Just in: Currentzis project is shelved by Munich

Just in: Currentzis project is shelved by Munich

News

norman lebrecht

March 17, 2022

The Bavarian State Opera was planning a production with Teodor Currentzis and his Putin-bank funded Russian ensemble MusicÆterna.

Suddenly, that does not look like such a good idea.

It is with great regret that we have decided, in consultation with Romeo Castellucci and Teodor Currentzis as well as our Munich and international co-production partners, to postpone the new production of (Georg Friedrich Haas’s 2016 opera) Koma to the Ja, Mai Festival in 2024 …
This decision was not easy for us, but became necessary due to the situation caused by the war in Ukraine and the accompanying uncertainty about the possible participation of the orchestra MusicÆterna. The resulting imponderables jeopardize the planning and realization of such a challenging project as Koma.
The work has a complex score, a large part of which must be played by heart by the musicians in the dark. This means demanding rehearsal work that is adapted to the performance venue – the newly built Munich Volkstheater. Considering the short time span remaining until the festival, we have not been able to find alternative solutions that would have ensured our artistic quality.”
Serge Dorny

 

Comments

  • 622 says:

    So it’s Haas’s fault?

  • STOP THE WAR says:

    Hey Theodor kindly f….ck off to Russia again, and live on a 11 000 rouble (75EURO) pension for the rest of your nasty low life!
    Let’s vote to get all the VISAS of MusicÆterna revoked while we are at it.

    Let’s see how they survive on Russian wages now instead of the “arriviste” shit you forced out of Perm for 2000 EURO per head, when orchestras like Ekaterinburg struggle to pay their equally hard working, competent musicians (who played live in London in the proms) a mere 400-500.

    Correntzis..only one word for you .. ARSCHLOCH

    • Mara says:

      “Nasty low life???”Hahahaha!!!!!!!

    • Sue Sonata Form says:

      Disgraceful traducing of one man’s reputation. I see that money is at the heart of that too. What a surprise that the left hates somebody who has money and will find any excuse to pillory (most usually) him. A cabal of Lilliputians is the modern Left.

    • Susanne Meyer says:

      Unbearably hateful comment that will definitely backfire on my/hopefully our longing for peace.

  • The View from America says:

    Should be no problem for Currentzis. Now he can devote more time to his side hustle as a “film star.” https://slippedisc.com/2019/02/the-conductor-who-shows-off-his-parts/

    • IP says:

      You mean the one where he showed his thingy. I suppose he wanted to stop all speculation about whether he has one.

  • John Borstlap says:

    There does not seem to be much lost – that ‘opera’ is a morbid and masochistic meditation about death and taboos:

    “In this opera premiered in May 2016 at the Schwetzingen Festival, the Austrian composer Georg Friedrich Haas radically invites a real sensory experience around the most vivid taboos of our societies: pain, illness and death. Remarkably successful in Germany by the Opernwelt reference magazine’s 2016 creation award of the year, Koma is one of the most original lyric works of recent years and offers a unique musical and sensory experience.”

    https://www.opera-online.com/en/items/productions/koma-opera-de-dijon-2019-2019

    Pain, illness and death have been the staple ingredients of opera for ages. So, nothing original in terms of subject. And Haas’ attempt is entirely conventional in terms of ‘music’ – the usual modernism, celebrated since WW II as the best signal that the German lands have finally, after the nazi period, entered the Beauty, Freedom and Happiness of the Free World.

    Who does take this faint, morbid masochistic chewing on klischees seriously?

    The description of “radical, real sensory experience”, using the completely worn-out ideological nonsense of half a century old, is nothing less than hilarious.

    Here it is, for the pleasure of the people with morbid tendencies, who want to be uplifted after watching the news in these days:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIEngLPypNk

    • guest says:

      “Remarkably successful in Germany”
      He must have paid hard cash for that line. I don’t call six performances a “remarkable success.”

  • Magician says:

    It’s always interesting to see so many awful things being writen on this website about Mr. Currentzis. Do these people know that he is one of the most popular, in-demand conductors in Europe right now? Reports from musicians at the Berlin Philharmonic are that his debut there a couple seasons ago was a great success. The SWR Symphony recently extended his contract. How horrible could he be? I suspect there are “trolls” on here with certain agendas…

    • Petros Linardos says:

      I believe that some of the very negative comments stem from some people’s tendency to judge in black and white. They are not necessarily trolling.

      My personal impression of Currentzis is mixed, but I am judging only from recorded clips. Many of his performances are very intense, to his credit. But to my ears he sometimes crosses the line, at the expense of refinement, giving way to neuroticism. He is not that young any more, but there is always hope that a mature Currentzis will have bring better sense of measure and more wisdom and profundity in his interpretations.

    • stop_the_BS says:

      “Do these people know that he is one of the most popular, in-demand conductors in Europe right now?”

      So what?
      Did Solti, Fricsay, Mravinsky ever need to be popular?
      They were simply great musicians, some living with terrible suffering.

      Having seen both Solti and Correntzis conduct, (in Correntzis case more than anyone else here on this site) I can easily see which one is/was a totally corrupt p..ss artist.

      Correntzis has always been a con-man, more so because he comes from the same shit conducting school…ie. Ilya Musin – the very antithesis of music making.

      Compare Musin, and his grotesque ugly attempts to conduct an orchestra with the magnificent Mravinsky’s economy of movement – just THE EYES…
      Says it all.

      Musin couldn’t hold a candle to Mravinsky, never mind many other less well known Russian greats.

      Correntzis speciality is producing the most ugly performances I have ever heard, goes with the ugly nasty personality – no heart, no soul, just like Putin and all his mates.

  • Linde says:

    It’s not “shelved” … it’s postponed! GOSH!!!!

  • Stephan Catalano says:

    I’m not surprised, as Currentzis’ career was a mystery for many, simply based on the eccentricity of his person and will to impose his often very unmusical ideas on works. His inability to control an opera performance was apparent during his Paris Macbeths. Simply an overblown ego rebel cult figure.

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