Verbier: Orchestra players walk out on Domingo
NewsA correspondent tells Slippedisc:
Verbier Festival: first half was wonderful to hear Maria João Pires (in the Beethoven C minor concerto with the Verbier Festival Orchestra).
Second half was Tchaikovsky Symphony No 5 conducted by Domingo. When it finished the audience mostly applauded, some booed. Domingo tried to maintain composure at first. But then the first violin led players walking off the stage while Domingo looked befuddled,spreading his hands…
The incident was screened on medici.tv and should be visible there.
Players have told us that the former tenor spent the symphony with his head in the score, not having learned it beforehand.
UPDATE: Whether or not the players walked out – and there are conflicting reports – it is clear that they found Domingo’s conducting unsatisfactory. Why a non-conductor should be hired for Tchaikovsky at a leading summer festival is beyond comprehension – unless we conclude that its artistic direction is living off past favours, as so many do in the classical establishment.
If Verbier was a blog, its users would justly call Domingo’s presence clickbait.
A little more information would be welcome. What was the cause of the protest: Domingo’s performance, his reputation or some other factor?
Action as dramatic as the players walking off like that should have a fairly serious foundation. Surely he hasn’t been so dumb as to harass any of the players? Perhaps he was imposed on them against their will?
Not true!! We were at the concert, seated at the centre. Domingo took the concert master’s hand, walked him to the wing and waved the orchestra players off the stage.
It’s Domingo who walked the orchestra players off stage, not the other way round.
Get the facts right!
We have an eyewitness report. Clearly you saw a different angle.
It’s not about which angle, it’s about truth! Your eyewitness’s report is simply untrue.
But of course, your eyewitness report can’t be untrue…
Wrong….On the Medici livestream , it is clearly visible that Domingo takes the concermasters hand,and waves the players off the stage.
Seriously, is anybody surprised that 1/2 of the ‘news’ that are ‘reported’ here are nothing more than insiders gossip and part of the agenda of a small, rancid clique?
I mean, why even visit this site otherwise? for actual news?
NL is an entertainer…I for one value his job and come here to consume specifically what is described above, nothing less 🙂
Keep at it!
OK? and why don’t you review it for yourself and gets the facts and be your own eyewitness NL? Or do you want people to subscribe to medici….Ugh.
Look at the “Frank Farrow” post below. This article is clearly FAKE (“players walk out on Domingo”) news. It should be amended or taken down to uphold the sterling reportorial record of this blog.
As one of the musicians, I can guarantee that Domingo invited some of the principal players to leave the stage. The conductor is supposed to leave the stage before any of the musicians. Naturally, the rest of the orchestra followed once they saw the principal string players start walking (again, by Domingo’s obviously gracious cue). Domingo was clearly unaware that he should exit the stage before the musicians. Once he saw the rest of the musicians start leaving, he was visibly confused. It was obviously a miscommunication, but not at the fault of the orchestra members.
There was nothing said about he didn’t show courtesy towards the orchestra. But the first violin and players left stage before him. When was last time you saw that happen?
A world-famous maestro (even one not famous for conducting) inviting unpaid student musicians to leave the stage first could be seen as a very gracious gesture.
Or after publicized rehearsals discontent
Always think of the Valzacchis from Rosenkavalier when reading Slippery Disc
thanks for clearing this absurd report up!
By the way: Domingo is also a trained conductor! (If a good one (for Tchaikovsky), is another question.
When was last time you saw players walk out off the stage before the conductor. If you are affirmative, post a video to proof it
Good for them. Though why didn’t they walk out before the first rehearsal? I assume it made a stronger statement doing it in such a public fashion.
Last year at Verona, after Domingo finished conducting, the orchestra refused to standup, and trade union sent out a letter about his “flopping”. Domingo wrote a letter to the management ask for another opportunity
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/verona-orchestra-refuses-to-take-bow-with-placido-domingo-j2cdxtfj3
Interesting. I can only wonder what sort of example it sets for young musicians to have a sexual harasser up on the podium – no less one who seems deficient in the standard repertoire. Verbier becomes more dubious every year.
That’s factually incorrect.
To be a harasser one needs to be found to be so by a court of law, Domingo hasn’t been.
He did not get the chance to be judged by a court of law because he made a deal with AGMA and paid 500.000 USD to keep everybody’s mouth shut. The info has been public since then, but nobody seems to care…
You are right – I also don’t understand why Domingo was invited. Martin Engstroem’s (chef of the Verbier Festival) excuses are not comprehensible.
