Audience wait for an hour while Gergiev takes a comfort break
NewsThe Russian premiere of Modest Mussorgsky’s opera Salambo was suspended for an hour while its conductor Valery Gergiev popped out to attend to other duties across town.
Inexplicable,and unprofessional.
Here’s what the Telegram channel reports:
Valery Gergiev left one of the premiere performances at the Bolshoi Theater to conduct a performance of a song based on the poems of Maria Zakharova. According to the audience, the intermission lasted almost an hour due to the maestro’s absence.
The Telegram channel “Passion for Theaters” wrote about the prolonged break in the performance of Modest Mussorgsky’s opera “Salambo”, which had never been staged in Russia before. According to the author of the message, the audience was not warned that the intermission would last longer than usual.
While theatergoers at the Bolshoi were waiting for the performance to continue, Gergiev managed to go to the VTB Arena. There, he led the orchestra in performing the patriotic song “Return the Memory” based on the poems of the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry. In addition, the conductor managed to receive the Golden Gramophone award and present a certificate for 1 million rubles to the family of a deceased member of the “SVO” from Ossetia.
Валерий Гергиев отлучился с одного из премьерных спектаклей в Большом театре, чтобы дирижировать исполнением песни на стихи Марии Захаровой. По словам зрителей, из-за отсутствия маэстро антракт длился почти час.
О затянувшемся перерыве в исполнении ранее не ставившейся в России оперы Модеста Мусоргского «Саламбо» написал телеграм-канал «Страсти по театрам». По словам автора сообщения, публику не сочли нужным предупредить о том, что антракт продлится дольше обычного.
Пока театралы в Большом ждали продолжения спектакля, Гергиев успел съездить в «ВТБ Арену». Там он выступил во главе оркестра, исполнившего патриотическую песню «Верните память» на стихи официального представителя МИД России. Кроме того, дирижёр успел получить награду «Золотой Граммофон» и вручить сертификат на 1 миллион рублей семье погибшего участника «СВО» из Осетии.
Typically Russian sense of rudeness and entitlement, along with all of this war criminal’s multitude of other defects
Oh give me a break, why don’t you take your xenophobic nonsense elsewhere. This has nothing to do with “Russianness” or any other cold war stereotypes you may have knocking around in your empty skull.
I agree with that. He’s just an total boor.
Putin’s style, I am afraid. Plus some Georgian brandy.
I don’t like this trend of males going collarless/sleeveless on stage. It is so disrespectful towards the orchestra and audience, and looks absolutely grotesque.
Dress properly! Come on, now!
Say what you like about John Eliot, but at least he knows white tie when sees it. Sheesh!
Absolutely!
That’s what happens when Putin owns you, You are at his service 24/7. And for that how much did the public pay for a ticket? America get ready. That’s what Trump-owned businesses, politicians, etc. will be expected to do for America’s 1st Dictator. So sad and disconcerting.
It is so sad that you can’t read or hear anything without interjecting a TDS filled rant. Seek mental health because it’s going to be a very long four years for you. You may not survive depending on how severe your TDS is. Good luck.
You’re right that it’s going to be a very long four years.
At the headline “Comfort Break,” I imagined this might just be a problem of not enough fiber.
At the headline “Comfort berak” I thought this might be similar to the long intervals at some Furtwängler concerts, when a young lady would be assisting him in adjusting his shirt.
Different reason, but I’ve attended several Gergiev performances with hour-long intermissions (including for Die Walkure; made for a long night). One reason to be grateful to American unions – they won’t stand for that.
A conductor sneaking in an extra gig midway through another work he’s performing just has to be a first, right ?
Yess!! This lol
So what’s new? I was in St. Petersburg some years ago and attended a Gergiev concert. The programme consisted of one of the shorter Bruckner symphonies and nothing else. The concert began half an hour late, as the maestro didn’t turn up until then. With the audience seated on time, the orchestra drifted onto the platform in small groups until Gergiev decided to grace us with his presence. I spoke to a Russian seated next to me who said that was the usual procedure at Gergiev concerts. No one was ever sure at what time the performance would begin.
