Opera boss is fired, despite Peter Gelb’s ‘enthusiastic support’

Opera boss is fired, despite Peter Gelb’s ‘enthusiastic support’

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norman lebrecht

June 13, 2017

The Lithuanian Government last night sacked Gintautas Kevisas as director of the national opera and ballet, a position he had occupied for 15 years. The reason given was ‘conflict of interest’.

The entrepreneurial Kevisas was accused of making contracts on behalf of the national opera through his own private companies. Three of these contracts were with Angela Gheorghiu, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The amounts involved, in a single year, came to 390,000 Euros.

When the Government began its investigation, the manager of the Metropolitan Opera wrote a letter to the Lithuanian minister of culture declaring his ‘enthusiastic support’ for Gintautas Kevisas. The minister appears to have decided that Peter Gelb’s commendation was not enough to save the director’s job. The inquiry commission ruled that ‘Gintautas Kėvišas systematically confused public and private interests.’

Kevisas, 62, was previously manager of the Lithuanian National Philharmonic and founder of the Vilnius Festival. He has connections to many artists and is said to have organised more than 80 concerts for the late Yehudi Menuhin.

Comments

  • Novagerio says:

    “Conflict of interests”, yeah…The Lobbies rule, that’s all.

  • Garry says:

    Good news

  • Save the MET says:

    Gelb’s recommendation counts for diddly-squat, he’s a failed manager.

  • OldSchoolRight School says:

    Whole thing was in the works for years. That hand was well-acquainted with the cookie jar, but it took a lot to dislodge this guy from his post. He even now has shills trying to speak out for him. But, too late. And Gelb just wants to make sure he doesn’t lose money on their co-producitons.

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