Gerard Mortier gets a biography – in Russian
OperaThe legendary Belgian opera director, who would have been 80 this year, had a passionate group of followers in Russia.
He took an early interest in Teodor Currentzis at Perm Opera. interacted frequently with Valery Gergiev and made numerous visits to the Bolshoi in search of singing and directorial talent.
His Russian fans are bringing out a biography for his birthday in November. The catch? It needs crowdfunding.
I wonder what is the point of including links in a topic when there is absolutely no translation into either English or another relatively common European language like French or German? It seems to happen with increasing regularity.
Go fund yourself!
Mortier was a financial disaster for Brussels. Furthermore, he acted like a tyrant to people that didn’t approve of his artistic policy. Because of authority conflicts he stayed at the Flamish Opera for just half a year. Everybody around him knew he was power driven.
For further reading:
1. Johny Van Tegenbos (his chauffeur) – ‘De Bochtenrijder van de Opera’ (Manteau, Antwerpen; ISBN 90-223-1185-6
2. Gerrit Six – ‘Het Mortier-tijdperk; Kroniek van een Krachtmeting’ (Roularta Books, Zellik; ISBN 978-90-72411-85-3
3. Gerard Mortier – ‘Dramaturgie einer Leidenschaft; Für ein Theater als Religion des Menschlichen’ (ISBN 9783761820605
And he also played a vital role in destroying the New York City Opera. Hard to forgive him for that.
I hope there will be a long chapter on his role in the destruction of the New York City Opera.
There is already a well documented account in a book about City Opera and its demise, “Mad Scenes and Exit Arias”. It seems Mortier was much less to blame than the self-serving and supremely arrogant Board Chair, Susan Baker, who abandoned the Board’s agreed plan to offer the post to Francesca Zambello, instead going off on her own to appoint Mortier by promising him a totally impossible annual budget of $60 million for productions and then failing to contribute even one cent of her own fortune to fund it. When Mortier finally realized he would have to work within a budget massively below this amount, it’s hardly surprising he just upped and left.
Totally agree. However, you cannot hold Mortier less blameless than Baker. The NYCO was a known commodity and Mortier was an intelligent and informed man. They are co-villains in this story.
He never played any role in the “destruction” of NYCO. Get your basic facts right.
He was one of the most amazing personalities I’ve ever met. A constant outburst of energy and ideas. And decades earlier, he allowed me to become an opera enthusiast, when he introduced cheap tickets for youngsters in Brussels (even in stalls) at a time when this was totally not done. It’s a pity we need the Russians to write his biography, but Belgium always had a problem honoring its greats.
I have to correct myself: apparently there already is a biography, “Gerard Mortier – L’opéra réinventé” by Michel Hambersin, published in 2006.