Daniel Harding in Corriere della Sera: Milan Style Comes Easy for British Maestro

It's not like British conductor Daniel Harding had to convince us of his sartorial prowess, easily making the cut for Opera Chic's Five Best-dressed Conductors in W Magazine's Editors' Blog with his penchant for Louis Vuitton, Tom Ford, and Trussardi.

The 34-year-old conductor (and unabashed Manchester fan) was back in Milan between Teatro alla Scala guest performances and invited a Corriere della Sera journalist to tag along during a typical day of ~Fantastic Mr. Harding~, showing-off his superior sartorial, culinary and gadgetry fetishes. In the article called, "Vorrei sposare Natalie Portman" ("I'd Like to Marry Natalie Portman") Harding could come off insouciantly douchy, but frankly, he doesn't care. He's Daniel Harding, byotches: "Self love is a good jumping-off point for loving someone else," he tells thepaper. All translations copywrite Opera Chic, tia.

The first stop is a private tuxedo fitting at Tom Ford's luxury Via Verri 5-floor boutique in downtown Milan, where everyone calls him by name, including the security guard. Then it's lunch at Libera, a Brera-neighborhood restaurant that frequently hosts Corriere journalists because of its flexible, late hours (and good food), where Harding is joined by Gaia Trussardi (the young Italian designer/inheritor of her family's fashion label) and her boyfriend at a corner table. Then it's over to The Four Seasons in Via Gesù's intimate, prive' garden setting between Via della Spiga and Via Montenapoleone, which Harding calls home when he's in Milan: "When I'm in the city for a few days, I stay always at the Four Seasons because it's convenient and quiet. They make my trip seem like a vacation." FYI Daniel Harding never uses the hotel's wake-up call service -- he just wakes up naturally because he owns so hard.

A gadget junkie, he travels with his Mac (he banishes micro$uck although he loves Bill Gates), two cell phones, a Blackberry, and an iPhone. Big pimping, but it sucks to get stuck behind him at airport security! Since Harding spends almost 300 nights sleeping away from from home, he has two British passports to accommodate the high volume of passport stamps. All that's missing is a butler, a supermodel girlfriend, a private jet, a sleek sports car/submarine hybrid, and a spandex bodysuit. Bullet-proof, of course.

Read the rest under the cut!

Personal life? He's tells the paper he's a very complicated person. Engaged to his (now ex) wife, French violinist Beatrice Muthelet, for five years, they were married for another five before divorcing. He's very close to his two kids: Eight-year-old daughter Adele (who studies cello) and four-year-old son George <-- who sometimes conducts! 

So when he's not in Milan, where's home? "It's difficult to give you an answer to that right now. Up until I was married, I was with my wife and kids. Now i have a gorgeous apartment in Paris, But the truth is that I have no connections with the city aside from my kids Adele and George."

On Milan, where Harding finds himself most at home (Harding, at 30-years-old, honorarily opened the 2005 La Scala season with Idomeneo where he made his Scla premiere, called in to replace ousted Riccardo Muti for the high profile December 7th Opening Night.): "I've been coming to Milan for more than 10 years. And also I run back and forth between Stockholm for my Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Italy is a special destination. It's the closest thing to a family for me." [...] "In Italy it's not about a residence, a monument or a street that's important to me. This is the city where I find my friends. And they support me. And this is the most important thing for me." Although the maestro shares special connections to mentors Simon Rattle and Claudio Abbado, he says he's close to the family of Paolo Gavazzeni, grandson of late Maestro Gianandrea (Principal Conductor at Scala for almost 50 years). And his father, Pino, is like a father figure to Harding.

Despite all the musically-legacied families, if he could meet anyone famious, it would be Natalie Portman who thinks is beautiful and jokes that she's apparently looking for husband material (hence Corriere's article title -- we <3 Natalie, too, but she's got terrible taste in men). Other idols? Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio, David Beckham, Roger Federer, Obama, and Bill Gates.

On the qualities that make a good maestro: "An enormous charisma -- difficult to pinpoint. For some it's something physical, for others it's a 'forza interiore' or character. I'm not necessarily kind with my orchestras, but I definitely have the the power to bring them to the exact point that I have in my head."

He reads Dawkins and Hawking. He's into objectivism: "It's magic to understand how the brain works. We talk so ignorantly of emotions. For me it's not enough to know how to feel something...I also want to understand why. I'm fascinated to learn what happens in the brain when we listen to certain music, and what reactions they produce."