Is there a video of that moment?
what’s the point of protesting after the concert?! It’s virtue signaling without any real impact. Is it to earn their pay, since if they refuse to play at beginning they will not be paid? True courage means your protest has a real cost to you. This is just preening for all to see n admire.
They don’t get paid! That’s the meaning of being a true musician. They get paid through music, because that’s much more costly to life than cash.
They don’t get paid
They get free roundtrip airfare to Switzerland for themselves and family members, free beautiful accomodations and meals. And there’s more. It’s a paid 1st class family vacation in a gorgeous resort in the Swiss Alps
You are aware the Verbier Festival Orchestra is a training orchestra for young musicians? The players are not paid.
You are aware there are 2 orchestras, one for students and one for professionals? The professionals get an enormous amount in perks. Have you priced rt airfare to Switzerland fron anywhere in the world for a family? And transportation from the airport, luxurious accomodations, all expenses paid? Maybe they don’t get paid, but they get an all expenses paid deluxe family vacation in the Swiss Alps for a few weeks in the summer.
It’s an orchestra of students. No one gets paid but the conductor.
Exploitation if you ask me
Simon Scott: Ever heard of Youth Orchestras? Ok, Youth Orchestras don’t get paid. End of story.
Caranome, I know someone who plays with the VFO.
For your information, the Festival only paid for these musicians’ return flights, meals & lodgings. These musicians DO NOT get paid any salary. They auditioned to play at the festival for the experience & to learn. They don’t go there for money.
The VFO is a training orchestra. The musicians are not paid.
Well, if the festival finishes up with a mutiny on it’s hands then they have only themselves to blame.
The festival already knew that we were upset and threatened to kick all of us out immediately if anything happened so yes there was a cost.
Bye the way, the concert was live transmitted by Media.tv and others. Hopefully they cut it off.
This is factually incorrect and there is video to prove it. The concertmaster was the consummate professional and followed Domingo’s instructions as he gave them from the stage/podium No audible boos are heard on the video either.
If there’s a video of what you describe, where can it be seen?
Acoustic engineer would be sacked if you heard boos. Boos were there. One guy were even shouting his opinion about Domingo
Who would be at such a festival with all the hold warhorses played and playing? Such charmless musicians altogether, except the elegant Ms Pires.
such a pompous snowflake
Whether or not this is true, and it appears that it is not, why must people act so high and mighty and self righteous towards someone who perhaps isn’t perfect? Are any of us without fault in our life? Have we not made bad decisions we regret? To the people who love to point the finger at others, please ensure you’ve not made any poor decisions in your life, and when you’re perfect, then you may boo and walk out if that’s what gives you pleasure.
Say that after you paid up to €400+ for Domingo’s shows somewhere. You want to get your money worth, right?
Should have happened anytime he “conducts” going back to the 1980s.
I’m a musician in the festival and the walk out had been planned by orchestra members. Placido Domingo was horrible to work with, a terrible conductor (at many moments in the rehearsals, the assistant conductor just had to stand behind him and conduct) and has had multiple sexual assault allegations.
Higher ups knew about the unrest and the musicians were threatened to be kicked out of the festival immediately if a walk out happened, so there was a lot of hesitation, but after Placido’s confusing cue everyone took it as their chance to walk out.
Gutless to perform onstage if that’s how you truly feel.
Guess you do thorough background checks on every conductor, manager, musician, and stagehand you work with before you decide to share your gifts with them.
What’s “gutless” is continuing to cash in on Domingo’s celebrity when he can no longer sing well. Even worse to hire him as a “conductor” a role for which he has always been completely inadequate. And this remains true irregardless of the sexual assault allegations (which are in fact quite credible).
“… and has had multiple sexual assault allegations.” The rest is noise.
This is puzzling. Googling shows only SD to have reported such a protest, although there is a report of serious performer unrest at a rehearsal. That report was published before the performance.
He does not know the work. See this article –
https://www.letemps.ch/culture/a-verbier-le-desarroi-des-musiciens-face-a-placido-domingo
Selling half-baked bread has always been at the heart of Domingo’s career.
Placido Domingo is definitely the greatest “musician” of the 20th and 21st centuries… Baritone, tenor, baritone again, conductor, music director, etc. He should have retired in the early 1980s… Very embarrasing man… Not to say more…
Your first sentence is quite accurately belied by everything else you write. In this case “you were right the SECOND time”!
Oh can we at this point just forget about Domingo? He was never a conductor, never a baritone, and for the last 25 years nothing of a tenor. The less ink spilled on him the better.
