NY Times follows Slippedisc with a splash on Yannick’s costumes
NewsTwenty-four hours after we reported musicians’ unease with the working clothes of the Met’s music director, the Met’s pet newssheet has followed up with an isn’t-he-wonderful feature on the colourful costumes that M. Nézet-Séguin wears to work.
Go window-shop them here.
You can see what Yannick is trying to do – make the role less formal, the Met more diverse and user-friendly, the job less boring. But there are downsides. Musicians in the Met orchestra complains that they have to wear stiff and formal costumes every night in the pit while their music director looks like’s he’s going clubbing – and flaunts it to the audience.
This may not end up the way the Met press department would like. We hear murmurs of discontent from veteran subscribers.
photo source: Yannick’s Facebook page/image by Landon Nordeman
1) That photo though … he is more, how should I say it, flabby than I expected from his tight shirts and biceps.
Better sign up to Lorenzo Viotti’s OnlyFans page for some tips.
2) “murmurs of discontent from veteran subscribers”
Well, the phrase “veteran subscribers” sums it all up, doesn’t it? They are an endangered species, if not already extinct.
The entire industry might distinct as the focus has changed – priorities are different nowadays and sooner or later the MET will close or look for a smaller suitable house – it’s been so mediocre for years
The met was built on top of land that was previously low income housing, maybe it’s finally time to take it back from all the suits and ties that have gummied up the place
And who are you to beat up on all the hardworking people who for decades have scrimped and saved in order to purchase subscriptions to the Met
Actually, this is not true. New veteran subscribers are being created at a constant rate, all the time.
Oh please.
I’ve been going to the Met for fifty years. If somehow the music suffered because of how Yannick dresses, THAT might be an issue. Is this really an issue. Yawn.
Why let common sense get in the way of days that are short on real news items.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/27/arts/music/yannick-nezet-seguin-met-opera-costumes.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
The Maestro Wore Blue: Bringing Pizazz to the Pit at the Met
This isn’t about being “more modern and approachable” this is about a mediocre symphonic conductor with a HIGE EGO hating being unseen in an opera pit. The Boheme band master’s outfit is unseemly and distasteful beyond its upstaging moment in Act 2. What he doesn’t get, is that his colleagues are laughing AT him. Fact.
If he has such a “huge ego” he should cover that tummy FAST!
He looks like “Tintin”…..
Can’t wait to see what the ego wears when conducting Salome! LOL
A few veils perhaps.
….or 7
The Liberace of classical? YNS is obviously working hard on his shallow boy-toy image when he ought to be working harder instead on improving his conductorial and musicianship skills which are too often lacking. This is a strategy of distraction and obfuscation against what’s truly important. And to think that this man gets more favorable critical coverage than, say, the serious Klaus Mäkelä who has become a target of a hostile press. Or Dudamel, whose extracurriculars have made him a darling but whose music making is DOA.
You are so right and no worries the extremely talented Klaus will succeed even if press (who takes them seriously nowadays as none of the critics is knowledgeable) gave him a tough time – shouldn’t we all focus on the shrinking audience who had enough of this light weight trivial coverage?
I will never forget that Dudamel was invited to conduct the New Year Concert in Vienna with 32, while Karajan had to wait until he was 82 and half out of his wits with painkillers. And when Dude Boy got there, the whole world could see that he was not sure what to do with his right arm, what to do with left arm. . .
First of all, Karajan never made it to 82; he was born in 1908 and died in 1989, so he lived to be 81. Second, he conducted the New Year’s concert you’re referring to in 1987 – a couple months before turning 79. Third, the reason why it took so long for him to conduct it was because Willi Boskovsky, the Vienna Philharmonic’s concertmaster, had led the New Year’s concerts every year from 1955 to 1979, and then they had Lorin Maazel lead them every year for most of the 80’s. It wasn’t until 1986 that they decided on the tradition to feature a different conductor every year. Finally, Karajan conducted a number of New Year’s concerts with the Berlin Philharmonic when he was younger and in better health, several of which have been filmed and can be found on YouTube.
The VPO doesn’t need help from the conductor, said conductor needs to just stay out of their way. Most do. Karajan and Kleiber – they actually did something wonderful. The exceptions to the rule.
Umm….Have you ever sung in an opera? Have you ever sung under Seguin’s direction? I’ve sung in about 50 opera productions, one of which (Faust) was with Seguin conducting. He was an excellent musician, a great colleague and an inspiring conductor. Maybe you don’t like his performances – fair enough. But don’t pontificate.
If you click the link, it’s original photography, not handouts. So you’re posting the photo here without paying to license it.
There is no credit on the online version as seen outside the US. I gather we took our picture from Yannick’s social media. Assume he didn’t pay for it, either.
When someone participates in a photoshoot for an article, it’s typical for the publication to provide the person with the photos so long as they do not use them for commercial purposes. He also put the photo credit in his IG post.
It is literally in the byline of the New York Times article:
“By Javier C. Hernández Photographs by Landon Nordeman
Published April 27, 2023
Updated April 28, 2023, 9:39 a.m. ET”
Orchestras should be allowed more comfortable dress codes, yes why not a Winter dress and a Summer dress? But formal suits for the musicians and pyjamas for the conductor?
The OSM at least has that – white suits in summer.
Since musicians cannot be seen in the orchestra pit something more casual would seem appropriate.
I worked with a guy that forgot to take the
Coat hanger out of his coat. Some people
Do not care what they wear
Narcissism.
Generation Look-at-Me!!
Still not as lame as James Levine’s beach towel which he wore to press interviews and was photographed with for album covers.
