Filianoti Goes Nuclear: "Scala Stabbed Me In The Back"!!!

In today's Corriere della sera, Giuseppe Filianoti goes nuclear, slamming Scala management who announced to him that he wouldn't sing the first two performances of Don Carlo, both tonight and on the 10th. And he accuses conductor Daniele Gatti of having betrayed him. He also insists that since he hasn't been fired, he'll show up tonight at the opera house to sing as scheduled (creepy echoes of the Alagna fiasco from 2006): "It will be my farewell to la Scala". All translations copyright Opera Chic Blog. Don't be sneaking...we see you...

"I have been betrayed by la Scala, stabbed in the back at the last minute. Last night they told me I wouldn't sing the premiere. They want to tell the world I'm sick, but I'm not. I'm perfectly fine, ready to tackle a role I feel confident about."

"What happened? I'd like to know, too. We have been rehearsing for two months. I've always sung in full voice and everybody has been very encouraging: Gatti, general manager Lissner, my colleagues. Everything seemed to be OK. Then, after the general rehearsal of the other night, open to students, Gatti began to have doubts. Why was I underpowered, why did I lack focus, why did I screw up a couple passaggi... Gatti decided only days ago to reintroduce the Lacrymosa at the end of Act III (ed: Verdi wrote 58 measures that he later pulled out of the final score to use in a later work-- they're now world famous as the Lacrymosa of the Requiem, almost no conductor reinstates it in Don Carlo) and that's where I admit I made a mistake. It's not enough to consider me unfit. It was also a general rehearsal, I wasn't committed 100% vocally. I wanted to save my energy for la prima".

"I sung this role in Zurich this past September, Gatti and Targetti (ed: the scala voice coach) heard me there and were very encouraging, 'You are the best, we'll do a wonderful work together,' they said. I was happy. I canceled commitments for Thais in Turin and a Lucrezia Borgia with Domingo in Washington, Pelleas in Rome... But you never refuse la Scala. I sung the Prima in 2003, Moise et Pharaon with Muti... different times... I miss Muti, la Scala back then would never have treated an artist like this, Muti protects his singers, always."

"I didn't expect such treatment from Gatti. Yesterdays they called me for a meeting, they said they didn't want to embarrass me in front of the whole world. They said they'll declare me to be 'sick' and to have more credibility, they'll pull me from la prima and the second night. I'll be able to sing the rest of the run, they said. For my own good, they said. They're not firing me, they just reshuffling my dates around."

"I can defend myself. I'm not a rookie. My nerves are fine. My voice, too. Gatti projected his fears on to me. I'm not afraid. I'm from Calabria, I'm tough, I'm 34, I have contracts all over the world... the Met... Barenboim for Verdi... The audience booing is part of the game in opera, the greatest singers ever have been booed, Callas, Pavarotti. It's not just me: tonight even Matti Salminen (ed: as announced yesterday by Opera Chic) will not be there... He's a great bass, 'sick' as well! An outbreak. The reality is this administration at Scala only cares about business."

"People at la Scala know me since I was a kid. I sang here many times, Falstaff, Armide, Nina pazza per amore... I know everybody. Everybody is stunned. It's impossible, they said. The director hugged me, he said he couldn't understand, he was desperate. He's a very sensitive man. He's in trouble. Stuart Neill, who will replace me, doesn't have Don Carlo's physique. Lots of singers have fought with la Scala... Marcelo Alvarez, Alagna, now me. The world's best tenors stay away from here, there must be a reson. I'll never be back here as long as they'll keep acting this way. But tonight I'll come to the theater, I have not been fired. They won't allow me to go on stage, obviously. It will be my farewell".

Opera Chic's take? She understands Filianoti's terrible dilemma -- regardless of his vocal health, he couldn't take this demotion quietly. Just couldn't. He's right to try to spin things this way. His future is at stake.

As OC wrote last night, they shouldn't have hired him. Fighting with Marcelo Alvarez has been a very dumb move. They needed someone like Marcellone. But once you hire Filianoti, warts and all, with his known history of past vocal trouble and his known history of trying to tackle heavier roles -- he's a tenore lirico -- with mixed results, well, you can't hire Filianoti because he has name recognition and then dump him 24 hours before the premiere. It just isn't done. It's not respectful. And singers everywhere now know this could happen to them, too, under this management.

If they really figured out 24 hours before the premiere that Filianoti was in trouble, after everybody's doubts in the past year, and after weeks of reports of Filianoti's trouble during reherasals, well, what does that tell you about the organization there?

Comments

[Parsifal]

OH

MY

GOD

!!!!

I REALLY WANT FILIANOTI UP THERE TONIGHT, HAVING A TRIUMPH, COZ AFTER ALL THESE, THE LOGGIONE WILL DEFINITELY GIVE HIM ONE...

[Parsifal]

http://www.lastampa.it/redazione/cmsSezioni/cultura/200812articoli/38898girata.asp

Here as well!

