Scheduling preferences

Even if you don't keep tabs on Piotr Beczala's Facebook page, you may have read elsewhere about his extraordinary reaction to the odd three or four boos (evidence above) he received at La Scala after the season-opening La traviata.

"My last production in La Scala... I think They should engage only Italian singers ... Why I spend my time for this" schmarrn" ... Arrivederci ..." he announced, later following up with "No worrys … I am a professional Opera Singer, have a contract with Teatro alla Scala and will finish it. I shown my professionalism also yesterday in Traviata, was not actually agree with the vision of my character by stage director , but I played it as good I could… the result of my work was …my first ever buuuuh…the another result is now :I come to italy only for vacations.Thanks all for support , I am very proud of my friends and fans ,all Your reactions and words are important to me and give me strength and motivation for the future!"

So if an entire nation, the birthplace of opera no less, is unfit to display the magnitude of Mr Beczala's talents, where is?

Mein Schiff 2, apparently.

While the luxurious cruise ship explores "unchartered territory from Hamburg to Majorca", Beczala will join Elina Garanča and Johann Strauss Quartet in serenading the passengers. A snip at €2,190 and up.

Comments

[Alexander]

I wouldn't like to judge that notorious stage director who staged this Traviata .... the only thing about him - many persons in Russia crossed themselves with the feeling of a deep relief when he came to Europe to strike it with his "talent" ...and The Bolshoi in Moscow now has quite a wonderful Traviata by Francesca Zambello ( with amazing Albina Shagimuratova sometimes)to enjoy .... Eurotrash rocks :(
as to Piotr and his booes - I just reminisce of my lovely Renée and her unsurpassed Lucrezia in 1998 at Scala. Luckily I got some of her singing there on MP3 and have a great pleasure to listen to it from my "home-compilated" CD amongst other fav sopranos. Why didn't Scala release that performance on DVD/CD yet? Don't they have any decent record ? What a pity.... ( all on Lucrezia Borgia '98)...
So booes to Piotr have a bit different nature than those director's booes ,I can guess ,and he should react on that in accordance with your, dear IM, remarks more than he did in accordance with his notions ;) just my opinion , of course.... any way and at any count he is not Renée ;)

[Gi]

I hated the production, and pitied the singers who had to act in it. You're supposed to feel sad (and elated) at the end, not depressed, as I felt.

[TheManOnTheBus (and in the Amphitheatre!)]

Looks quite a conventional production from this trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69Nk-Q4znic.

What am I missing? Why the buuuuuh-ing?

[Nik]

Whatever could they mean by "unchartered territory"?

[Suzanne]

I don't blame Piotr in the slightest. The loggionisti are the very worst thing about opera, along with the bitchy crew at Parterre. When you mercilessly criticize the art, not with any validity or genuine constructive criticism, but just gleefully taking a swipe at it because it's what you've always done, as just some sort of trolling sport, and the reality is that there isn't any actual opera performance you'd truly praise, then you kill the art by doing so; not only by chipping away at the spirit of the performers who read and hear this BS, but by ruining it for newcomers who somehow feel they missed why they shouldn't like the performance. You make the art elitist and undermine the joy of it. It isn't that nobody should ever be criticized for their performance, but that critique bloody well better be responsible and thoughtful. I don't give a darn what tradition there is of booing at La Scala, it is one their managers should root out and destroy. It's shameful they chase away performer after performer; it isn't as if Callas or Gigli or whoever they are fondly remembering are going to crawl out of their graves to perform.

I don't blame Piotr in the slightest; I am surprised anybody performs there after the shameful treatment they receive. I am sick to death of everyone taking gleeful swipes at performers out of nothing more than a misanthropic illusion that somehow performers who are not on that stage at that moment are better.

[inter mezzo]

Did you listen to the video? About three voices (at the most) boo Beczala. Not 'the loggionisti' - just a handful of individuals. Conceivably mad, drunk, bitter or all three. And it was over in seconds.

It's the director, Dmitri Tcherniakov, who bore the brunt of the audience's ire. His reaction - smiling through it - strikes me as more mature and appropriate than boycotting an entire nation.

[inter mezzo]

Where Thomas Cook fear to tread?

[Sheila]

Piotr is not a perfect singer. He has his off moments. But he delivers exceptional quality most of the time. He is a first-tier singer, no question.

Booing is destructive, rude behavior and ought to be stopped. But it's Italy; they've booed everyone there. Soon they'll have no one to boo but themselves and third-tier singers. La Scala just is not necessary now that singers can go to the Met, be applauded every ten minutes, and be seen all over the world in HD. La Scala on HD in the U.S. has no serious penetration, even fewer screens this year than in previous, and I hear they had simulcast issues, too.

Piotr likes to complain, but he's right. Why bother with La Scala?

[Nik]

I don't think stage directors have the luxury of being able to boycott a country, or even a venue, due to having been booed. Where would be left for them to go?

