Don’t forget the prompter

Don’t forget the prompter

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norman lebrecht

November 30, 2018

I particularly like this curtain call by conductor Speranza Scappucci, head of Liege Opera in Belgium.

She does all the right things in a very elegant way.

And I’ve never before seen a conductor pause to acknowledge the person in the prompter’s box.

Lovely touch, La Spery!

Comments

  • Nadine Weissmann says:

    I’ve seen it happen quite a bit, but it’s always a nice touch. Thielemann does it frequently at Bayreuth.

  • Wimsey says:

    Liceu’s prompter Jaume Tribó is an institution in Barcelona, where singers and conductors often acknowledge him. I remember now Alagna and Frittoli in Adriana Lecouvreur, when they even tried to bring him out of his prompter box.

  • Jonathan Dunsby says:

    Who was the British tenor at ENO who actually pulled the prompter up from her box to the stage during applause ? I think it was after a Tristan

    • This happened quite frequently to late, great prompter of all time, Philip Eisenberg. He used to tell the story of how he was prompting Maria Callas and she bent forward and said,”piu forte Maestro.”

  • Kna says:

    As always, slippedisc is focused on the right things. The fact that a conductor can’t give a dicent Auftakt never had any significance on these igronat posts and even more the infantile comments. Acknowledging the man on the prompter box? Who cares? Extinction continues!

  • Hermann Lederer says:

    You should go more often to the opera. Nothing special. Many conductors do it

  • NYMike says:

    Scappucci was a smash hit conducting Juilliard’s commencement concert last season.

  • SUGGERITORE says:

    Most of the conductors I work for in Berlin acknowledge me with a handshake, a gesture, or similar. Many singers too, more than 50%. Always nice to be appreciated. I would say those conductors that don’t are in the large minority, and mostly not the best anyway!

  • Bogda says:

    You seem not to be going to the opera that often in continental Europe As this is a very common gesture in there, especially in Germany. And as mentioned before Thielemann does it all the time.

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