[flipstinger]

Whether Filianoti is an exceptional opera singer or not, it`s debatable but he has all the right to defend himself. So, I`m glad he`s speaking up and voicing out his opinion.

The administration and organization of La Scala needs to be questioned and examined. I`m sure the theare were well aware of his vocal problems and inconsistencies in the past so why hire him for a heavy role in the first place? specially to a very high profiled event. There may reasons we don`t know but it is indeed very disrespectful to the artist regardless.

Now, I wonder could this is a Muti curse?....ever since his exit, the theatre has had mostly troubles!

[inter mezzo]

he's right about the world's best tenors staying away. Ian who? last year, Stuart who? this. La Scala shouldn't even be thinking about the gnarlier works in the tenor rep if they can't cast them.

[val]

http://www.lastampa.it/redazione/cmsSezioni/cultura/200812articoli/38898girata.asp

[John]

Good Luck to Stuart Neill. He has sung Siegmund and Florestan in London and will be returning as Lohengrin in 2009, but Don Carlos?

[deadtenors]

love the drama. keep bringing it, OC.
get-up-a
get-get get-down
la-scala is joke in yo town

[Paolo M.]

Filianoti and Villazon need to ally with Alagna to create The Three Ex Tenors! LOL!

[Acqua di Gio]

Poor Giuseppe he is a sweetheart no one deserve this.

[Angry Tenor]

If you have never taken voice lessons, if you have never been a professional singer, you cannot understand how difficult it is o be consistently good, all the time. Anyone heard Heppner lately? He cracked, and he is God. He is still God, even if he had a bad night.

[inter mezzo]

John, you're confusing Stuart Neill with Simon O'Neill, the Kiwi heldentenor. The only time I've seen Stuart was in a concert performance of Faust with the LSO a couple of years ago. He had the notes and the volume but not much else. And Filianoti's reference to his physique is graciously phrased but highlights a major dramatic weakness.

[Donna Anna]

Omigod, it's December 7 meaning it must be crisis time at La Scala.
I agree with Angry Tenor. This is the most unforgiving of progressions.
Looking forward to the reports, o intrepida.

[maguy]

If he is good enough to sing the 'rest of the run', why can't he sing tonight and the following performance ? What is going on ?
This is an awful position for Scala I think.I really feel sorry for this tenor as a human person like you and me and as an artist.I will watch ARTE in a few hours , feeling sad for him.
Thanks OC for this well-informed article

[fignaz]

I get the impression everyone is spinning furiously here to save face. Whether he's indisposed or not, Filianoti doesn't want to get the rep of the fragile tenor in crisis whose precarious health and voice make him unreliable. Contracts dry up in the glare of that kind of light. So he goes on the offensive against the theater, which has given him ample and plausible pretext by the way it has handled his substitution. La Scala itself doesn't need another opening night artistic fiasco, so it's willing to take the hit for being callous, even capricious-- along with tacitly admitting it was a mistake to engage Filianoti in the first place. On this front they lose face, while at the same time saving face before an international audience tuning in via various media, given the likelihood that the tenor was about to crash & burn "in diretta."

As much as I have liked Filianoti in the past, as OC & others have pointed out, his recent performances have been more than troubling, including his first DON CARLO in Zurich this past September. Perhaps the forces that be at La Scala felt, based on their presence during that run, that with study & rest, Filianoti could pull it off. I believe he had no engagements between the Torino MEDEA in October and this Sant' Ambrogio prima. So this was not some pipe dream on the part of La Scala. It didn't work out, though. By all accounts, the dress rehearsal was the culmination of a downward trend in his singing the past month. Rather than be party to the tenor's possible self-immolation and all its attendant scandal, the theater bit the bullet and removed Filianoti. They could have done it with more finesse, perhaps, but Filianoti could also have availed himself of the cover of "indisposition" and the whole thing would have ended there.

Though he is justifiably ticked off by how this unfolded, I think Filianoti should use the episode to pause and take a long hard look at the state of his voice & technique and his choice of rep. At this point he reminds me of the successful middleweight whose handlers convince him he can compete with the heavyweights, maybe even compete for the title. They train him to that end only to see him mauled once he gets in the ring. All are faced with a choice: continue & risk permanent incapacity or return to the more appropriate weight class. Even when he was at his best Filianoti would have been challenged by Don Carlo IMHO. I don't think anyone would say that the tenor has been at his best since his illness & surgery 2 years ago,

[Giacomo]

I heard Filianoti as Edgardo in Lucia last year at the Met and he was absolutely terrible. His sound was strained and unpleasant the entire performance. At the end of the Act 1 duet he couldn't even hold the note and Dessay kept right on holding it, completely showing him up. It was an awkward moment.

I think Stuart Neill is a fantastic tenor. He won the Luciano Pavarotti International Competition back in 1992 and seemed destined for a big career. I don't know what happened. He has a beautiful voice and big notes. I think he's one of the best singers that nobody has ever heard of.