Slapped bass drops out of Gardiner’s Trojans
NewsThe bass William Thomas who was who was slapped and punched by the conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner after a performance of Les Troyens last week, has withdrawn from tonight’s show in Berlin.
No reason has been given. Nor has there been an official statement.
The young man may need to catch his breath after the ten-day furore.
UPDATE: He has also pulled out of the BBC Proms.
Thomas was assaulted for walking on the wrong side of the podium?! Really? What the hell is wrong with you people? Do you all EVER stop to reflect on the fact that maybe you take yourselves just a little too seriously?
“We” are not the person who slapped and punched him.
Oops. If he falls, others will gladly take his place, in a dog eat dog industry.
George and Ira Gershwin wrote the song “Slap That Bass” for a 1937 movie with Fred Astaire.
This is too bad, he’s very talented and should have a wonderful career.
I’m reminded of how famed US college football coach Woody Hayes ended his career by attacking an opposing player, after similar incidents of attacking his own players, cameramen, etc.
It was a case of getting so old that the basic discretion filter had fallen off.
https://youtu.be/z–kKalp1Vc
If Mr. Thomas reads this blog thread, as a a person trained in law, I would strongly advise you to get a good lawyer and file a charge and claim high damages against Mr. Gardiner and sue this wicked man for physical abuse, mental anguish and professional damage. It is only by taking such action that deranged and evil people like John Eliot Gardiner can be stopped from ever repeating what he did to you. Not to minimise what happened to you, but you are not the first person who was subjected to this terrible man’s mean, insulting and aggressive behaviour, but you would be one of the only ones who took legal action against him and if that is the only way to put an end to his reprehensible behaviour towards others, then you have done a great service to other musicians and to society in general.
The fact that he may or may not be a talented musician in this case is completely irrelevant. If your G.P. attacked you as he did, they would be out of a job and facing legal proceedings, no matter how great and respected a doctor they were. Why should there be a double standard for him? He has got away with horrific behaviour for far too many years, he has caused enormous emotional harm to many and there comes a moment when somebody must take action to put an end to it. That time has now come and hopefully you will take action for yourself, but also for all the others who have been a victim of this odious man and for all those who you will save from being subjected to something similar as to what happened to you. Thank you.
GOOD POINT !!
He should sue Gardiner for a LOT of money and give some percentage of it to the Musicians Benevolent Fund !!
Here’s some levity according to Ira’s song lyric: “Slap that bass, slap it till it’s busy, slap that bass, keep the rhythm busy, zoom zoom zoom, misery you’ve got to go.” The conductor mistook the singer for the instrument.
“Slap that bass, slap it in the middle,” as the Gershwin song has it.
There was in fact no statement at all. I figured it out when I could never find him on scene and one of the other minor characters found himself constantly on stage. As far as I can tell, Alex Rosen sang Thomas’ roles on top of his own (and was excellent).
Evidently, no one had told the Philharmonie staffers, as one was left holding an extra bouquet and looking very confused at the end.
no one is perfect. No worries. just get on your life and move forward young man Thomas.
It was a great concert.
Some noteworthy members of the audience: Magdalena Kozena, Simon Rattle, and Isabelle Faust.
Didn’t George Gershwin compose a song “Slap that Bass”??
If the classical music business wants to get any respect from the rest of the world and not be seen as an outdated decadent museum, where masters can physically assault and abuse their workers (slaves) like it was in the 17th and 18th centuries, an incident like this can not go without getting this conductor banned, permanently. Enough is enough!
I was outraged to read in The Telegraph that members of the Monteverdi Choir gave their support to the assaulted singer “privately”, but they made no public statement as a group and apparently they probably would just continue the tour and sing under Gardiner’s direction had he not cancelled. What a lack of moral standards, what spineless cowards!
I was also outraged to read that Gardiner’s managers put the blame on his assaulting the singer because of the hot summer weather and/or a change in the conductor’s medication.
Stop! That sort of absurd propaganda statement, worthy of the former Soviet Union or today’s Russia, simply will not fly anymore in 2023! What decent profession in our world today would tolerate such an incident and make only private comments of support to the victim and have managers issuing Soviet-like statements to explain away a violent assault on an innocent person as being caused by hot summer weather or a change in medication? EVERY ONE of these people know very well that Gardiner has a long track record of appalling behaviour going back decades, yet they all defend it and try to cover it up. In so doing they are all complicit in the assault and support violence of this sort.
Perhaps, more than anything, this incident shows that the classical music world still remains in the museum and in so doing only makes itself less attractive and more irrelevant and disconnected from social norms than it already is.
Not only classical music. Bad behavior occurs in every sector of the entertainment industry and performing arts (most recently, even new icon Lizzo subject to criticism and formal complaint).
There’s no mention of hot weather or medication in either of the statements his management put out. Those details only came from some unknown representative when the story first broke – unless NL knows different?
Totally agree, American Pacifist, but good luck. Strauss was an armband-wearing Nazi, but we celebrate his career, and musicians defend his participation in one of world’s most evil regimes, because, well, “he was one of the good Nazis”. The cognitive dissonance of these people knows no bounds and is nothing but double standards. Just look at the headline: ol’ Normie L. has no problem making a play on words out of workplace assault.