You want to see something truly exciting at Verbier on Medici TV? See Yuja and Klaus and Lozakovich:
https://www.medici.tv/fr/concerts/verbier-festival-2023-yuja-wang-klaus-makela-daniel-lozakovich-antoine-tamestit
Yuja truly had a liberating effect on Klaus, he no longer dresses or looks like freaking T.S. Eliot, but a vibrant vital young man he is. They made a great couple, the way he looks at her. I hope it lasts a lifetime. I do.
(Not to be obsessed with Yuja, check out her playing with a Rolex, I don’t think I’ve seen any pianist play with a watch on!)
The article is about Domingo.
Do you have some sort of a problem with T.S. Eliot? Your drooling over this “pOwEr CoUpLe” is making me feel ill.
I am no big fan of Domingo,but this kind of ” report” is quite shameless and disgusting…Without any backing by research, checking facts, you just post an assertion by a “correspondent”( of what,a newspaper,TV station????. If so ,he should be named…)….The Medici livestream showed a very different situation….You did the same some weeks ago with a false claim about the attendance of a MET performance of a Flying dutchman performance…..This is clearly a breach of the code of honor of journalism…..Someday,you´ll have to face legal action,believee me.Wouldn´t be the first time…..Domingo´s artistic efforts over the last decade surely deserve criticism,his behaviour against women even more so…Butfalse and unfounded claims are a no go.You clearly have crossed the line here.
Shameless and disgusting? But true. Time for you to leave this site.
I was there. Domingo’s gestures were chaotic after Tchaikovsky. But the first violin went out, that’s right. Domingo’s complete overload was obvious – such a shame for the music and the orchestra.
Why buy tickets for a concert with Domingo as a conductor?
Verbier is a festival – but yes, if I had known all the impossible performances (the Internet never forgets) of this conductor before, I might not have bought a ticket.
It seems Mr. Lebrecht was misinformed by one eyewitness who may have misunderstood what happened. In that case the right thing to do is to apologize and retract the article.
I do not believe we were misinformed. On the contrary, players have been posting their discontent with Domingo on a Swiss newspaper website.
Mr Lebrecht, indeed, players have been posting their discontent with Domingo. That doesn’t equate to they walked out on him.
Your eye witnesses report is untrue.
See this for yourself & just cut it out!!
https://youtu.be/o6wKRsR-6J4
Agree with you here. Thank you for posting the clip. It was a very awkward set of bows however, asking the principal strings to come out in front for a bow. I am not sure why he was out there for so long and didn’t go off stage. Maybe that is the tradition there. As an orchestral player, we have made European entrances but not exits. I have played under Domingo, Die Walkure (missing my umlaut). Any of you reading this who have worked “with” him on the podium can imagine what that was like. Just look at the faces of the Verbier kids and yup, that’s was the feeling. You start and finish and a whole bunch happens in between, and don’t look up- major hazard.
Disturbing allegations aside, and that really isn’t possible, he should not be on the podium. Verbier should rethink some things when they are casting their conductors. This was definite casting…Bradley Cooper in Bernstein makeup may have done better.
Interesting to watch. No boos.
Multiple clearly awkward moments. Conductor basically tugging the concertmaster off stage and exhorting the others to follow – the concertmaster is clearly ill at ease. Unusual behaviour by a conductor-the concertmaster usually leads the exit. Domingo seems befuddled?
Not much smiling by the young musicians – you’d expect them to be busting with pride. Why?
Nobody walked out on Domingo. And it’s not a question of “angle.” Bit definitely unhappy, awkward and forced body language. Weird.
Why doesn’t Domingo just retire? How embarrassing to see this once-brilliant tenor at his self-inflicted nadir.
You did hear boos, didn’t mean it didn’t happen. You think acoustic engineer would have wanted to get sacked
In my reply just clarifying- “disturbing allegations aside, and that really isn’t possible”, I meant it isn’t really possible to “aside” the allegations as they are disturbing. Thank you.
Their discontent, yes. The son of a former colleague of mine plays with the orchestra. He told me the rehearsals were horrible… But they didn’t leave the stage on their own. They acted professionally. At the Berlin Phil, the concertmaster also leads the orchestra very often off the stage. Glenn Dicterow used to do the same at the NY Philharmonic
Yes, we leave when the concertmaster stands up to leave the stage post performance, but the conductor is usually off stage by then- that’s the part I don’t understand. Why he was still out there… so odd and awkward. Perhaps that is why the CM didn’t know what to do since Domingo was still out there.
If there was any issue with the players – and personally I doubt any would be protesting at such a prestigious festival – it would surely be about Domingo’s abilities or otherwise as a conductor. It is well known that he really is not a good conductor. No doubt he was there principally for his ‘name’ value with the society crowd.
