Italian opera trembles ahead of five-star rule
mainWe hear that the next manager of the Teatro Regio in Turin will be Giancarlo del Monaco, a pal of the Beppo Grillo, head of the Five Star movement.
This would be a purely political appointment.
Del Monaco knows his way around an opera house but he’s 74 years old and he hasn’t worked for six years.
Other opera houses fear similar impositions by the next government.
photo: Corriere
As you said, It CAN be purely political appointment, or not. It is not a fact, since it was not the first time someone pal of a political wing get a head position in an arts institution in Italy. I think even outside “the boot”.
I think the best way to speak about such a thing is ” it MIGHT be ….. ” safer that “can” , just my opinion , of course ( any way Norman outlined his attitude to that when he wrote “can” 😉 )
Exactly!
Almost all these kind of appointments are “political” in Italy…
Political appointments happen everywhere in the world, in opera and elsewhere. I wish Del Monaco and Turin luck. We will have to wait and see.
Really? Political appointments in the arts happen outside Italy? And here I thought that Tristram Hunt was chosen to head the V&A simply because he was the most knowledgeable and experienced arts administrator available to coordinate the many disciplines that great museum features.
What’s happening to Walter Vergnano?
Excellent choice if he is in good health.
He won’t be the only new face in Turin, if my sources are correct.
Remember the name of soprano Lana Kos (Del Monaco’s 30 year old girlfriend) if Del Monaco becomes the next manager of Teatro Regio of Turin, she will sing there every night and in every production……
She’s a decent singer. This wouldn’t be ‘Bullets Over Broadway’. Aren’t they married, by the way?
Totally!!! It would be so typical… When he directed a horrifying “Otello” at Theatro Municipal de São Paulo in 2015 she was cast as Desdemona – what a surprise. But the sweet couple had a HUGE fight, and the house got to the point of having to search for names to replace her. As Del Monaco himself managed to have a nasty public fight with former boss John Neschling and was literally kicked out of the theatre, she ended up doing all her performances in that production, as planned.