Three Strikes Against Barenboim: The Maestro Flies Back To Berlin, Scala Management Slams "Incomprehensible" Strike

Poor Daniel Barenboim.

We really feel like giving him a cookie now: here's a cookie, Maestro.

He's a world-class pianist and conductor, a writer, a peace activist, and a humanitarian: he arrived at la Scala after the stormy Muti years (19) and everybody assured him that the very tense situation of trouble-prone la Scala would vanish, and his arrival would be justly celebrated as a great triumph for the opera house and its future, and rightly so.

Instead.

Instead the Scala unions canceled  his two Verdi Requiems (one at la Scala, one in Parma) in memory of Arturo Toscanini, they disrupted the rehearsals for his Tristan Und Isolde with endless union meetings, they barely allowed the premiere and the second show to be staged and then they went on strike again, against their Maestro Scaligero (the only other conductor to obtain the prestigious title of guest conductor was Wilhelm Furtwaengler).

An "appalled and saddened" -- a source told Opera Chic -- Barenboim flew to Berlin immediately after the strike was declared earlier today (he has a Don Giovanni there); Scala GM Stephane Lissner, who had agreed to find in the cash-strapped Scala coffers (as reported here on Opera Chic, they keep losing sponsors and city government funding, millions of euros of loss) 3.2 MILLION euros for the end of the year bonus, and Lissner has also succesfully lobbied the central government to change the laws (the so-called Legge Asciutti) that at the moment make it illegal for him to greenlight a new comprehensive bonus package for his more than 1,000 workers. 

And 60 orchestra players, after getting their share of the bonus and agreeing to go ahead with la Prima, went on strike earlier today, as we reported as it happened a few hours ago (scroll down 2 posts).

Which opens a question: if the three unions that gather most of the Scala workers (CGIL, CISL, UIL) cannot basically guarantee the management that after an agreement has been found the operas and concerts will indeed happen, what is the point of dealing with them in the first place?

Seriously. Why should one waste one's time if they cannot control the situation after an agreement has been found?

This was a very bad day indeed. Today a Milanese court awarded the family of a Scala worker who died in 2000 at 56 of a rare lung ailment 200,000 euros in damages: the man had apparently been hurt by asbesto particles present in the Scala stage machines.

Comments

[CrewMantle]

Someone seems to have difficulty running an opera house..........

[willym]

One would hope that the ticket holders would sue the Unions but then that could end up in Italian courts for years. Guess the solution is not to buy the damned tickets - just leave them for the scalpers and the tourists.

And frankly I don't know about anybody else but I don't envy anybody trying to run a theatre here in Italy - its a losing battle between cut funding and the unions.