Slatkin slams Angela Gheorghiu

Following a savagely-reviewed opening night packed with conducting cock-ups, Leonard Slatkin departed the the Met's recent La traviata after just one performance. In an interview with Mark Stryker of Detroit Free Press, he explains for the first time Angela Gheorghiu's part in the debacle.

"Slatkin did not completely absolve himself from blame and admitted he made mistakes opening night. But what he called Gheorghiu's "unprofessional behavior" -- blocking his view of other singers, taking outrageous liberties that went beyond liberal notions of expressive phrasing, entering early and ignoring cut-offs -- so unnerved him that he lost his cool in the second act.

"It rarely happens to me, but I got thrown," said Slatkin. "All of a sudden, I was saying, 'What the hell is going on?' and there were places where I knew I was wrong, but I didn't know what to do. I was pretty much up in the air.

"At the end of the second act, there is a big ensemble number. It is one place where everybody needs to look at the conductor. They're all holding notes and I give the cut-offs. She held on past everybody on every one. I can't say it was on purpose because I don't know. But it was not in league at all with what anybody else was doing. There was no feeling of cohesion." ................Slatkin said Gheorghiu was spot-on at early rehearsals but trouble began when he stepped beyond music and made a suggestion about the staging of her character's death scene. After Violetta dies, Slatkin proposed that to animate the final bars, the last gesture should be left to Alfredo, who would look up to God as if to say, "Why me?"

"Angela was having none of that," said Slatkin. "The last gesture should be hers. It didn't seem like a big thing at the time, but I think it was.".........................Gheorghiu later skipped a key rehearsal claiming fatigue and at the dress rehearsal, said Slatkin, "went off the charts" -- singing flat, missing entrances and distorting phrases beyond recognition. Slatkin faults Met management for not stepping in to broker a musical resolution.

"If we still couldn't work it out, then one of us would have had to go, but it should have happened after the dress rehearsal," he said...............................Slatkin went to see Gheorghiu just before the performance to ask if there was anything specific she wished him to do. He said she mentioned two spots in the score but otherwise told him to "listen and watch." The first act went fine, he said, but in the second she reverted to her dress rehearsal behavior.

"I was so focused on trying to keep together with her, I forgot about other people on stage at times," said Slatkin."

Comments

[Chris]

Oh Mr.Slatkin, this is so childish.
Your defence consists of:"she blocked my view of other singers","she wanted to have the last gesture","there was no cohesion in a big ensemble number" but in fact" at one point I completely missed a cadence with Tom",etc.
Valenti also said in New York Post few days later that Maestro was not enough prepared and that was obvious.
Working with Angela G. is not easy but many ,many people worked with her and were enchanted.
The same Gheorghiu had a beautiful artistic connection with other conductors(who replace Mr.S) and the reviews were spectacular.

[Chris]

Aprile Millo's view on that famous opening night, from her personal blog.

The men who beat time, in opera, should rehearse well, but in performance, especially with those that are artists, however quicksilver they can be and willfull, they should FOLLOW the voice. Personality is missing so much from opera today, encourage it…. inspire it….If you want to conduct something without voice, do a symphony. And learn it first, please.

[a mac]

Don't suppose he will be going back to the Met any time soon !

I know a few people who worked under at his time at the BBCSO - none of them had a good word to say about him!

[Doundou Tchil]

Slatkin has a long track record of turning the biggest opportunities into disasters. He is the guy who was invited to head the BBC Proms, usually a 10 stint, but had to leave after one. The Met would have been another gift from heaven, especially as he's not known in this repertoire at all. Angela G is. When the story surfaced in the US, Iron Tongue of Midnight's blog had something about him not knowing the score for La Trav (I can't trace the link) But conducting contracts are done months in advance, and he signed it knowing what it involved.