I’m reminded of the time Joe Volpe forbade Gergiev from entering the pit late at a final dress rehearsal for Parsifal. Mr. G. came running in 20 minutes late and Joe was waiting for him at the orchestra pit door to stop him from entering. Joe did have cajones. No nonsense, even from the likes of Pavarotti and Battle.
To Tiredofitall,
Maybe you mean cOjones, not cAjones (drawers)?
The only thing I find surprising here is that Gergiev was actually in St. Petersburg. He always seemed to be in two other places (several time zones apart).
I also recall a performance of Parsifal conducted by Gergiev at the Wiener Staatsoper several years ago.
It started 20 minutes late because the egomaniacal maestro was lingering over a late lunch at the upmarket Plachutta eatery. Intendant Dominique Meyer was pacing up and down outside the
Bühnentür in a state of apoplexy trying to reach Valery Abisalovich on his mobile phone.
Finally the baton-wielding bon viveur emerged from an enormous limousine and tottered towards his dressing room.
When he eventually meandered through the orchestra to reach the podium, several players were engulfed by passing alcohol fumes.
Fortunately the Wienerphilharmoniker know the score of Parsifal so well they can perform it without any input at all from a bibulous band leader.
Gergiev’s well-documented political sympathies are bad enough.
His contempt for both colleagues and audience, consistently unprofessional behaviour and towering Trumpian ego would disqualify him from running a puppet theatre in Pavlovka let alone being Grand Poobah of All Music in Tsar Vladimir’s Russia.
Both the Mariinsky and Bolshoi deserve a hell of a lot better.
In Russia, arriving late is a subtle way to demonstrate power. He likes to show that his schedule is more valuable than the audience’s. I was working for a venue in Budapest which had Gergiev and Mariinsky several times prior the outbreak of the war, and for one occasion he stepped out of his hotel bathroom 7 minutes before the official beginning of the show. Not at the venue, in the hotel! He was playing with everyone’s nerves, except for his team which wasn’t bothered. He must have learned at the military how to dress up very quickly.
I have attended Gergiev’s performances in London and Athens and St Petersburg. He is a little chameleon-like adapting his behaviour to the persona he wants to project and psychology of the country and his conducting style changes dramatically. He pushes himself physically professionally and I have no doubt the State made demands on him on the occasion mentioned. Intervals are long in Russia anyway with long queues for champanskaya and Ikra, giving time to eat and drink. That the audience was not warned is not Gergiev’s responsibility but the Bolshoi’s front of house. It certainly was not a ‘comfort break’ for the Maestro.
And what do the Spaniards demonstrate? In Spain, “nothing happens on time”, George Orwell testified and I second that. BTW, I consulted a German company for 6 years and not a single meeting started on time. They were always at least 20 min late.
I would think that starting a meeting late and starting a concert late are two very different things. No concert I have ever played in Spain started late nor was the audience kept waiting. Having experienced this behavior from said conductor many times, I’m not surprised and only shows his lack of respect for anyone but himself.
Perhaps he was searching for his tooth pick.
At the musicians’ cafeteria at the Met Opera they would supply us with toothpicks. Every time he would come to conduct us we would fantasize about where we could hide them from him.
About the 1 million roubles certificate for the deceased in “ SVO” For those not familiar with the term “SVO” it stands for Special Military Operation, or War in Ukraine as we call it. Just making sure those who complain about cancelling artist with the morning “do not mix politics and culture”
he often has done this – most overrated musician around but there are many like his successor at the LSO for instance
What’s with the T-shirt!
An overrated cocktail stick waver in my opinion.
It’s good to be the King!
Stalin was known to bring pianist Maria Yudina into the recording studio after a concert if he liked what he heard on the radio to make private recordings for him. For this, Stalin let her recite poetry and speak about religion during the intermissions of her recitals. However she was never allowed to perform outside the Soviet bloc. I see this repeating itself. Gergiev has been a willing dupe for Putin during his time in office and has destroyed his reputation such that it is with this sort of stupidity. Rudeness toward the ticket holders at the Bolshoi is inexcusable.
My Italian gardener charged much more than anyone in the area, during the hours of work he incessantly chatted with my neighbour and smoked non stop. However, no one could get the garden look as great as he did even working longer hours…
When I attend one of his performances at St Petersburg I always book the night train back to Moscow leaving 02.00