Roméo et Juliette - LSO/Gergiev - Barbican, 6 November 2013
Another night, another lacklustre crack at Berlioz from Valery Gergiev. The conductor's challenge in this episodic work is to respect the very different character of each individual section while knitting them together into a coherent whole. The unremitting loudness of Gergiev's account couldn't disguise its overall flabbiness, distinguished only by exceptional solo contributions from vocalists and winds.
It seems there's more than one Russian singer with an unexplained tattoo.
Eagle eyed reviewers have spotted that Anna Netrebko is currently sporting a colourful piece of body art - on her neck.
They've speculated it's part of the punky persona she's created for Salzburg's new La bohème, in which she plays a thoroughly modern Mimi. Because it couldn't be a gesture of solidarity with her former classmate Evgeny Nikitin - could it?
The Met joins the Bavarian State Opera in backing Evgeny Nikitin over his 'Nazi tattoo' controversy, Peter Gelb has told the New York Times.
In a phone interview with the paper, arranged by the Met, Nikitin clarified the incomplete and sometimes contradictory statements which have been made by him or on his behalf since the scandal broke. He said he had given Bayreuth Festival management "carte blanche to say what they wanted to preserve the festival".
Nikitin explained that the swastika-like symbol seen on his chest in old photos was just an incomplete eight-pointed star of his own design which had to be stopped part way through when he began to bleed, and supplied the paper with the sketch above.
He said he had never had any connection to a neo-Nazi or fascist movement.
"“It would be really a shame if an artist’s career was destroyed over something that isn’t true,” Mr. Gelb said."
Nikitin remains booked to appear in next year's Met Parsifal.
The announcement earlier today that radical artist Jonathan Meese will direct Parsifal at the Bayreuth Festival in 2016 means that the Nikitin affair takes another turn.
After Nikitin's recent sacking for the crime of having once borne a swastika-like tattoo, it may come as a surprise to learn that Meese, pictured above, is notorious for his use of swastikas and other Nazi imagery in his work, some of which is shown below.
Continue reading "New Bayreuth director is a swastika fan" »
On the day the Bayreuth Festival opens, the Wagner sisters have provided the customary annual glimpse at future Festival plans. The sisters' contract provisionally expires in 2015, but with operatic schedules being what they are, new productions up to 2020 are already in the planning stage.
2016's new Parsifal will be directed by artist Jonathan Meese. Meese designed the sets for Wolfgang Rihm's Salzburg Festival Dionysus but otherwise has little stage experience. Andris Nelsons will conduct, with Klaus Florian Vogt as Parsifal, Petra Lang as Kundry and Georg Zeppenfeld as Gurnemanz.
2017 will see a new Meistersinger and 2018 a Lohengrin, conducted by Christian Thielemann. 2019 is Tannhäuser time and in 2020 there will be a new Ring.
They also revealed the Bayreuth door is not entirely closed to Evgeny Nikitin pending a satisfactory explanation from the singer for his tattoos.
One of the many opera houses Evgeny Nikitin's career has taken him to is Munich. And the Intendant of the Bavarian State Opera, Nikolaus Bachler, can see no reason to cancel any of the singer's future appearances there, he tells the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
Instead Bachler, whose house runs one of the most effective press/PR operations in the business, accuses the Wagner family of hypocrisy and poor incident management.
"I view the 'Nikitin Affair' primarily as a problem with Bayreuth and the Wagner family, not with the singer," he said. "I find it dishonest that the folly of a 16-year-old rock singer who has long since repented and tried to undo the problem should be punished by the Wagner family. People often point the finger at someone else when they have a problem with their own history."
Pointing out that Nikitin had apologised and shown remorse, Bachler added: "I have never heard the Wagner family regret anything in the last 50 years ."
Bachler criticized not only Nikitin's departure, but also the manner in which he left Bayreuth: "A joint press conference would have been more appropriate than making Nikitin withdraw and damaging his reputation. " He described the affair as an ugly tale that demonstrates "how the past is still present."
Another major German newspaper, FAZ, has run an editorial piece along similar lines.
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