The Staatsoper unter den Linden has just rolled out seven new productions.
‘We will try to keep in touch with you – the public – and bring you more details as the season progresses,’ says Barenboim.
Brochure here.
Leo Geyer, a doctoral student at Oxford University…
The US violinist has posted this message on…
Memo to Peter Gelb: Don’t read the Opera…
The Dutch conductor, ousted after a six-year spell…
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It is very obvious the real problem with Barenboim in relation to his future with this company as general music director is not his temper, but his age. He is an aging master, which is the underling problem behind recent controversies. Will he be able to effectively run an opera house past his eighties, that is the question.
Maybe Generalmusikdirektor Barenboim hopes that he will die in the pit while conducting Tristan….? He would not be the first to do so.
And anyway, why should he need to care about, and, worse, take care of, the press? His is another realm entirely, the realm of Art, not the netherworld of public cacophony .
The show goes on, “keep[ing]in touch with you – the public – and bring[ing] you more details as the season progresses”.
Until the Final Curtain falls… Whether in the pit or elsewhere, that is the question.
He is the world’s oldest child prodigy.
He reminds me of Trump and Netanyahu in his treatment of the media: embrace the obsequious ones, brand the mainstream ones as Fake News, ban any journalist that challenges.
The Berlin press should simply stop reviewing his perfomances.
Exactly!
Bitch-slapping one of the few Biggies on the field, aren’t we?…
Love it – “keep in touch with you, the public”
This is the way forward. Speak directly to the music lovers.
The more we speak of him the more we forget about dozens of much better conductors who work in the shadows. Let’s focus on music.
Criticism of Daniel Barenboim avoids the fact that without Barenboim,s commitment to the Staatsoper after reunification the opera house probably would have closed. Technically and physically the house was in terrible shape after years of underdevelopment by the East German regime. He has also built the orchestra into a world class ensemble. His energy is extraordinary for any age and his vision unmatched in Berlin. Whatever his temperament issues are surely he has been a force for good in the arts.
After almost three decades at their helm, Barenboim richly deserves credit for their wonderful musicianship and high profile. No question about that.
But did he really ‘build’ the Staatskapelle to a world class ensemble? Fame aside, wasn’t the Staatskapelle a great orchestra also during its East German years?
Has-been: I’m a Barenboim-supporter, but let me remind you that the Berliner Staatskapelle was in very much prime condition under Otmar Suitner between 1964 and 1990. There are a lot of recordings out there that still can testify that.
Has-been: “without Barenboim,s commitment to the Staatsoper…the opera house probably would have closed”.
This is pretty much nonsense. The Staatsoper was the premier opera house in the united Berlin and was funded accordingly post-unification. The money that poured into that house meant that it was always going to return to the top. Perhaps Barenboim has failed since both Munich and Vienna are widely thought superior.
I won’t defend specifically Barenboim, in this case. However I don’t see a problem to have own media press to keep in touch with their audience, without any filters of any third party. If not, It would be like defending that Orchestras should stay recording only with third party labels, specially the well-know ones, regardless their own labels as many ones are doing. It is also a way to directly keep in touch with their audience, without waiting others opinions or even little concessions, or even changes in the final result. Big media news can still review both records and communications made directly by the institution, now with an advantage since there isn’t excuses latter about the origin of any mistake produced.
He has a point. He’s a great musician and the press has thrown lots of s..t against him. Who can blame him?
the press so far is humble with him. no me-too out yet….but he should finally let go and listen to Rosenkavalier ‚weiss er nicht wann die Sach einmal ein Ende hat‘ and do us the favor and take Domingo along. ‚Abtreten die Leut‘
Most of the music critics I know hate having to attend season press launches out of politeness, only to listen to the institution in question read out loud from the brochure that is available both in print form and online. If the Staatsoper stopped giving press tickets to critics who wrote unfavourable reviews that would be a story – not sure there really is one here.
An even better story: free drinks for all the journalists paid for by the institution being reviewed. That’s what most “journalists” really care about.