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:
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