Civil servant takes over at Maggio Musicale
OperaThe troubled Florence opera house has chosen Onofrio Cutaia to manage the chaos and confusion left by Alexander Pereira’s abrupt departure as Sovrintendente.
Cutaia, known to friends as ‘Ninni’ has been latterly the official in charge of live performance at the Ministry of Culture in Rome. He is 64 years old and is not commenting on the appointment. Italian media know little or nothing about him.
There is no convincing precedent for a civil servant running an opera house. Like Caligula’s horse, we won’t know if he is worthy of the promotion until he takes the job.
Give him a chance as utterly overrated Pereira only has proven well in Zurich but stayed for too long also – otherwise he was a poor showman and finally is gone from the international circus
Let’s wait for Lissner to go and put Italians into those jobs and not mediocre Austrians or French
Italy should employ their locals as they know of the Italian attitude and style
Italians should move the politician out of the arts.
Any “sovrintendente” or “direttore artistico” must always say”yes” to the politicians who appointed them, and to the unions who can have them removed.
That means that they must accept directors , conductors, singers “raccomandati” and not question costs and condition.
They always leave a mess.