The conductor who shows off his parts

The conductor who shows off his parts

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norman lebrecht

February 14, 2019

There is no more accurate or delicate way of putting this than Igor Toronyi-Lalic’s clinical description of the Dau experience in Paris in this brilliant Spectator review:

…. The only semi-intriguing thing for a music critic is that you get to see the erect cock of conductor Teodor Currentzis, who, playing the film’s central character, toys with a threesome, then gets sucked off. Now I’ve never seen Haitink’s todger or Rattle’s or Toscanini’s, so that was at least novel. One to tick off the bucket list….

Read the full review here.

And, conductors, if you must try this, please do it at home.

UPDATE: Dau is a series of feature films, visual art projects and live installations by the Russian director Ilya Khrzhanovsky. Other participants include the artist Marina Abramovic, opera director Peter Sellars and Peruvian shaman Guillérmo Arévalo Valera. Curentzis plays the title role.

 

Comments

  • Viola da Bracchio says:

    “Now how to amuse them today?”

  • Caravaggio says:

    Between this, Regietheater on acid, and Yuja Wang’s offensive comedy skit and the lowlife stage antics of Kaufmann, Damrau, Kermes, Villazón and others, I see the bottom of the barrel has dropped off.

  • bad world says:

    discusting. the most overrated person in the world. bad conductor without any technique. no musician at all.

  • Rosemary Forbes-Butler says:

    But at least he’s doing it as an actor, not as conductor.

  • Sue Sonata Form says:

    “Visual art projects and live installations”. Preposterous pretentiousness.

    I’d rather have root canal therapy.

  • RW2013 says:

    “then gets sucked off…”
    please not by Peter Sellars!

  • anon says:

    Given the low viewership of Dau, but the oversized ego and sex-drives of conductors in general, I’d venture that that there were/are conductors whose penis was seen and sucked by more people than those seeing the film featuring Mr. Curentzis.

    As for him, there is a higher likelihood that there are more backstage groupies out there who can see his naughty bit live rather than on film.

  • Simon Hall says:

    An interesting concept, conducting with an upper and lower baton..nothing surprises me these days.

  • John Borstlap says:

    Apart from what appears to have been something utterly disgusting and expensive, this is also a worrying bit – about the reaction of the audience at Les Troyens:

    “What the booers seemed to object to is the attempt to tell the truth of this story. To remove it from myth and root it in reality. Which, once done, does a service to the drama, allows you to understand what’s going on.”

    The misunderstanding is, that there is no truth in myth, and that in opera, contemporary audiences would only understand a story if it is visually furnished with the ugliest sights of modern times. The naivety of such idea is breathtaking, as is the patronizing attitude towards audiences, as if people who spend quite an amount on an opera ticket are morons or prehistoric bonobos. Myth is truth about the human condition, where the temporal, distracting elements have been filtered-out, so that truth will shine all the more clearly.

  • barry guerrero says:

    Was something lost in translation?

  • Robert Groen says:

    Get Currentzis to the Concertgebouw NOW!

    • Viola da Bracchio says:

      He has been thrown out of every opera house in Russia now, and told never to come back. So Amsterdam would be a new place to try? He never lasts long anywhere… perhaps the hissy-fits and vicious verbal assaults on players, singers, and management would have something to do with that?

  • They used to say in the 70s, “as long as it was tastefully done and relevant to the plot…”

  • Jack says:

    Another day of high dudgeon amongst the sniffy denizens of Slipped Disk!

  • Feldman says:

    He should try conducting with percy

  • Cyril says:

    Well I’ve learned a new word today, todger….so thanks I guess.

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