Vittorio Grigolo will sing next week at La Scala

Vittorio Grigolo will sing next week at La Scala

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norman lebrecht

September 27, 2019

The Italian tenor, sent home from the Covent Garden tour of Japan after being accused of groping a chorus singer, is presently rehearsing at La Scala for next week’s L’elisir d’amore.

Fired by the ROH and the Met, he has has just issued the following statement:

 

In other comments, Grigolo said all he did was touch the false pregnant belly of a chorus singer, who can be seen behind him in this curtain call.

 

He says he offered to apologise afterwards but ‘they took me away, put me on a plane and sent me home like a killer. I am calm about the situation and I await their decision.’

More here.

Comments

  • Yes Addison says:

    Are killers usually put on a plane and/or sent home where he’s from? Never mind.

    • Dan says:

      They’re not. But thanks god where he comes from we still have something called irony, which means that if you simply touch a (false) belly that has nothing to do with sexual harassment and it is simply a joke. This collective form of puritan hysteria will hopefully come to an end, sooner or later. The non-sense reaction of the Royal Opera house is first and foremost offensive for all those real victims who actually suffered true sexual harassment.
      The level reached by certain actions is currently beyond the threshold of stupidity. And I’m not talking of Grigolo’s.

      • H Rosen says:

        How do you know that’s all he did. He’s is well known to be completely inappropriate at most times. He is a life and disgusting man and it is good he has finally been caught out.

      • Gordana says:

        You nailed it Dan

      • Sue Sonata Form says:

        I’m afraid it’s far worse than ‘puritan hysteria’. There is real reputational destruction, shaming, finger-wagging and ‘inquiries’. Salem lives but we don’t have Miller any more to write about it.
        And this arises as a result of ‘betrayal’ of minority group, gender, class or profession.

        We live in damn frightening times. All of this started as a proxy to exact revenge for the election of Donald Trump; now it’s taken on a dangerous life of its own more North Korea than North America.

        The lemmings of the Left continue to rush into the showers.

        • V.Lind says:

          That last line is very distasteful. I can only think of one thing to which it can allude, and the implied comparison is odious in the extreme. What can you possibly mean to say?

          And, really, the only person who seems fixated on Trump is you.

        • Conspiracy theory says:

          Sue suggests that Grigolo is accused of groping due to……hate of Donald Trump. The deep state is at work even on tour to Japan!

      • Me! says:

        He did more than touch the false belly (under the dress and adjacent to her actual body), she indicated she was uncomfortable being touched like that and he told her to fuck herself – THAT is unacceptable in any job, it is well within her right to refuse an unrehearsed, unconsented to touch, and once she voiced it he should have honored it – instead he abused her and clearly acted like a sexual harassment case in progress

    • double-sharp says:

      NO, Addison. A thousand times NO ADDISON. Here is Europe {whjich is ‘where he comes from’ for the simplified American mind) we still have something called DUE PROCESS.

  • Mustafa Kandan says:

    At least the complaint is contemporaneous, but the immediate reaction is far too excessive & harsh. The situation could have been more sensibly handled, but then we are going through an exceptionally febrile period. I hope the benefits of this, potentially transformational period will outweigh the excesses.

  • Tishadoll says:

    Because she is clearly NOT pregnant, not violated and it is the her jealous hatred way of the minimally talented to take center stage

    • Sue Sonata Form says:

      No; this is about absolute control and authority over others. It is the anvil of the rise of Leftist command and control. As, as always, this is dressed up as “I’m caring for you”. If it wasn’t so horrific it would be beyond a joke – for anybody with an IQ of 100.

      This is ALL ABOUT power.

    • Saxon Broken says:

      His version is above (and rather self-serving). Why don’t you let the ROH takes statements from the other people involved, and then take a decision. The ROH obviously decided that there were grounds to send him back to Europe, so it suggests his account is not wholly believed.

  • Araragi says:

    I think it’s important to let the investigation take place before we convict or exonerate Vittorio in the court of public opinion. The event just occurred and we know the media rarely shows the whole picture and often presents a distorted one. But this seems to be the Powers That Be at the ROH and Met overreacting to this case as a means to compensate for underreaction in other cases. We shouldn’t be inactive or reactionary. We should be fair. If Vittorio’s actions were benign, and I hope like hell they were, he’ll be owed an apology.