Yes, one wonders what that towel was actually used for. But don’t let your imagination run too wild …
Towel flick for those wandering off key?
I met Levine in person several times, and he was a man who tended to sweat profusely.
So sue him, he schvitzed.
My question: orchestras all around the world centre their marketing on the conductor. The brochure for the OSM this week has a giant photo of Rafael Payare on the cover, another giant full-page one with his statement, then the orchestra’s CEO, then a photo of the concertmaster, and then the tagline “OSM. Mené par Rafael Payare.”
Music directors are stars and marketed as such. With that in mind, what’s the difference between MET musicians in formalwear and Yannick Nézet-Séguin in a dashing shirt, and say the NY Philharmonic in tuxes accompanying a soprano in a ballgown?
Stars, and marketing stars stand out. They’re meant to, like it or not.
There are some chests not meant to be seen unclothed. This is one of those chests. It can’t be un-seen…
Please, I am still full with lunch. . .
New York Times, please put your classical music department out of their misery already. They are not bringing you any new readers. Neither are they bringing us any new listeners in concert halls. In fact, they have demonstrated ample capacity to do the opposite.
Were I Yannick, I would be insulted (and more than a bit ashamed) that a major news outlet devoted any ink to my wardrobe choices as opposed to my musical abilities in a leadership position.
We’ve seen singers who were promoted for their looks (especially baritone pecs). And how did that work out?
Clothes do not make a person, and slavish devotion to fashion can de-construct a reputation.
Apparently not if your name is Yuja Wang……..
Funnily enough, Ms. Yang’s reputation as a superb musician remains intact, as you’ve no doubt witnessed in person.
Or Liberace. Same branch of the arts too!!
Whatever. She’s an incredible pianist.
The Met, donors and subscribers, are paying for these ridiculous displays, as the Met’s costume shop is designing and making these “costumes”. Bad enough if YNS was paying for it out of his own fabulous double-dipping salary, but to have the Met, now forced to take operating funds from its endowment, paying for this narcissistic plumery is gross mismanagement of limited resources. Great conductors don’t need gimmicks to be noticed.
I did enjoy “narcissistic plumery,” in full disclosure.
As a subscriber and donor that’s the first thing I thought…why is the costume shop creating his clothes. Nope. I am pretty accepting of a little attempt at flamboyance but this is not acceptable use of met $$.
enough already with gimmicks and superficiality.
I would have thought the world of art music was the one place we could all agree didn’t need flamboyant fashionistas in front of orchestras. Sigh.
Is it the artist or the journalist that makes the clothes into a story. Arts/music writers write about the clothes either because they believe they must document what’s plainly visible for the record, or they plain just can’t help themselves; either way, “because it’s there” but more to the point, because it’s out of the ordinary.
Who hasn’t read about Jean-Yves Thibaudet’s red socks (occasionally retired and un-retired)? Or Yuja Wang’s stilettos and hip-hugging little sheath dresses? Or the parade of performers who play shoe-less?
Plenty of ink (or screen electrons) is spilled on the artistry of those musicians. But if your job as a writer is to spend all day coming up with words to paint visual or aural pictures about music, the performer who gives you something else to write about is a welcome diversion.
The whole thing can be summarized in a memorable line from Howard Hawks’ “El Dorado”: “You left a boy out there to do a man’s job!”.
Relentlessly pushed by rich canucks, for who the prayer of their country giving a world class conductor was finally answered, he was pushed into the spotlight too early, without the time to mature, and not just musically. He’s talented, but in retrospective, giving him the reigns of not one, but two major institutions was a mistake.
Yes, Stokowski and Mengelberg were also young when they started leading the Philadelphia and the Concertgebouw orchestras. But they are giants, and the canuck, talented as he is, is simply not in their class. Besides, at that time the Concertgebouw orchestra was only seven years old when Mengelberg took it over, and Philadelphia Orchestra was just a regional orchestra.
And if you’ll recall – or read up on your history of such stuff – Stokowski was met with a fair amount of resistance and skepticism nearly everywhere he went. It was never unanimous that he was a genius – on par with Toscanini, Furtwaengler, etc. – until after his death. For many of us, the verdict is still out on Mengelberg. Evidence suggests that he became a different and more radical (idiosyncratic) conductor later in his career.
You are of course correct. Regardless, there is no doubt that Stokie and Mengelberg are the ones responsible for the sound of their orchestras, which they build, at least in Mengelberg’s case, virtually from zero.
Anybody who knows and quotes Howard Hawks is a bit of a champion!! But, I think it was Wayne who uttered those lines, penned by Leigh Brackett. I’ll quote her complaint:
“I’m just re-writing ‘Rio Bravo’, Howard”
“Well, if they don’t like it tell ’em to give ’em their dime back”!!
Yes, it was Wayne indeed. And, here’s a small trivia item: the last script that the great Leigh Brackett penned was The Empire Strikes Back!
Couldn’t Yannick play dress up at home or when he goes out to a fancy restaurant? Or does he need the spotlight to be on him as well as those on stage?
Yannick Nezet Sequins is just another exhibitionist. Fancy trying to rid the Met of ‘boredom’ by wearing fancy-dress livery!!
If you’re bored, Maestro, I know others who’d not finding it boring.
The obvious solution is for someone from hip hop culture to design new uniforms for the orchestra members perhaps differentiated by section.
So little Yannick’s taste in clothes is the same as the sound he gets from the orchestra – he likes it loud and flashy or nauseatingly cute.
— He looks like someone who was an extra in the movie version of “The Music Man”. Classy.
I love Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s spirit and fun outfits. He is the complete package!