Just in: Vienna fires Italian for coming late
mainThe international baritone Marco Vratogna is feeling aggrieved.
His manager claims that he has been written out of Friday’s big-screen broadcast of Andrea Chénier for turning up late for rehearsal.
The Vienna State Opera says he never turned up.
Both sides agree that Vratogna was given permission to miss the first two rehearsals for family reasons and ‘bad weather in Italy’.
He drove through the night to make the third rehearsal at 10am. When he hadn’t turned up by 11 the rehearsal was cancelled and Vratonga was replaced by his compatriot Luca Salsi, who had appeared in an earlier run.
The opera house says he turned up between 11.30 and 11.45.
Vratogna’s manager says he warned them he’d be late. And he got lost in the corridors, unable to find the rehearsal room.
The opera says they offered to reinstate him for the last two performances, after the broadcast. That didn’t go down well.
We hear reports of turbulence in the Sacher tea-cups.
UPDATE: Official Staatsoper statement:
Be not late in neither Austria nor Germany!
What about Switzerland?
It’s just probably a cultural thing: everyone is late in Italy.
This international baritone is Marco Vratogna (correct spelling in the Staatsoper statement) not Vratonga like it’s spelled four times in Mr. Lebrecht’s text.
Whatever the reasons for being late, Mr. Vratogna (like everyone else) deserves to get his name spelled correctly, especially in a public forum like this blog.
Haven’t heard Petean so I can’t say anything about him but Luca Salsi is a very good singer.
Thank you for joining our proofreading team.
sarky!
First world problems
^ still worth paying attention to
That applies to the whole of opera, really.
He, along with so many, needs to join the ‘pity party’. I’m betting my house that if I had a gig with the Wiener Staatsoper that I’d be on time and eager.
Austrians hate to be accused of schlamperei, as the Prussians were fond of doing.
What about singers that come in late after rests? Should they also be fired? Think of the poor orchestra and conductor.