Semper goes Swiss to neutralise Thielemann
mainThe Semper Oper in Dresden has announced a new intendant, after music director Christian Thielemann allegedly drove Serge Dorny out of the job.
The new guy is Peter Theiler, 59, a Swiss who runs the state theatre in Nuremburg. He will start in 2018.
The position has been vacant since Ulrike Hessler died, three years ago.
AFAIR, Thielemann is not the music director of the Semperoper, but “only” the chief conductor of the Staatskapelle, which happens to be the orch that plays in the Semperoper.
It somehow looks as if this was made in order to maximise influence and minimise responsibility.
Anyone who imagines that this appointment was made without a green light from Thielemann, Music Director or not, is living in cloud cuckoo land.
Certainly. As I said: maximum influence with minimum accountability.
Our very dear Manuel Brug, “Klassiker”-blogger chez Die Welt, has his own take of Peter Theiler’s nomination at the Semperoper.
As there is little to say about the solid but stolid Swiss, Brug whets his claws for one of his ripping sideswipes. Why stop now when we can have all the cheap fun with “El Jéfe Supremo” Thielemann painting himself into a corner:
“ Nachdem Thielemann nicht zum neuen Chefdirigenten der Berliner Philharmoniker gewählt worden ist, wird es jetzt für ihn eng. Außerhalb des magischen Dreiecks Bayreuth (Musikdirektor mit eigenem Parkplatz) – Dresden (bisher wenig Arbeit, aber allen Ruhm) – Salzburg bliebe ihm gegenwärtig nur noch die Wiener Staatsoper, die gegenwärtig mit halber Kraft einen Nachfolger für Franz Welser-Möst sucht, der im Herbst 2014 abrupt sein Amt niedergelegt hatte. Dort freilich würde er mit nur 10 Dirigaten pro Saison kaum durchkommen. ”
Bayreuth (Musikdirektor with private parking); Dresden (little work, but all the glory): Hell, I’m beginning to savour this nastiness.
“Schadenfreude, Götterfunken, Tochter aus Elysium…”
Dorny was MAYBE driven “out of the job” by Thielemann, but mostly and more certainly by his own stupidity and power-hunger. Let’s not give Thielemann all the credit for this (very wise) decision.