More seriously, I don't disagree with Suzanne's sentiments, but the argument also works the other way round. PB has decided to settle his beef with a small handful of miscreants by turning his back on the non-booing majority of the audience who turned out to support him and enjoyed his performance. It won't do his reputation any good.

[JDabrowski]

I agree with the assessment of Beczała as a first-tier singer. He is also one of those performers who needs to be heard in the house to be fully appreciated. I went to the Met's Onegin back in October specifically to hear Netrebko, who sounds great on recordings but is downright breathtaking live. She did not disappoint. But I was also amazed by Beczała from his very first notes.

Obviously he is cranky and thin-skinned, and he is particular in his views on staging in a way that is admittedly not very sophisticated. But there is a lot to be said for his sheer skill, and if I were running an opera house I would go out of my way to accommodate him.

[mariette]

Why bother with La Scala? Because the sound is wonderful, the building beautiful, the country the birthplace of opera and the quality of so many performances most admirable. We went there for the first time last year and have been back twice, with another trip set for next spring. We actually have never heard the "traditional" booing (Verdi Requiem, Lohengrin, Gotterdämmerung so far). Maybe the booers gave up their favorite sport because of the exceptional performances, or maybe we just didn't hear because we were so busy clapping. In any case, it beats Live in HD (which I appreciate and frequent), simply because it's real. Sorry for Piotr, but it's not enough in my book to go on strike ...

[romano endrighi]

I think PB was excellent as usual and those very few boos will not detract a thing from his art. But I understand the way it feels. Piotr come to Washington please, nobody will boo you here.

[PetetheCheat]

Tcherniakov also smiled when he was booed at the end of Giovanni at Aix en Provance. He is used to it. Must have been Piotr's first outing in a Tcherniakov production/

[Justin Chapman]

'Booing ought to be stopped'? Oh get a grip - maybe shouting 'bravo, 'brava' or even 'bravi' should also be stopped - and clapping. I booed for the first time in years at the ENO 'Fidelio', because it was lame, dire and amateurish. I would love to know how you'd go about stopping it by the way. Personally I think coughing, spluttering, and unwrapping boiled sweets during a performance is far worse behaviour than 'booing'...now if that could be stopped :-)

[Rudolf]

I saw this "Traviata" in the cinema. The staging was inoffensive but stupid. Another silly attempt at updating a classic where the lyrics clearly contradict the action. All the singers were fine. Daniele Gatti's conducting did not knock my socks off. To see Mara Zampieri as Annina was a bit of a shock. The boos for Mr. Beczala were undeserved and should have been reserved for the stage director and the costume designer. However, greater opera stars than Mr. Beczala suffered the indignity of being booed at La Scala. And they all persevered. As will he. Mr. Beczala's (over)reaction, to me, seems a bit childish and unprofessional. It would have been much wiser to ignore that handful of irrelevant spectators who booed him. They don't even deserve to be acknowledged. Besides ... where was Beczala's management when he clearly needed guidance?

[Suzanne]

I didn't get to listen, no. Graham Spicer wrote about the booing.

However, that said, even if it was just a handful of people, that's still a handful of people bound and determined to ruin everybody's fun. It isn't that I think we should just accept every opera as it is presented to us without criticism, but booing and trolling and crappy behaviour like that ruins the art, and the fun and the joy of it, for everyone. It also makes it so that nobody can make up their minds, for themselves, about the performance.

La Scala has a long, long history of their audience doing this, does nothing to stop it, and I don't blame singers for boycotting it at all. The loggionisti heckled the hell out of Cecilia Bartoli at her most recent concert appearance there, and it's no wonder she avoids the place like the plague most of the time. La Scala should do better by its artists.

[Carla]

And the key question...What's going to happen with Beczala in the upcoming performances of La Traviata?
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Intermezzo replies - I'd be interested to see how he reacts if he gets booed again. Unfortunately for him, his Facebook statement makes him an attractive target for anyone looking for a reaction.

[M. Johnson]

So 5 or 6 people booing trumps the 2000 or so who applauded? This defines "tyranny of a minority".

[Giochini]

Even worse than that: 5 or 6 people booing trumps an entire nation, because he said he doesn't want to come to Italy ever again, but on holiday. He blames his not being Italian causing the booing, thus fuelling people in comments on his page, letting them articulate thoughts as deep as "Italians are stupid" - well, why, thank you.
I'm not advocating nor condoning the booing practice, I loathe that as much as anybody with common sense does, still if you get a few people booing and you translate that into "you entire country sucks" then in my book you're no better than the loggionisti, sir.
Honestly, I don't believe in "bad publicity is still publicity", and this so totally is bad publicity for his professionalism. He is a good singer, but statements like that can damage his career. I reckon he should get a serious publicist (and if he already has one he should fire them), like, adesso.

