Paris sacks Putinist
OperaThe bass singer Ildar Abdrazakov, a leading sponsor of President Putin’s ‘re-election campaign’ has been dropped by the Paris Opéra.
Ildar Abdrazakov n’assurera pas le rôle-titre dans la nouvelle production de « Don Quichotte » cette saison.
Le rôle de Don Quichotte sera interprété par Christian Van Horn.
I predict another Strike…
Oh yess!!!! yess!!! But who needs Paris when you have Muti promoting you and legitimizing you???
There is an intriguing chain of thoughts connecting Muti, Putin, the Putin Bass, Depardieu, Macron, The Legion of Honor, Gergiev, Iran, the Nazi Party, Hamas, Domingo and the MeToo movement.
Pay attention:
According to many reports, the Putin Bass (aka Abdrazakov) was Muti’s star of choice for the gala concluding in glory the Ravenna Festival a couple of days ago. https://operawire.com/ildar-abdrazakov-will-sing-at-the-ravenna-festivals-verdi-gala/
Reports say it ended with OVATIONS!! Who’s to say the Putin Bass is banned in the West? He sings with Muti and they receive OVATIONS together!!!
Muti has the power and moral authority to legitimize the Putin Bass (aka Abrazakov), we all agree with that. Who cares if Muti made a skit condemning the Ukraine invasion some time ago? No serious person I know believed that, and it’s water under the bridge anyway. Muti makes Putin’s singer sing in the West, that’s what counts, not some bloody Chicago skit! In addition, the Italian Maestro has won the RUSSIAN ORDER OF FRIENDSHIP, conferred to him by Putin. This fantastic Putin award has always been one of Muti’s favorite awards and he wanted his fans to know about it: it was printed on the CSO program books for years (between the Queen award, and the Pope award); it was reported in this great Muti profile article: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/opera/8386177/Riccardo-Muti-a-profile.html
Here is a nice pic of Muti and Putin: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vladimir_Putin_with_Riccardo_Muti-1.jpg
Muti has also been nominated honorary member of the RUSSIAN ACADEMY FOR THE ARTS, presided by the sublime artist who sculpted the statue of Putin dressing in a kimono: Zurab Tsereteli. A nice pic of of the Putin statue should be viewed here:
https://www.alamy.com/aggregator-api/download/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fc8.alamy.com%2Fcomp%2FR5ED6M%2Frussia-moscow-presnya-area-studio-of-zurab-tsereteli-russian-super-artist-sculpture-of-premier-vladimir-putin-in-karate-costume-R5ED6M.jpg
According to reports, in March 2014 Tsereteli signed a letter in support of the position of the President of Russia Vladimir Putin on Russia’s military first intervention in Ukraine. Tsereteli was supporting the Ukraine invasion even back in 2014! He’s a nice guy, his awards are to be treasured! I, for one, would love to get an award from Tsereteli.
Nice pic of Muti with the Russians here, at the Russian embassy in Vienna, at the end of 2021, just a couple of months before the war started, when the award was conferred!!
https://newsrnd.com/life/2021-10-28-riccardo-muti-honorary-academic-of-russia.r1m3Ux_LF.html
Who can boast to have received awards from both Putin and Tsereteli? As far as I know, our beloved Muti!
Muti also famously invited Gergiev to conduct his shiny toy, the Cherubini orchestra!! Muti and Gergiev were quite the couple in the Ravenna Festival! (It is really not my fault if Muti is involved with the Russians, I am not making it up and I am just a messenger.)
From the Russians to the French-Russians: Muti gave work to Gerard Depardieu, they performed Berlioz Lelio together. A nice video of Gerard having dinner with Putin here after getting Russian citizenship:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JDSNxgLRAM
French authorities have brought preliminary charges against Depardieu for allegedly raping the actress Charlotte Arnould on two occassions in August 2008. He has denied those allegations and all accusations of assault by other women. He is a Russian citizen now, he’s not going to get prosecuted for rape!
Muti and Depardied not only collaborated in classical music; they received the Legion of Honour (a jolly big deal!!) But wait – the current President of France Macron has gotten into big trouble presently for strongly praising Depardieu. President Macron rejected the suggestion by his own culture minister that Depardieu should lose the Legion of Honor, one of France’s highest awards, arguing it is merited for great artists who might be bad people. (Does Muti agree with Macron? We don’t know, though I could make an intelligent guess)
On the other hand, we do know what Muti thinks of MeToo: “With MeToo, Mozart would be in jail” (though there is no documentary or anecdotal evidence that Mozart ever raped anyone). What does Muti think of his buddy Depardieu rape charges? The rape allegedly happened two years before they collaborated on Berlioz and hung out in Chicago. Did Muti and Depardieu discussed MeToo and similar topics in Chicago? We don’t know.
(Note: Muti is also a buddy of Domingo, another man accused of assaulting women and having phone calls with sex traffickers. I am not saying it’s a pattern let’s be clear, I am just laying out the facts!)
From France to the Middle East: Muti, so active internationally, has not spoken to condemn Hamas and support Israel, but he loves peace and in my opinion should win the Nobel price. He visited Iran with the Cherubini orchestra; before him only Karajan (a member of the Nazi parti) visited the Iranian anti Zionist nation! We have also learned from another SD reader that Muti is wondering why the Israel Phil is not called Palestinian Orchestra :-((((
Long live Riccardo, Gergiev, Putin, Abdrazakov, the Iran theocracy, Depardieu, and Russia!
