Opera Chic

Daniele Gatti Goes To Bayreuth And You Don't

Arturo Toscanini.

Victor De Sabata.

Alberto Erede.

Giuseppe Sinopoli.

Daniele Gatti.

Only five Italians have ever been called to conduct at Bayreuth, more or less like winning the Oskar of the Wagnerite world (the statuette is, of course, a little goose-stepping  golden man).

The 46 year old Milanese maestro has spoken to Corriere della Sera about his date with destiny, his debut on July 25 with Parsifal at Bayreuth.

Gatti, an intelligent, serious maestro whose mild manners have not necessarily helped him in the appalling classical music business, already talks the talk:

"Parsifal is one of the greatest creations of human spirit. In its presence, one can only feel like a tiny little ant".

He even sent a small valentines greeting to Riccardo Muti, who on December 6 will open the season at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, one day before Gatti opens la Scala season with Don Carlo.

"I never conducted at la Scala during Muti's years (ed: zing!) but I have the greatest admiration for all his accomplishments, that shall remain forever. As conductors, we had the age of Mahler, the age of Toscanini, the age of Muti. And maybe one day, who knows, we'll have the age of Gatti".

Gatti's Boccanegra: Hampson vs Furlanetto Fight to the Death

Opera Chic at this point seldom gets excited by new releases -- the really good stuff, sadly -- and this is a sad testament to the recording industry's ability to crank out the seriously cool material as they did until the 1970s or even the early 1980s -- has a tendency to come almost exclusively from captured satellite radio feeds, TiVo'ed ORF2 or MEZZO or Arté telecasts, Rapidshare in-house digicaptures, etc.

But sometimes a new CD or DVD makes us go all, yummm, this sounds tasty.   

In this case, here's the spanking (heh) new Simon Boccanegra DVD -- our Milanese maestro Daniele Gatti in his Staatsoper debut  (this was back in 2002), our sweet dear hammy ham Thomas Hampson as Boccanegra, and Ferruccio "I Got Teh Powah" Furlanetto and his mighty tonsils (all three of them, big as Mount Fuji apples) star as Jacopo. Directed by Peter Stein.

Now, Opera Chic is ready to bet her new, cruelly-horizontal-striped Jasper Conran grosgrain single-breasted coat that this DVD cannot be nearly as insanely awesome as The Definitive Boccanegra, and Hampson is lovely but is not Leo Nucci.

But then, Boccanegra's greatness (la signora Mirella Freni considers it Verdi's most moving opera) is often very generous, and new productions can seriously rock -- as witnessed by our world-travelling Sarah B who just enjoyed it at the Opéra Bastille, lucky girl.

Daniele Gatti Is Definitely Running For Scala Music Director Post

OMG OMG OMG as Opera Chic wrote yesterday, Milanese conductor Daniele Gatti is a big loggionisti favorite for the post of Music Director vacated by Riccardo Muti in early 2005; among the obstacles between Gatti and the  prize seems to be, at least that's what intense Milan buzz repeats, a certain low profile as a safe, somehow unexciting conductor.

Then Gatti decided  to grant a long interview to Corriere della Sera (not online sadly), saying things like:

a) "classical music needs more flair", and explaining that, wink wink, if it were up to him, wink wink, he'd establish in an opera house's season programma at least four or five "concerti al buio" (literally "concerts in the dark"), where the audience only knows the conductor's name but does not have a clue about the night's program: "Surprise!".

b) The Scala orchestra? (you know, the people who have veto power over his getting the job and will be able to fire him whenever they feel like it). Well, "they're old friends, some of them are even my ex fellow students  at Conservatorio here in Milan". haah

c) The dress code? "In other countries, the rules are more relaxed, nobody cares if you don't show up in a tuxedo... We're Italians after all, not very disciplined, we like to talk. It's OK. What matters is: you need an audience that is lively and that loves music. I'm not here to teach good manners, I'm grateful to those who come to listen".