  • Geronte di Ravoir says:

    Go back home, Mr. Grigolo. These Anglo-Saxons have gone crazy and it is very difficult to live between them and their hypocrisy: Private vices, public virtues. We are witnessing a cultural clash between Mediterranean and Puritan culture. They won’t understand us. We loved Bacchus and Apollo. They to Mars

    • mama1 says:

      very sad but true.

    • Jane says:

      Groping is wrong; public groping is wrong, and Mr. Grigolo is a citizen of the (international) world and knows this. However – he did not grope – he touched a costume.

      • Geronte di Ravoir says:

        Groping lasciviously is wrong if you don’t have permission. But touching each other was very Mediterranean and without feeling civil sin. The times have changed but the penance is excessive for those who lived the “old fashion way”

    • Sue Sonata Form says:

      A clash between absolute authoritarianism and freedom. That experiment has been tried before but the dictators think it’s worth another try!! In the interests of weaker people who cannot fight their own battles, of course. Always.

      These are the very last people you’d want looking after your ‘best’ interests!! And I’m heartened to see that people commenting here are waking up to that, though I still do see some concentrating on the details of each case. Cannot see the woods for the trees.

  • Mick the Knife says:

    What is he accused of doing? Did he touch more than the fake belly? Is it what he said? Where is the accusation clearly stated?

    • Saxon Broken says:

      The ROH seem to believe his account left out some important details. Not everyone agrees with his version of events.

  • Olga says:

    Good luck, Vittorio!

  • Dennis Pennis says:

    There was that time when Grigolo was flying a remote-controlled helicopter in the rehearsal room at the Met and hit Lisette Oropesa in the head with it.

  • Ms.Melody says:

    IF this is all that happened, then the reaction is over the top and the measures are clearly draconian. The Met’s reaction to suspend him is just cowardly and pathetic.
    Scary times we live in.

    • Saxon Broken says:

      “If this is all that happened”

      Er…the ROH believe it isn’t “all that happened”, hence their reaction.

      The Met should probably have waited before taking action.

  • Karl says:

    These false accusers should be fired.

  • JH says:

    When I worked with him I saw him grope co-stars in rehearsal and one screamed for stage management to pull him off her, and he had a reputation for harassing dressers and many others. ROH has taken very belated action in relation to him and probably because the incident was so public and couldn’t be ignored this time. The incident itself may not be the most major but it certainly comes on top of a very established history of this behaviour on his part – witnessed by many over the years.

    Grigolo says he was overcome by adrenaline – I could almost buy that as an excuse, knowing his personality, but I doubt he is in the throws of adrenaline overload in rehearsals or in his dressing room. He has just been used to getting away with it till now.

  • Nonbarihunk says:

    When I saw the photo at the top I thought to myself ‘I bet he just rubbed that girls false belly’ and then read the article. If it really was JUST THAT then this is a total over reaction and the ‘joke’ should have been seen for what it was.
    If his hand travelled further up or down then then that is another matter completely.

  • Angela says:

    Pathetic. I’ve seen stars like Domingo and Grigolo pawed and groped by star struck fans in autograph queues outside the stage door of opera houses. Were their careers destroyed by complaints from the tenors? Were they hounded and vilified? Isn’t it time the past was put back in its place. By all means call out someone who is objectionable today, in the light of altered mores, but not decades ago.

  • Jenny B says:

    Salem!

  • Edgar says:

    If I were Vittorio, I’d insist on two conditions:

    having at least 11 attorneys near me onstage, as supernumeraries, irrespective of whether the production requires such or not.

    No one except me and my attorneys taking a curtain call, and never together with any and all persons involved on, behind, under, above, and outside of the stage, and with no person from or in the pit.

    Just to be safe.

  • GoodOldDays says:

    I was singing Lescaut in Manon at a famous mediterranean opera house in the early naughties, and all of a sudden, standing in the dark wings waiting to go on stage, I was being “touched” by a very, very attractive Italian girl from the chorus. Moments later, she had to deal cards in the gambling scene, and threw the queen of hearts my way… with her number on it!

    Ah, those were the days! Bloody marvellous! The highlight of my career! No trauma whatsoever! No, sir!

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