The Medici Livestream clearly showed it was Domingo who led the concertmaster and the orchestra off the stage… However, the performance (I saw only the last 25 minutes of the Tchaikovsky) was a mess. Domingo clearly didn’t know the piece, and didn’t master it. The son of a very good musician friend of mine, who plays with the VFO this year, told me, the rehearsals were a mess, and the assistant conductor did desperately try to fix things… Maria Joao Pires is simply wonderful and Beethoven 4 is one of her signature pieces,, so sublime, poetic and magic. What a shame she had to put up with such an inept partner.
No, at the first step it was the concert-master who went off after Domingo had made a strange mess with two female musicians (I was in the concert). After that when the musicians followed the concert-master also Domingo followed them.
Did he force them to transpose everything a tone and half down?
“Did he force them to transpose everything a tone and half down?” Yes, propably. At La Scala some 20 years ago they even had to buy new special instruments that could go lower than their usual nature, in order to accomodate the Biggest Ego in the History of Classical Music – and to no avail. It was Otello, and the inflated Mr.Ego’s vocal resources had already expired.
I notice the concert is not availabke on replay on Medici. Could this be related to the incident? (I also noticed the first half with Pires was not mentioned in the Medici program, which I find even harder to explain).
Kevin81 Propably because it’s an embarrassment.
I cannot find this concert on Medici site. Either they have taken it down or have not uploaded yet the replay.
I have looked for it continuously. It is not mentioned anywhere ass if it never happened
We were at the concert, close to the stage. After prolonged applause, which Domingo went out of his way to deflect to the orchestra, he seemed to tell the concertmaster to help lead the orchestra off the stage. The players left gradually, with no appearance of intentionality. It seemed confusing to the players and certainly to the audience, was something of a shambles and the motivation was puzzling, but nothing indicated an orchestra walkoff. More importantly, it was a deep pleasure to see and hear Maria João Pires, for whom the applause could have gone on forever.
woke bobble-heads on display
Come on, it’s not ‘woke’ to be against a man who has been accused of sexual assault by twenty women and is also under investigation for his involvement in in a pedophilic sex trafficking ring (there’s wiretap audio of his voice, so it seems pretty credible.)
Was it proven and was he convicted?! If not, then it’s nothing more than virtue signaling, so yes, “woke” checks out.
A later news report said Domingo was not involved with the pedophilic sex trafficking ring.He was discussing an unrelated matter on the wiretap audio of his voice.
Any eyewitness back stage?
Did he behave?
Or did he stick his tongue down somebodies throat?
Domingo is a faded superstar but still a media celeb nonetheless like Sinatra and Bennet in their twilight. And he’s no conductor — never was and never will be! He was hired as a “novelty act” to put butts in the seats nothing more. At least he was a bit more humanly animated than that damned robot conductor!!!
The difference is thatTony Bennett
could still sing, right up until he retired.
tony Bennett just died at 96 yrs. of age.
Sorry I really have to disagree with you. Maestro Domingo is a VERY FINE Conductor!
Especially when riding the Walküre.
Here you go…
https://youtu.be/5IwPneySEoU
All I saw yesterday – no, he was completely out of his depth as a conductor. He was only in his score, but not with his orchestra.
Show me the ticket stubs you paid for
The perennially brilliant amd skilled Sinatra and Bennett compared to late-career Domingo!? Come on!! Get off it!
Cheap political stunt by a bunch of brainwashed gen Z ers
NL loves the attention, too.
But watch out! He’s kinda feisty and telling folks that disagree with him to leave his site. #Brave
In conclusion, I would never dream of going to the Verbier Festival.
Their image is severely damaged.
Being a VFO musician myself, i would like to clarify that this is not what actually happened last night. Domingo instructed the orchestra to leave the stage, which is clearly visible on the video.
Nevertheless it has to be said that the quality of his conducting and rehearsing technique is nowhere near the required standard to be in charge of this orchestra and repertoire.
A reasonable, mature comment and observation from a member of the ensemble.
Surely you have wandered onto the wrong blog – on baseless allegations and slander/libel are allowed here by order of NL.
Maestro Placido is a well established conductor! This is unprofessional by the orchestra players!!! If they didn’t want to play they should not come to the performance!!
Let’s not all pile onto the blog editor over this; he can’t be at all places at once. This error of interpretation is on the correspondent, and the report is just a verbatim passing on of the message. The editor does call attention to the video at the end of the report for anyone who wants to follow up.
The difference between a successful career and not, is knowing when to stop making public appearances that detract from whatever lustre your career earned. Imo, well past his best before date.
In my mind, the issue is more broadly about why elderly old performers just go-on too long. We can all think of people who should have stopped earlier. Most obviously von Karajan. It’s both physically undignified, and crap music.