d) The loggionisti who like to boo? Lots of love for them too: "It's painful whenever the audience boos, but it's part of our job. Opera is hot-blooded by definition. Like soccer. I'm an Internazionale FC fan (ed: just like Juan Diego Florez and Opera Chic!), I understand that".

e) Music lessons in school? Lame, sez Gatti, on a roll. "Useless, just like Religion classes: it's useless to study Beethoven in school if  the world around you revolves around commercial pop music. Learning data by rote in school is a waste of time: love for music begins elsewhere, almost always at home. I fell in love with Beethoven thanks to my father, he'd play small segments before bedtime... the Pastorale... Brahm's 4".

f) Being a conductor is similar to...? "It's like being a priest: it's a mission, and it's a lonely life".

This of course all means that he's all but declaring that he's running for the post, that he's not boring, that he'll never get the orchestra angry, that he'll try to woo young people at la Scala and will TOTALLY rock your socks off if you just give him the job lol rofl thx.

La Scala Files: Handicapping The Future

 

Among Milanese opera fans, the most popular game that does not involve drinking à la Quarters  is "Who Would You Choose As Musical Director When In A Couple Years It Will Be Impossible To Keep Pretending That Barenboim's Part Time Job As Maestro Scaligero Is Enough For Such A Big Opera House" (long name, I know, funny Italians -- in the original language it's even longer).

Opera Chic has been subjected to it several unhappy times -- unhappy because it usually ends with bitter arguments, sneering comments, fist-fights, the occasional stabbing in the neck with a broken CD jewel case. And even now that she's temporarily back in the USA, OC hears the question a lot from friends: Who will replace Muti? The orchestra, after all, cannot remain without a Music Director forever.

Well, actually, part of the problem (of General Manager Stephane Lissner's problem) is that the orchestra (many professori, at least, if not all of them...it's far from a unanimous crowd, except when they fire a Music Director, as Claudio Abbado and Riccardo Muti know too well) like the present situation *a lot*: Daniel Barenboim flies-in every once in a while (3-4 times a year, not exactly the same as Muti's notorious military drills), dazzles everybody with his charm, as well as his almost scary genius and his super-stimulating ideas, leads them in super-charged performances that bring the house down, then races back to Malpensa Airport, never to be seen again for months. OC also hears that the famously snappy (during rehearsals, at least) Barenboim very cannily keeps his powders dry whenever he conducts here, never scolding, always suggesting, and heaping lots of praise; no wonder he's crazy-popular with the orchestra: he behaves like their dandy uncle who lives abroad & pops-in for Christmas with an armful of gifts -- or cigars, in Barenboim's case).

It is also true that sooner or later, reality will interfere with the orchestra's wishes, and Lissner will have to appoint a Music Director -- guest conductors and music directors and experiments playing for young young young baby-faced sweet exciting newcomer conductors like Harding and Dudamel only help up to a point. To keep the "La Scala sound" -- a beautiful, precise opera sound, with the Italian repertorio as king, but with the indispensable ability to shift to Wagner, Strauss, and the great symphonic masters -- you'll eventually need another Abbado, another Muti, is the general consesus here (well, Milan, actually...whatevs).

The sad fact is that Maestro Scaligero Barenboim, the natural, perfect candidate (unique background, huge charisma, interest in new music, unimpeachable taste, fantastic experience and ability in the German repertorio) just won't take a full time job as Music Director of La Scala, this is clear. At least for the foreseeable future.

Consider that to replace Muti after his always stormy but often awesome reign you need a rare mix of great talent, a huge international high profile, big brassy brass ballz and at least a tiny bit of those peeple $kill$ that Muti so proudly lacked. You don't really want to hire sonmeone who'll soon lock horns with the orchestra and the press, since the orchestra yields awesome veto power (as I said above, in early 2005 they effectively fired Muti the way they kicked poor Abbado out in 1986) and the press can really make a Music Director's life miserable (it didn't happen with Muti, ok ok, he enjoyed fawning reviews and lots of ink-stained love from the papers, but it doesn't mean the press will accept just anybody -- especially anybody with a lower profile and lower standing that Muti had in the mid-80s.)