[GtelloZ]

I'm sorry to hear this kind of thing from a conductor i respect so much. Specially for being so passive and submissive with a singer overrated and very well known for having more performances canceled than sung. A femme like Gheorghiu can't damage your own reputation just like that. Shame on Slatkin.

[Ariel]

This is so pathetic. That piece was a mess, ensemble-wise, and I doubt that anyone was completely innocent of contributing to it in at least some way. Angela didn't control the other singers, even if she was up to some sort of mischief herself. (I honestly can't believe she would intentionally sabotage an opening, no matter what people want to think of her.) She has bizarre musical instinct sometimes - within a phrase - and is obviously a major DIVA, but come on now! Leadership is everything, so the buck did stop with Slatkin. But he just keeps digging himself in deeper and deeper because he can't shutup. What a fool.

Btw, James Valenti ought not to make a habit of throwing colleagues, particularly conductors, under the bus in the press. Especially at his level. He should know better, and if not, one of those expensive PR advisors had better tell him.

You'll notice that Angela has basically stayed silent on the matter. Smart cookie.

[Hal]

Has she gotten rid of her husband yet? Last I read she was saying they get along fine as long as they never see each other.

[Manou]

@Doundou Tchil - it seems that this Traviata was a late replacement for "The Ghosts of Versailles", but whatever the circumstances, Slatkin shot himself in the foot in his own blog

http://www.leonardslatkin.com/notes-Apr10.shtml

by explaining to all and sundry that he had "never conducted Traviata before" and that he was hoping "to learn from the masters". Let's hope that several useful lessons were indeed learnt...

[Alan, London]

I've no view about the Slatkin v. Georghiu dispute, though I'm more sympathetic than some commmenters above to Slatkin's position. He's been under such pressure about this that it's little wonder he's felt the need to speak out. (Those criticising his behaviour should remember his silence about the circumstances of his departure from the BBC SO - he certainly didn't go around blaming the orchestra for that.)

This affair reminded me of the 1994 crisis that led to Kathleen Battle being sacked from a production of 'La Fille du Regiment' at the Met by Joe Volpe and being barred from there altogether, and subsequently quitting the opera stage. And looking that up here

http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,980151,00.html

I was struck by Peter Gelb's involvement; apologist for Battle's agent then, now general manager of the Met. He looks to me like someone who can't say no to a singer.

[Manou]

Alan - thanks for the interesting link and the comparison. I see that Battle was replaced by Harolyn Blackwell - a name to conjure with and to fill opera houses....?

Gelb is a businessman and he knows which singers the paying public want to book for. In these constrained times, I am afraid these are the harsh realities to be faced.

[Barbara]

Agree with Aprile Millo. Watch Karajan conducting a singer. The conductor must follow the singer. He is clearly unclear on the role of the conductor in opera.

[Archaeopteryx]

Come on, sometimes I think that the conductors are the greater divas than the real ones! Angela IS certainly a difficult diva, but there are many conductors who have managed to work with her in peace, think about Pappano who has conducted the majority of her recordings!

[Tina]

Karajan trashed more than one voice with his approach, but whatever. This Slatkin is so painfully naive, politically speaking. Maybe he doesn't care about his reputation in the business, or about ever getting hired at the Met or elsewhere again. If it became a choice between himself and Angela Gheorghiu, any novice could have predicted who would have to take the fall. This recent rash of artists going to the newspapers is remarkable. Some artists can afford to take a chance with this and some decidedly cannot.

[Benjamin]

We all know that Anghela is a very good singer but she likes showing off too much.
She wanted a more famous conductor than Slatkin and she managed to have him even in a
rather rude and dramatic way.
She is a problematic person and whoever messes around with her professionally gets into trouble sooner or later.

[James Mayhew]

Regardeless of what happened in the theatre, out side of it Slatkin has behaved disgracefully, trying to trash colleagues so publically. Gheorghiu, on the other hand,has revealed sense and good manners by refusing to join in the sordid media circus. Good for her.