@Del-boy – your comment about Karajan is just as ill-informed as the OP appears to have been. Some people on this blog seem predictably determined to drag Karajan’s name sooner or later into any and every negative thread, as here (although that probably just reflects the “agenda of [the] small, rancid clique” mentioned above by Mecky Messer). For the record, some of Karajan’s late performances ranked among his finest, for those who had ears to hear. I will never forget the “Verklärte Nacht” and Brahms 1 that marked his final RFH appearance with the BPO, not to mention the live Mahler 9 with the BPO. He died comparatively early at 82 hampered by a range of physical ailments (perhaps that’s what you’d rather not see on the concert platform). So you’re referring largely to the output of his 70s, which is scarcely “elderly old” [sic] these days. If we’re talking about “crap”, then more widely, this discreditable ageism would rule out the music-making wisdom that characterised the glorious Indian summers of Haitink, Klemperer, Toscanini, Böhm, Bernstein, Jochum, Solti, Abbado, Marriner, Harnoncourt and so many more, including, at present, Zubin Mehta and Herbert Blomstedt. Musicians should certainly know when to stop, but age is not necessarily the driver of that. I’ve no doubt I’ve devoted far more time to your comment than it merited and I’ll get plenty of down votes (it’s that kind of blog, after all) but this needed saying. Sorry.
Ok, I finally watched the video: https://youtu.be/o6wKRsR-6J4
It was not a protest by the musicians but it was extremely awkward. Can’t believe that Domingo has been on stage for over six decades and he’s unable to make proper gestures. So awkward, seriously.
I think you all should leave Domingo alone, don’t persecut him, he had a wonderful career and was a fantastic singer in his day. (He who is without sin cast the first stone) Please have some compassion.
Having watched the video again…….Yes,it clearly reveals how uncomfortable the musicians feel, they show none of their usual youthful enthiusiasm for their conductors(nor is the audience appreciation as loud as usual…)
The question is, why,for heaven´s sake,did they hire a tenth rate conductor with no experience and musical insights in this repertoire? After the debacles in Verona and Bayreuth…And why did Katharina Wagner give him a performance of Walküre,with disastrous results?
Worse than clickbait if you paid for it
I have heard conductor Domingo on many occasions and he did just fine. This protest, if not fake news, must be politically motivated.
fyi L.A. Opera conducted a months-long independent investigation by outside counsel and found no credible evidence of Domingo’s alleged wrongdoing. Still they bowed to woke pressure and fired him.
Age has nothing to do with it. Domingo has never been able to conduct. It’s embarassing that he conducted Beethoven with the CSO many years back as a returned favor to Barenboim. Pathetic. On another note, I guess #metoo doesn’t exist in Switzerland. Cowards, just like in WWII. Thanks for being on the wrong side of history once again Switzerland.
(Anonymous) Musician:
Would you please write exactly the same comment you already wrote signing it with your real name and surname?
Would very much appreciate this act of no cowardice.
And yes, “metoo” exists also in Switzerland.
Grazie.
Everyone has some axe to grind. 1)No one can ruin the Tchaikovsky Fifth 2) Domingo is a fine musician 3) musicians should bake the cake, whether they like the couple being married or not. They’re paid to do a job, not express half-baked (see how that goes with bake the cake ) ideas on politics 4) it’s probably about sex—or non-sex—in today’s world. I had (after a while) no traditional hetero place for me on the soup-spoon for treats from the L-G-B-T-Q-I-A+ bowl. So. I just sort of gave upon women. Tooo—ooooo much trouble.
I looked at the video carefully. Often, when the orchestra is sitting, one seen the conductor point to certain members who stand and take a bow. Occasionally I have seen a conductor wade into the orchestra and shake hands. But as far as I could see, Domingo didn’t seem to know what he wanted and finished up trying to rearrange the orchestra like chessmen on a board. The orchestra understandably didn’t know what to do.
My impression was that, for whatever reason, Domingo himself suffered a few moments of mental confusion.
And that comes from someone who knows all there is to know about using a blog as clickbait.
So far Herb and she has not released a replay of this concert
Whats all this fuss and complaining about? Domingo is mediocre as a conductor, so what do you expect? If you know that, you just don’t go to a concert like this. As long as there aren’t any videos from this concert, its hard to judge what all the fuss is about.
It’s time to sack the concertmaster. She has gotten too lax. She did *nothing* to lead or communicate with the musicians on stage if Placido was so difficult to follow. Demote her to section violin or show her show door.
It was a man….Obviously you didn´t see the concert…..Time to shut up!