane Lévesque, principal bassoon and president of the OSM Musicians’ Committee, said in an email.

Lévesque would not directly confirm rumours that musicians who harbour hard feelings would be given the opportunity to opt out of the concerts.

‘The administration has been supportive of the fact that Charles Dutoit’s return may still be a difficult topic for some,’ he said. ‘We are discussing with management how to best accommodate and be supportive to our colleagues.’

It is a measure of the sensitivity of the matter that the Musicians’ Committee has instructed players not to talk to the press.