(and, Metoo sucks, something that we can all agree on, right?)
I appreciate reading all this. Musically speaking, Muti lost his mojo about a quarter of a century ago, if not longer. The man has done nothing since worthy of merit. So of course he will seek lavish praise and support where he can find it. And when and where he finds it, conveniently look the other way. He is not the only one. No need to name names which ought to be obvious to anyone with an active half brain cell. There is a corrupt Mafia in the classical music and opera business, alive and well and nakedly operating in the open, and aided and abetted by political figureheads.
I generally agree with you, though I would caution you to not make sweeping statements. We have to be objective and Muti has some major accomplishments that he can take credit for:
– He fought, and made his battles known to the international press, to keep the N-word in Verdi’s libretto. That was a testament to his dedication to quality and absolutely NOT dog whistling to his hardcore fan base, as some cynics suggested. He made sure the N-word was sung by a Black singer, to show that there is nothing wrong with it, or a Black singer would refuse to utter it (that is only logical, right?) Opera will forever be in debt to him just for this one achievement.
– With the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, he recorded a thrilling album that is still misunderstood, but will soon be recognized as historical: “CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN COMPOSERS” , which even managed to lift the CSO back up from obscurity —(https://cso.org/experience/audio/10691/contemporary-american-composers), a sensational concoction of Glass, Montgomery, and the great Max Raimi. Part of Muti’s legacy is his promotion of contemporary music. It is a shame that the CSO marketing arm limited the album’s natural appeal to Muti’s fan base and decided not to print the perfect Muti quote on the record booklet to present it to the public: “It is scientifically proven that when the cows listen to the music of Mozart, they make very good milk. When they listen to contemporary music or avant-garde music, they make acid milk. Or maybe ricotta.” https://www.chicagomag.com/chicago-magazine/september-2022/riccardo-muti/
– He reset the music director standards for ethical conduct in a Symphony Orchestra and post rehearsal afternoon activities (ask Jeff Alexander and Ms Gorno for details)
– He elucidated how “Italian conductors understand Beethoven better then Germans”, and moved boldy to reset the gold standard for Beethoven, as this clip – which puts Furtwangler, Karajan and Kleiber to shame – testifies: https://youtu.be/1ZWvG_OJ6pI?si=xVVup6zdxsE1spuo
As to the rest of the Abdrazakov commentary, I do not give any credit to it, and it must clearly be a case of misreporting and/or mistaken identity. Muti doing something this fundamentally indecent … would be totally out of character, wouldn’it?
I don’t think Muti lost all of his former powers. For example, he managed to kick Chailly out of Chailly’s own office at La Scala (remember the whole notorious “shitstorm” controversy?). That’s no easy feat, if you ask me.
Domingo also loved Russia and based his Operalia there, let’s not forget.
I was disgusted when I read about Muti’s deeply antisemitic comments on the Israel Philharmonic in my opinion disguised as naive “political ignorance”. The performance with Abdrazakov is also very disturbing.
Jewish audiences and donors in America and globally, and Carnegie Hall should pay attention.
Jewish donors had already taken stock of Muti from before: Sam Zell has let Muti go.
A journalist with guts could ask Muti to go on the record and say what he really thinks of Sam Zell, the Jewish man who gave him millions and millions for more than a decade. Would Muti have the guts to give a truthful answer?
We could ask how many Jewish singers and musicians did Muti promote in his career.
We could get into the topic of what Muti thinks of the Jewish folks in general. Is it just a coincidence that he said nothing about the Oct 7 massacre?
Even more generally we should assess antisemitism in classical music; in a hypothetical scenario, what should happen to a music director who uses the term “rabbino” (rabbi) to refer to tight-fisted Jewish donors?
Let’s not do that, we are in festive mood after all. Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it, and Happy Holidays to the rest of us.
Ok, long winded “I just don’t like Muti”. I couldn’t care less if a Russian bass supports the leader of Russia because it has no bearing on his musical worth. You should try being straightforward instead of posting your long winded, circuitous, and generally irrelevant, conspiracy level BS.
Sorry to rain on the parade, but Abdrazakov, did NOT sing in Ravenna this week with Muti. In an earlier comment I already wrote on 21 December … but obviously there are some who did not read it, so I quote myself: Guess who is no longer listed on the home page of Muti’s Festival in Ravenna among the singers performing under Muti tonight! Abdrazakov!!!! Die he excuse himself or did Muti suddenly realize that the “special operation” in the Ukraine is actually a … war? Shall we take bets until the truth emerges?
Ansa, the biggest news agency in Italy, says that Abdrazakov was there. https://www.msn.com/it-it/musica/other/muti-e-abdrazakov-chiudono-tra-le-ovazioni-il-ravenna-festival/ar-AA1lWgzz
Norman, can you please settle this point for us – did this slimy bass sing in Ravenna with Muti, or did he not?
“Il momento più alto del programma … è stata l’aria dal Don Carlo ‘Ella giammai m’amò’, dove Ildar Abdrazakov ha mostrato tutta la sua magistrale arte, praticamente senza rivali in questo ruolo di tormentato padre e sovrano verdiano.” (ANSA)
At least he has a new name now that is easier to pronounce than Abracadabra
Ildar is having a very bad week. However, his public Putin embrace has been out in the news for at least 2 weeks. Vienna, Zurich and Paris in a week. He will now be teaching at one of the Russian conservatoires how to wobble the low notes, cause the international gigs are over.