Conductor wears blindfold to protest weird Bohème
NewsScherzo website has a picture from the 69th Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago, where the French stage director Christophe Gayral had updated the setting of La Bohème to 1968, the year of the Paris student uprisings.
The music director Alberto Veronesi made his feelings known by leading the the performance in blindfold.
He got more boos for this than the director.
More here.
Perhaps he would have had more support if he had instead conducted with both hands tied behind his back.
What a moron! If you find it this appalling, just quit.
No he has the right to protest these scoundrels !
Textbook definition of “childish”.
It’s a much bigger textbook nowadays.
I’m curious to know how well he conducted. I respect that he may know the score by memory, but still there is a need to have eye contact with the performers…
What strange times we live in.
He cut 2 slips in the blindfold from the second act on.
How well??? Is trolling question, isn’t??
Plenty of conductors that conduct like they’re blindfolded. At least this guy has an excuse.
Clearly an imbecile. Indeed, he seems to be involved with Fascist party now in power in Italy.
He is actually an active member of the Italian Socialist Party (PD). Sorry to break it to you.
He was a member of the PD but switched to Fratelli d’Italia in January and was on their list for the regional elections in Lombardy in February. Sorry to get your facts straight.
https://amp.milanotoday.it/politica/elezioni-regionali-2023/alberto-veronesi-fratelli-italia.html
Well, let’s not have the facts get in the way of a good narrative.
In any case, it seems as though “Anton Bruckner” is attempting to make up for a lifetime of guilt and repressed feelings …
As written by Novagerio Maestro Veronesi (son of a celebrated cancerologue) isn’t member of right wing’s Mrs Meloni’s party.
As written by me, your information is outdated.
Grazie, Clem.
Should have just quit if he didn’t like it rather than sabotage the performance.
He didn’t sabotage the performance.
Actually reviews were positive about musical aspects.
He should have worn earplugs too!
Sight-reading?
Il paese delle buffonate.
https://www.iltirreno.it/versilia/cronaca/2023/07/14/news/caos-alla-prima-del-pucciniano-2023-il-direttore-veronesi-contesta-il-regista-e-il-pubblico-lo-fischia-1.100345077?fbclid=IwAR2PONZTTEEQ0cH31UCPoaH3vfX7aIFANq1duELDRrrSEWfxmDsahEEesy8
You took the words right out of my mouth
I applaud that!!! Some of these new productions are so gross but conductors, who obviously need to make a living too, put up with this with a fake smile. It’s time to have our opinions heard.
The time to do that is pre-production and in the rehearsal room. Imagine a director sitting in the front row with his/her fingers in his/her ears because he/she didn’t like your tempi or dynamics.
He was right !
Interesting set of upvotes and downvotes here. I agree with the booing. The blindfold shows a lack of respect for the artform, the opera itself, the performers and the audience.
I hope that a shortage of future invitations to conduct will make him live to regret this conduct.
Coordination between the orchestra pit and the singers on stage is essential for the opera to succeed. The paying audience has a right to expect that and this gesture might have compromised the performance.
Also it could bring about insecurity among the cast and make their job harder.
The conductor has a right to his point of view on the production, but if he really couldn’t go along with the concept , withdrawing from the show might have been the better choice.
The audience will decide whether to applaud or not and word of mouth is very effective to help folks decide whether to attend later performances.
Complimenti, Maestro Veronesi.
He has now been fired. But for the wrong reason. It should have been fired for what he does to music, not for wearing a blindfold…
Why use blindfolds when we have CDs? Bjorling, Di Stefano, de los Angeles, Freni, Scotto. . . A blindfold may be helpful with the “production”, but then one might need earplugs because of modern singers who don’t have a clue how to put meaning and feeling into their vocal line.
Good for him. I’ve always maintained that opera is best enjoyed on disc, or radio, or in an opera house with one’s eyes shut. Why “update” the stage action whilst keeping the same old music? La Bohème is very specifically 19th century France. Prima la musica; poi le parole.
After all the reasoned and informed commentary, I’m still waiting for a review of the evening’s performance as a sort of postscript!
On a tangent here: In my mind’s eye I imagine a performance of a Wagner opera in a simply horrid staging (think Bayreuth Ring). And instead of boos, the camera pans the auditorium to show that most of the audience had worn blindfolds throughout the performance. Now THAT would be a powerful statement.
Did this conductor pay attention during pre-production? Where was he at the rehearsals? This opera (ANY opera), requires enormous communication between pit and singers – particularly with those difficult Act II chorus parts (including children). I can’t imagine anyone on stage felt confident under these circumstances. What a selfish idiot.
Before this last pathetic exhibition, the joke among musicians in Italy was that there are only two conductors in the world about whom everybody agrees: Carlos Kleiber, because everybody thinks he was wonderful, and Alberto Veronesi, because everybody thinks he is terrible. Having listened to both, I heartily agree.
Perhaps he wanted to be like Karajan…..