Give Franz a break

Franz Welser-Möst has pulled out of all future opera engagements at the Salzburg Festival, citing unreasonable scheduling.

He complains that the 2013 plan is not feasible for the singers. The first three of five Così fan tutte performances are spread over five days, leaving just a day's rest between each. He had earlier in the week told an interviewer it's unacceptable to begin one of these at 11 am - "because then the singers would have to get up at three o'clock to prepare."(Probably a good job that it starts at 1pm, not 11am, then. Although most singers can and do manage morning engagements from time to time, but let's not digress).

Welser-Möst's outrage has compelled him to cancel not just the three offending performances, but the whole Mozart-Da Ponte cycle he was supposed to be conducting over over three years from 2013 to 2015.

Oddly, he doesn't mention why he didn't spot the flawed timetabling earlier; it's been public for several weeks, in the unlikely event he wasn't told way beforehand anyway. And while his own Vienna State Opera, like most houses, generally leaves two clear days between shows, they also sometimes schedule performances just a day apart - the very issue he's complaining about.

Coincidentally, Welser-Möst has just started rehearsals in Vienna for Ariadne auf Naxos, the dreadful Salzburg Festival production by Sven-Eric Bechtolf, who's also in charge of the Mozart cycle.

Festival management are apparently out of the country at the moment. So sadly we'll have to wait for Alexander Pereira's no doubt feisty response.

Comments

[Emil Archambault]

...if the singers accepted such scheduling in their contracts, what is he complaining about? I know Florez demands (and gets) three days between most of his shows for proper rest, but if the Cosi singers accepted it, then this means they are confident to be able to maintain the quality over all five performances. Plus, Cosi is not really the kind of opera which puts a huge strain on the voice - it's not Siegfried.

That being said, it is brutal to schedule an evening performance on the 23rd and a matinee on the 25th. By the way, do opera singers really start their preparation eight hours before a performance? I'm not talking about particular eating habits, and so on, but really warming up? That sounds like an awful lot!

Weird indeed...
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Intermezzo replies - the ROH schedules many of its general rehearsals for 11am, and most singers choose to sing out.They often sound better than they do in the evening. I doubt if any of them are up at 3.

[Zwölftöner]

Of course Franzi knew a few months ago. Just as he knew a few months ago that Pereira wanted to run Salzburg from Milan and thereby get to wallow in glamour all year round. The key to the timing is that he gets to cast himself as a defender of Festspiel-Qualität while Pereira is in Milan with ulterior motives, as every Viennese knows. It is just amusing that this stunt stinks of Austrian operatic politics barely a week after Franzi gave a speech railing against this culture.
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Intermezzo replies - That may explain the timing but it doesn't explain why he would throw three jobs in the first place - if he wanted to do them.

[Rannaldini]

I know I'm repeating myself but it needs to be said - F W-M is the single most useless awful conductor around (at least in the so-called top-rank.)

I'm convinced that one day he will be exposed as a sort of practical joke by some counter-cultural group, proving that talentless, well sponsored, well connected, musically illiterate people really can get to the top.

I have seen him live many times - including sitting in the third row for a new years day Vienna concert, and he couldn't conduct the number 32 bus.

He seems to possess almost no sense of line and architecture, and yet neither does he attend to points of detail. Its just all curiously vanilla flavoured.

Anyone of taste should rejoice that he withdraws from anything - thus affording them the chance at least, to hear something from someone young, and fresh, and inspired.

Just thought I'd get that off my chest....right - where's my breakfast...

[Zwölftöner]

Were he to have some valid grievance, like perhaps Pereira starving the Mozart of rehearsals under the Philharmoniker's new contractual arrangements, he would have gone public with it. Judging Franzi by past form the excuse is feeble because the reason is petty, just like Japan all over again. In any case we won't have long to find out. Ariadne rehearsals pick up again next week and he's bound to blab it to the orchestra.
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Intermezzo replies - but, again, why drop three engagements? That's a lot of time and money. And if he enjoys conducting Mozart operas (now there's a subject for debate) isn't he shooting himself in the foot? There are plenty of other ways to express dissatisfaction. The rift, whatever the reason, seems to be a deep one.

[Ike Con O'Klast]

Does Nello Santi do Mozart?

[Zwölftöner]

The rift has been there for some time and FWM hasn't kept it all that latent since Pereira was appointed Intendant. I wouldn't hold my breath for a rational basis to it beyond a personality clash blown out of all proportion and the traditional Vienna/Salzburg hostilities. The relationship with Dominique Meyer is no different, though Franzi can't be as vocal about it, and two rash power plays made in the last year have backfired, only strengthening Meyer's position. So there's recent precedent for self-inflicted damage. He draws big Cleveland and Vienna salaries and can conduct Mozart with the same orchestra to his heart's content in Vienna. The question I'm curious about is why did Pereira hire him in the first place? To complete the Zurich reunion, secure future Cleveland visits and have Franzi inside the tent pissing out? How he imagined this would go to plan with a figure so flaky, hmm.

[Nikolaus Vogel]

My God, Rannaldini! Do you mean to say that the much-reviled London critics who were less than enchanted with his brief tenure at the helm of the LPO were right, all along?

[Nikolaus Vogel]

I love these juicy Vienna/Salzburg imbroglios. Please give more details about the two backfiring "rash power plays".....Musical Austria really seems a snakepit!