Intermezzo

Cecilia reveals Divine Festival plans

Cecilia Bartoli has had a busy week. Opening her 2014 Salzburg Whitsun Festival, singing in it, celebrating her birthday and, finally, revealing her plans for the 2015 festival. All whilst dressed as a milkmaid. Pretty impressive.

This year's festival centres on Rossini. Next year's is elevated to the divine with a 'gods' theme.

La Ceci herself takes the leading role in the festival's two operas: Gluck's Iphigenie en Tauride, directed by her beloved Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier, and a concert performance of Handel's Semele. During the daylight hours there are two vocal recitals and a chamber concert. For the first time the Hamburg ballet visit the Whitsun Festival, where they will present John Neumeier's A Midsummer Night's Dream.  Other festival firsts are a reading, a puppet show and cinema screenings to complement the musical programme.  Four packed days end with a gala concert featuring Anna Netrebko, Vesselina Kasarova, Juan Diego Florez and Christopher Maltman alongside La Ceci, with arias by Purcell, Gluck, Haydn and Offenbach. Ticket prices are unfortunately as steep as ever, ranging from 12 to 430 euros.

The 2015 programme in full:

Pereira falls - to his own axe?

The Pereira-La Scala saga yesterday took a step closer to conclusion. The mayor of Milan, president of the La Scala board, announced that Pereira's La Scala contract will be terminated at the end of his first year, in 2015. 

"There is no doubt that Dr. Pereira exceeded his powers. The error is certain,"  mayor Giuliano Pisapia explained in a press conference.

Nobody disagrees with the general tenor of Pisapia's judgement. Objection has come only from those who think Pereira should pack his bags immediately. They include one of the 10-strong board, who otherwise sided with the mayor.  The mayor countered "We have taken the only possible decision. This is no attempt at mediation, but the only way to avoid a catastrophe". 

Pereira will also have to make a commitment not to dispute the decision, and any proposal for expenditure he makes must have the prior consent of the Board. 

The mayor was asked what would happen if Pereira didn't accept the decision. "In that case he will go immediately, there will be a dispute, and we will evaluate what to do, but we would be in serious trouble," admitted Pisapia. "It would be difficult to find another superintendent straight away."  He also indicated Pereira's departure would be closely followed even by that of the recently-appointed music director, Riccardo Chailly, one of the few vociferous supporters of the Salzburg Festival boss.

Sounds like it's all over for Pereira and his dream job - but is it? 

The Italians, said the mayor, were unable to contact Pereira yesterday - but the Salzburger Nachrichten could.

What he told them may surprise you. 

Will Pereira pay for his presumption?

As the case of Alexander Pereira vs La Scala rumbles on without resolution, it seems increasingly likely the slick salesman will hang on to his plum job in Milan.

Calls for blood continue from certain quarters, notably the Lombardy region's culture minister. But the longer proceedings are drawn out, the harder it becomes to find a satisfactory replacement who can start work in September. With the all-powerful Scala unions opposed to any interim solution, and the blow to La Scala's credibility if Pereira is sacked before he even begins, his position is strengthened by default.

The mayor of Milan, who also heads the La Scala board, has spent the last couple of weeks gathering evidence. He confirmed in a RAI interview that the situation is now clear to him, but declined to go into details. His next step is to report to the full board, which he says will make a final decision on 12 May.

The Italian press have made a few educated guesses on the outcome.  La Repubblica says the mayor will propose that Pereira stays for now, but is placed on probation until the end of the year. Il Giorno suggests that Pereira may be forced to take either a cut in his salary (rumoured to total €450,000) or a reduction in his five year contract. Whatever the result, it seems unlikely Pereira will get away scot-free.

La Scala postpones new season announcement

In the wake of the Pereira scandal, La Scala have postponed the announcement of their 2014-15 season, previously scheduled for 15 May.

Pereira himself has failed to clarify the exact nature of the transactions he has engineered. So at an informal meeting held yesterday the La Scala board decided to contact the Salzburg Festival to get their version of the facts. Presumably this will allow more informed discussion at the formal meeting on 5 May, which is widely expected to pronounce on Pereira's future in Milan.

Pereira's water gets hotter by the day.  As one Italian newspaper puts it, "Few are willing to bet on the confirmation of his appointment as the new superintendent of La Scala from October 1 2014. So much so that names of potential successors have started to circulate".

Pereira changes his tune

Faced with an explosion of protest about the way he appears to have sold Salzburg Festival operas to La Scala, Alexander Pereira has backtracked on some of his earlier statements. Is Milan to pay Salzburg "well over one million euros" (as he himself told the Salzburger Nachrichten), or was it more precisely €1.28m or €1.6m, as different newspaper reports have claimed? And are there six operas, or seven?

Jonas Kaufmann's double debut

The 2015 Salzburg Easter Festival programme was announced today, and the big draw is Jonas Kaufmann.

He makes role debuts in Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci, topping off his Salzburg stay with the tenor part in Verdi's Requiem - all conducted by Christian Thielemann.

The rest of the four-night programme has a Russian flavour, with a symphony and a concerto each from Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich.

If you fancy going, you'd better have deep pockets. Festival tickets are notoriously pricey; this year's maxed out at €490. But with only 12% of the festival's €6m budget covered by the public purse, there isn't much scope for cuts.  

To be certain of tickets, you need to buy a membership (€300, or €50 for under-35s), then a four-night subscription (€410 to €1,190). These will go on sale at the end of this month. Any single tickets not bought by members are sold later in the year (€170 to €490 for the opera).