[Giochini]

Mariette, the booing is a practice reserved to the prima, apparently - because that's when you get the media coverage, of course! Some loggionisti (the ones who indulge in booing, I mean) have an ego as huge as singers on stage, without having the same amount of talent though, still they want to share their limelight. They can't do that by cheering, because a cheer among other cheers goes unseen; that can't express their disappointment by *not* cheering, because that equally wouldn't be noticed. So they boo, and have their 15 seconds (per year) of fame. They're as silly as that, and honestly not worthy of such a reaction by a professional singer.

[yvette]

I totaly agree with Giochini .This jet-set tenor 's reaction is as rude as the booing and even more despicable, making southern people feel they are Barbarians... but this southern country is the craddle of Renaissance among other great artistic things including precisely Verdi's music and this celebration... he's spitting in the broiler.. even if it had a Russan flavour it was worth tasting for the new spicy characters... and the exquisite singing of his partner... un-romantic whore, and that is very tasty for a change!

[Giochini]

«It's Italy»: excuse me, but no - it's a handful of people in the cheap seats at La Scala, that's not Italy as a whole. I am Italian, I attend operas everywhere in Italy and abroad, and I have never booed anyone, not even after attending some of the most ridiculous productions you could think of. So, please, don't project on an entire nation the custom of a few, it doesn't do justice to your intelligence. Thank you.

[Giochini]

Yvette, I know that I am no barbarian, and I know that most of the people in Italy (and in other countries as well) aren't either. Unfortunately it's the misbehaving few that make a sensation and become news, not the ones who go to the opera to actually enjoy the performance. I also know that some people (way too many, if you ask me) like to rest on this country's laurels, doing nothing to show we still deserve respect and not only for being the cradle of opera or of Renaissance Art, because that's all good and nice, but it's just our heritage, and you can't expect other people to respect you just because of the good things your ancestors did as much as it's not fair casting a negative prejudice on someone because of the bad things their ancestors did. I take pride sometimes in being Italian because of the wonderful artistic heritage we have, and I am equally ashamed sometimes because of the bad reputation we have - but truth is I'm not responsible of either (the beautiful heritage and the bad reputation), as much as I am not responsible of the bad behaviour of a few unpolite people who booed an opera production on premiere night.

(I hope this makes sense, it did in my mind when I started typing... ;) )

[yvette]

Giochini,it does make sense! ( sorry about this cradle being transformed, with my silly mistake).
Many thanks to Intermezzo who really offers us to discuss and always find the latest opera-news for us! To be sincere I do not find P. Beczala excellent, he is not a very fine artist singer and has a natural kind of stiff attitude in almost every roles; I do prefer, actually, Italian singers, like Italo American singer I saw several times in France, the charming Charles Castronovo and also Joseph Calleja I saw at the ROH some years ago.

[SJT]

Part of me thinks "O boo-hoo, get over it!". Part thinks "How ghastly to have to experience!" Part thinks "You're in a profession open to abuse any night of your life, and currently in the place where it's statistically most likely to happen anyway, and in Verdi in particular and in La traviata - with all the geriatric Callas-widows - even more so. Ask poor Freni. What did you expect?"

And part thinks "Congratulations! You've just joined a fabulously gifted and select group, including Pavarotti, Fleming and Caballé (who returned the following season determined to make them eat crow out of her hands and succeeded)."

But he's a sensitive soul, lacking the phlegmatic gene and very habituated to adulation at the Met, whence I dare say he will promptly return, and put Milan as far from his thoughts as he can permanently (as did Pavarotti).

[Robert]

If you excuse barbarian behaviour you are also a barbarian.
So many times it has repeated and you do not react. It rude not only to singers but to the rest of the audience. Also to the audience who watch the performance in cinemas and TV.
He said what he thought. My reflection and reaction was similar. I will not watch La Scala in HD. It was a scandal for me.

To Intermezzo-
"So if an entire nation, the birthplace of opera no less, is unfit to display the magnitude of Mr Beczala's talents, where is?" - there are lots of sane places for sigers to performer and the audience to go.
And you should not be so scurvy, Intermezzo.

[inter mezzo]

Clearly the loggionisti don't hold the monopoly on rudeness.

[Giochini]

If you had taken your time reading previous comments, you would know I am by no means excusing rudeness, neither loggionisti's nor yours. Thank you.

[Suzanne]

What, exactly, did you achieve by booing, except making yourself into a live version of a YouTube comment troll, and being a gigantic asshole?

I mean, by all means dislike the performance. But if you hated it that much, why not leave and simply not attend performances by that director? What did you achieve by booing, other than pissing off the performers and the other audience members, and establishing your poor manners.

[manou]

SJT is evidently a man of many parts.

[SJT]

And all of them adorable....

[EMB]

Bravo, Suzanne! Well said!

[EMB]

A boo is like a hit. It is strange to me, Intermezzo, that you excuese it. Three or four BS are nothing ??? ... hmmm... interesting how do you count rudness...
************
Intermezzo replies - Read the post again - I haven't excused it.

[manou]

It goes without saying - which is why it is often unsaid.