He also spoke about the rumors that he'll be called on to take over as La Scala's Music Director when Stéphane Lissner finally gives up GM control of Scala in 2015 (Lissner is confirmed officially until 2013, but he'll stick around through Milan's upcoming World Expo 2015 and although there's no official Music Director, Barenboim is Scala's "Maestro Scaligero").

Harding is one of the few names that's been thrown around as Scala's new Music Director (along with Dudamel). Regardless, we can't imagine he'll have any difficulty adjusting to the city if Scala is his destiny. Now he'll just have to learn to become a true Inter fan! We volunteer to teach him, but warn him that initiation involves blue and black ink. And paddling. Although there are no canoes or kayaks. 

Harding says about the rumors, "People talk about it, but Scala hasn't asked me. It would be a dream come true for whoever they offer it to, and the answer is obvious: of course I'd like it. But is it the right thing for me now? I can't give you the answer to that question if they haven't offered it to me."

 

Comments

[Archaeopteryx]

Thank you very much for this great article about this conductor whom I admire very much! :)

[Starda Vanyra]

All that's missing is a boyfriend!!!!

[nick]

Yuch!

[Jeep]

Mr. Harding is indeed a fine conductor, but at 35 or whatever, is he already being paid so much he can afford all this milanese outlay? If so, Natalie should JUMP at the chance to marry him. Unless he's gai.
JG

[Furst]

Great stuff OC. We don't know. We are a huge Man U fan in spite of the fact that the city isn't the sort of thing we look for in a home for a favorite soccer team (i.e. an elegant European city with many and far reaching historical associations and a topflight opera house - hardly the characteristics associated with Manchester - but Sir Alex rulz and our enthusiasm goes back to the Cantona days). We have generally found Maestro's work something of a mixed bag - certainly his Don didn't stand up that well to Abbado (though that was long ago) or even, in some ways, Nikki Harnancourt. Still, we wish him well. NP rocks but the male idles could give rise to all kinds of discussion but as a very enthusiastic player and fan we would certainly include RF among our idles, our favorite and, ioho, the all time greatest player.

The saga of La Scala's next music director will be an interesting one and we look forward to OC documenting it in what we anticipate will be a most insightful and entertaining manner.

[vale]

His publicist must be gay or something! How can people put up wth this sort of sham publicity in this day and age? Bah...

[Malin]

Love your blog OC - can't agree about Inter though, being Milanista is obligatory in my extended family!

[Charles]

His wiki says he's married with two kids, yet is he "gai"? lol? What's this about? Come on people. Where does this come from?

[MarK]

With all due respect, Charles, i personally know several men who were married and fathered children, but while in their 40s and 50s finally came out of the closet and are now living happy homosexual lives.

[Charles]

Mark, I don't see your point.
I didn't say he couldn't be gay. I just don't see why people are saying he is. It's almost as if you're asserting that you know he's gay, but he doesn't. Do you have a special envelope you'll send to him when he's 50?
"Mr Harding, I know you're married with children, but that means nothing, fool. Congratulations, you're gay!"

[MarK]

In your previous comment, Charles, you stated that DH was married and had children, as if that contradicted someone else's assertion that he might be gay. All i am saying is that being married and having children on one hand and being gay on the other are not mutually exclusive conditions. Nothing less, nothing more.

[Carlos Tuttoni]

Mark, you see the thing is that we both now know that he has a wife and children but we have no reason to think he's gay. He is less likely to be gay than most people because he's married, had children, he's progressive and gen X. He's not Leonard Bernstein.
I'm quite willing to stand corrected, but so far there's no case that he's gay. It doesn't seem likely either, from what I know.

Christian Thielemann on the other hand...........

[Abel]

Just because he has the best taste in cothing and food, and just because he listens to opera doesn't make him gay! Wait a second.......

[MarK]

Actually, i know DH personally, having worked with him several times, and i believe he is a very fine conductor. My disagreement was not about his sexual preference but about the validity of the argument. Judging by what i know, he is much more likely to be heterosexual than not, but i do not know him well enough to be absolutely sure.
The bottom line is - does it really matter?

[stef]

"Unabashaed Manchester fan" means very little - are you even talking about what some people call "soccer"? Qualifying is needed here!

[Greir]

I like my conductors like I like my coffee: straight or gay as long as they are strong and stimulating and carry a big baton! :-)

[Paul]

Small correction-his ex-wife Beatrice Muthelet is a VIOLIST, not violinist. :D

[MarK]

His ex-wife? She is indeed a violist and we will not hold it against her, but are you sure about the EX part? Where did you get that information? Just wondering...