Colon captures a controversial conductor
OrchestrasThe Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires has appointed Beatrice Venezi as Principal Guest Conductor of Colón’s resident orchestra and of its opera season. She is presently rehearsing Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera.
Venezi, 34, is a close associate of the Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni and is advisor on music to the Italian Minister of Culture.
Her role in Argentina is sponsored by the Italian Embassy in Buenos Aires.
Good luck.
She’s awful. All knowledgeable musicians know it and whisper it… but she’s entitled to be so because she is female. People are secretly sick of this… but there are bigger problems in the world, right?
So not Zoe Zeniodi?
ZZ is not Principal Guest Conductor, she’s Principal Conductor (full-stop).
Let me explain this.
As we are a poor country with nine defaults in one century, now the new administration of the Colón theatre decided that the musical conductor for the resident orquesta created in 1925 (for ópera and concerts) will be Beatrice Venezi.
The other ensamble OFBA Buenos Aires Philharmonic Orchestra founded 80 years ago established at the same Opera House will have as chief conductor Zoe Zeniodi… we share at the same home, Greek tragedy and Roman farce…
It is like a comm
ercial arrangement as in politics,you know…
Both of these maestros/as come under the heading of tragedy and farce.
What makes her “controversial?”
She is thinking “the wrong” things and has “the undemocratic” mindset.
She’s not a Marxist.
https://slippedisc.com/2023/07/nice-in-uproar-over-fascist-italian-conductor/
But she has landed herself a nice gig. I have been to Teatro Colon. While I am not sure I share the view represented in the link that it is acoustically one of the five best theatres in history, it certainly ranks as one of the five most beautiful theatres worldwide that I have ever been in — and high on that list. And in one of the most beautiful cities. A storied theatre with a fantastically rich history. And nothing at all wrong with it acoustically as I recall.
I’m not attracted to her politics, but she seems to have pretty good musical credentials. I’m not sure how an embassy “sponsors” a conductor, but she ought to get on well enough with the current regime in Argentina. Javier Milei was the first foreign leader to visit the incoming US President.
Some assume Beatrice Venezi is anti-woke. That’s probably true, but I do not know of any political remark done by her herself.
The very fact that you wrote “her” rather than “him,” her lack of a Y chromosome.
Being friends with the democratically elected PM, who is not liked by the leftist crowd. Nothing to do with music or merit. They are like dogs, you know, they like pursuing things.
The new government in Italy has some views on “culture” that, lets say, are unusual among arty types. And the new conductor is the person they go to when they want to know about the arts; partly because they like to hear what she tells them.
I think this is great! After Toscanini, Kleiber, Panizza, Busch, Serafin, Votto, Previtali, Böhm, Furtwängler, Strauss, Hindemith, Stravinsky, Villa-Lobos, Copland, De Falla, Cillario, Gergiev, Renzetti, Benini, Pidò and Palumbo, now the orchestra will finally have the chance to experience real conducting under this good looking girl!
You were doing well until ‘Pidò’.
Reminds me of my Colonescopy appointment tomorrow.
Conductor?
I can’t help but wonder why the accent is missing o vs ó. Other posts have accents, for example a few stories below: Platée.
What’s the controversy?
Oh dear… she can’t conduct.
I’m sure she’s a fine musician so she will have a successful tenure. Only a few years ago, there weren’t many women in the orchestra. Now there are many prominent women conductors around the world. Bravo maestra!
How does she conduct?
Controversy is only your shitty site spreading lies,rumors and fake info. Beatrice is good conductor and good human.
Nice headline there Norman
I heard Beatrice Venezi conduct once, and was unimpressed. What’s unfathomable is why the Colón’s new management do not appoint one of the many talented Argentine conductors out there, many of whom are significantly better than Venezi. Off the top of my head, in strict alphabetical order, I can come up with four: Christian Baldini, Fernanda Lastra, Alejo Pérez, and Patricia Pouchuli.
Patricia would be a great choice indeed: the house will have then two amateur conductors instead of one! At least Venezi earns her living by moving the baton through the air…