Pump Up The Volume: Verdi's Requiem With Rock & Fireworks, Barenboim's P'ssed Off!

Drama, drama everywhere.

It really attaches to La Scala wherever it goes -- La Scala's current Israeli tour (a bunch of Aidas at the opera house in Tel Aviv, then a Verdi Requiem in the park) has generated a little, funny controversy the other night.

Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reports today that Daniel Barenboim got extremely p'ssed then boycotted the official post-concert dinner because, right after the Requeim's end, for some reason the concert organizers started blaring rock music from the amplification system and a fireworks extravaganza was unleashed on poor Verdi's meditation on nothingness. And Barenboim, Corriere reveals, didn't like the pre-concert long speech by Tel Aviv's mayor, either:

"With the people, I have never have any problems. But every time I'm in Israel, something with the politicians and the media always goes wrong".

The newspaper's music critic who was sent to Israel to cover the event described the post-concert fireworks as a "surreal event".

 

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