Geneva coughs up half a million to former orch manager

Details have been leaked to a Swiss newspaper of the confidential deal by which the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande paid off its past manager, Miguel Esteban, who was peremptorily dismissed in 2012 after only a few weeks in the job.

After fighting a journalist from the RTS (the Swiss Radio and Television, a major sponsor of the orchestra) all the way up to the Supreme Court to avoid releasing the details of the November 2013 settlement, it appears the orchestra quietly agreed to pay Esteban €527.000, one-fifth of which was designated as moral damages for the assault on his reputation.

Both sides agreed to stay silent on the terms. Someone just broke that deal.

Esteban, who now works for Universal Music, had originally claimed 1.5 million Euros in exemplary damages.

Esteban pictured with Anna Netrebko in Red Square