‘Strauss was an armband-wearing Nazi’? Are you on crack? Only Strauss’s enormous international fame saved him and his family from internment. He criticized Hitler, was constantly at loggerheads with Goebbels and his final opera is a passionate defence of free speech with a Jewish librettist. The only reason Strauss didn’t leave Germany, was because he could not get his family (some of whom were Jewish) abroad.
Strauss was appointed to be the head of the Reich Chamber of Music. He served Hitler’s Nazi party. That makes him a Nazi. It’s not really that difficult if you’ve been keeping up with the political discourse as of late.
Hmmm. You’re right. In mitigation, classical singers have already suffered enough through the pandemic and the rigours of Brexit plus philistines in government, that they probably are pretty terrified of losing yet more work, even if with this particular person. I feel very sorry for them, though obviously his behaviour was well known and tolerated for a long time.
William Thomas has a phenomenal CV and will surely be thrilling audiences when JEG is playing a harp on a cloud. I guess that he hasn’t complained to the police about the assault because he does not want to risk damaging his career. If that is true, then I fully understand. But he needs all the support he can get and I for one would help to crowd fund any civil action he takes – JEG has pots of money and could well afford a huge settlement, which William could use either to fund his career or donate to a musical charity. On the other hand he could demand that JEG himself donates a very significent sum to such a charity.
I wish William well and so should we all – and I hope that he will be engaged to perform in next year’s Proms to compensate for this appallng assault. I have still heard nothing about any personal approach to him from JEG. Shameful.
John Eliot Gardiner’s rude and uncivilised behaviour is nothing new. I invite others to read this article that appeared in The Spectator in May 2015. The question remains, how was this awful man able to get away with this sort of behaviour for so long?
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/john-eliot-gardiner/
Thanks for the link. Very interesting article.
No reason given? I hope the young singer is well but to give no reason at such short notice whatever smacks of a degree of lack of professionalism.
Perhaps the reason is he was assaulted and felt unsafe.
Bill has obviously been overwhelmed by this whole experience — some have even suggested that he has been “threatened” and “intimidated” lately by sources close to Sir John. Let’s face it: Bill’s entire future as a performing musical artist is on-the-line. Sir John has a lot of clout with a lot of individuals — people in high places — who owe their entire careers to Sir John’s influence. Of course Bill has to watch his back!
So why did William Thomas exit the stage on the wrong side ? Doing so could have been very disruptive of the show, that moves to the time of the conductor’s Barton. I have been a stage manager in the past, people who do not move on stage as rehearsed can be very upsetting to people running the show.
AGREED, DAVID! This kind of mistake is truly egregious and could have absolutely ruined the whole show. Indeed, the fate of the entire performing arts industry could be at stake for such a trespass. This Thomas fellow must be dealt with most harshly.
…so he deserved to be assaulted by the (mis)conductor?
And what do you suggest the reprimand should be for such an egregious infraction (as a professional stage manager)?
So you give them a note after the show. You don’t resort to physical violence.
Well, having seen the show at the Philharmonie, cast are walking in/out from all sides all the time, on both sides and behind the conductor, very close to him. At the Philharmonie, there were four lanes – two on the sides and two through oblique ones through the orchestra. Most of the action would have the singers standing right next to the conductor.
So whatever happened, I doubt it was a cataclysmic faux pas that threw the whole production off balance. Given the constant movement around and near the conductor, if he couldn’t concentrate with that he shouldn’t have been conducting a semi-staged opera.
It’s interesting that the British press detail that the bass was “slapped” AND “punched” while BR Klassik just say “geohrfeigt” which sounds less violent.
Ohrfeige = ear fig
Hmm… one wonders what he did. Then again, he’s not the one with the profile to cancel.
On Twitter, the Festspiele clarified that Tristan Hambleton (from the Monteverdi Choir) sang Priam while Alex Rosen sang Narbal.
I thought it was Berlioz’s Trojans…
I hope he gets paid for the missed shows.
He wanted to save face
Poverino. He must be feeling stressed with the spotlight on him for all the wrog reasons. Look on the bright side – La Scala is coming up next month and with a much nicer conductor!
We should be grateful that Gardiner didn’t just punch him and so made the headline pun possible.
Which some have tried to extend to a 12 day furore.
Love the innuendo. But what if he just has a cold?
Slapped Bass, very good.
https://youtu.be/raGrDhg-a-o?si=THOrvtVOYGztbwQ_
For a start, it has long since ceased to be Gardiner’s Les Troyens – thank goodness. Any news on casting for the Proms performance?
Amazing display of self-control by this young singer. Had Gardiner been unlucky enough to assault a less disciplined performer than Mr. Thomas, he might have been met with a very different and much more unpleasant reaction.
When he withdrew I hope he exited in the right direction
A friend on the tour told me it had nothing to do with JEG and is an entirely private matter. Perhaps it’s best if we gave this young talent a bit of space and let him take the time he needs.
He does have previous, though.
No excuses for Eliot-Gardiner’s behavior. I would never have expected such behavior from him.
He should be talking with a good lawyer.
Weird how the bit in whic he slapped Jeggys pint out of his hand across the bar has been omitted from all this. JEG hasn’t even mentioned it, which does sound like trying to take responsibility in a round about way. Nothing makes Sir John’s actions acceptable, but there seems more to this. Mr Thomas hasn’t got the most peaceful reputation as is. Both have done deplorable things. Though there seems more to this.