Gerard Mortier on fighting, cancelling, cancer and saying sorry
mainTwo years after the death of the most revolutionary power in European opera, Camille de Rijck has published a candid, moving interview with Gerard Mortier’s life-partner, the conductor Sylvain Cambreling.
On his deathbed, it is revealed, Gerard gathered around his closest friends to read from Goethe.
The paramount European.
Read here (en francais). We may never see his like again.
I find it extraordinary – and indeed worrying – that any Intendant has the freedom to cancel performances on a whim – as he did with Pelleas in Paris after he had seen the final rehearsal. It was a revival with new costumes and it seems Mortier liked neither the costumes nor other aspects of the production. Was neither Mortier nor any of his staff monitoring the process of the revival so they could step in at a much earlier stage and effect changes? How is it possible simply to cancel a series of performances at the last minute because “he was not completely satisfied” with it?