Conductor quits
mainAndrey Boreyko, much in demand, has told Dusseldorf he wants out.
Needs more time to himself, apparently. He’ll finish in 2014.
Schumann also got fed up in Dusseldorf. Threw himself in the Rhine, if I remember aright.
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One can hardly blame him. In Düsseldorf, state capital of one of the richest states in one of the richest countries in the world, it is virtually impossible to buy a couple of paracetamol tablets at 8:30pm on a Saturday night without a prescription – just when an under-ther-weather musician might need something to get him through the second half of a concert. At least, it was impossible in January 2003, when – as a camp-follower of the Academy of St Martin’s on its German tour – I rashly offered to nip out during the interval and get some for a cold-ridden woodwind player. I spent the entire second half scouring the streets, and still returned to the hall empty-handed.
That’s ridiculous – each concerthall is equipped with first aid facilities mostly containing ASS like Aspirin (yes, paracetamol is bound to prescription in Germany) and also, at public concerts and in opera houses there have to be medical personnel around, at least one medical doctor on duty.
Or ASA, as they say in English. In any case, you may have exposed another incompetent English ‘camp-follower’. Keep up the diligence.
You are a very kind and considerate “camp follower”. I always travel to Europe with paracetamol as the laws on drugs are much tighter. In England you can buy them in supermarkets but when I lived in France they could only be bought from a pharmacy, annoying if you had a splitting headache out of hours!
Our friends would all do the airport run for a bottle of paracetamol. Incidentally Aspirin is not the drug to use as it causes bleeding and is dangerous for people with any form of stomach upset.
Would anyone like to volunteer for the vacant post of Slipped Disc’s house doctor?
No, it doesn’t cause bleeding as you claimed.
AcetylSalicylAcid CAN do so (like paracetamol and other NSAR-drugs, which is the reason for prescription so there is doctor’s oversight) IF taken over an extended period of time and in higher dosage. This is generally not the case with dosages required for the treatment of a severe headache., or the daily take in of 100mgs for heart attack patients as a preventive measure, or after open-heart surgery, to keep the blood viscosity low. You should also be aware that there are ASA-“stomach-protect” preparations available, for stomac-sensitive patients.
So much so as to the medical side of the Dusseldorf-Boreyko-thread. I’m pretty sure this young conductor was not fed up with this nice town and its Oper am Rhein the home of the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, a class-A-rated opera and concert orchestra. I could be wrong. 😉
Thanks for the offer Norman! I think it’s best just to “be prepared” for such situations, by carrying a small amount of your choice of pain relief if a headache befalls you! Common sense while travelling…
yes, excellent advice!