Let us now try to handicap the race for the future leader of our beloved opera house, then:

~o~ DANIELE GATTI (aka THE LOGGIONISTI IDOL) ~o~

 

Many loggionisti love Daniele Gatti with a burning, throbbing, moist passion. heh. His experience at Covent Garden with the RPO and at Santa Cecilia really gives him an excellent edge, and his Lohengrin, as OC reported, brought the house down so hard that there was instant talk of Gatti as the man for the job of Music Director

• OC's opinion: he's really really good, he'd make an excellent MD, he'd bring some seriously needed fresh air. But, who knows, he's from Milan, and studied in Milan and now seems ready and, to boot, he's probably the frontrunner... And we all know what often happens to frontrunners and to those who look so perfect for a job...

• The buzz: he did all the homework, he's got the credentials, the audience really likes him. But some see him as not being either old enough or exciting enough to get the job -- we often hear that he'd be perfect if only he were even more experienced (read: older) or more exciting. Mark my words: if you cannot have someone as awesome as Muti (that'd be Barenboim), exciting is what you need.

~o~ ROBERTO ABBADO (aka THE UNDERRATED ONE) ~o~

 

Not all Milanese music fans root for Gatti: many are happy to endorse & support Roberto Abbado, Claudio's nephew, an elegant, sophisticated international maestro who knows La Scala well and who, last year, conducted a crystal-clear Lucia di Lammermoor -- seldom being on the verge of a nervous breakdown has sounded -- or looked -- more fabulous, largely thanks to Abbado.

• OC's opinion: he's waaay underrated by most but, frankly, better than the otherwise excellent Gatti. He's just subtler, more elegant -- sometimes reminds OC of Thomas Schippers, another underrated conductor.

• The buzz: "But his uncle Claudio did this", "But his uncle did that", "He's not his uncle". If he doesn't get the job for this reason, some people seriously need to grow the hell up, OC thinks.

~o~ RICCARDO CHAILLY (aka THE PERENNIAL CANDIDATE) ~o~

 

Riccardo Chailly still has many fans (even if they're not as vocal), despite a too-muscular Rigoletto last year and a correct, but uninspiring, Aida last December. Alagna ruined his standing -- when he pulled out of Aida and then tried to get back in when he got scared of the consequences, we heard from Lissner, from Zeffirelli, even from the half-naked (bless his shiny butt) Roberto Bollé. Chailly waited for two months before speaking up. It looked like Lissner was running the show 100% and Chailly's low profile was seen as either a sign of weakness, or of being kept out of the loop. Even the biggest Muti haters acknowledge that Muti would not have taken the hit of the Alagna tantrum silently, leaving to Lissner the role of the only enforcer in the house. Say what you want about Muti (that's what they do here, anyway) but when the orchestra went suddendly on strike right before a performance in the mid-90s, he barged ahead and turned Traviata into a piano recital (himself at the piano), and went ahead with the singers and the show went on (as the proverb says).

• OC's opinion: Chailly's got a massive international experience and the right profile. Excellent conductor, he'd be an excellent choice. Aida damaged him, though.

• The buzz: he has a good relationship with Lissner, the orchestra doesn't mind him. But the question remains: why didn't they offer him the job last year, then, and went looking for Barenboim's weird special-guest-with-privileges role?

~o~ MYUNG-WHUN CHUNG (aka THINK DIFFERENT) ~o~

 

Giulini nostalgics madly endorse Giulini's former student and Zen maestro Myung-Whun Chung

• OC's opinion: he's cool, really cool, a thinker and a sweet man who'd never alienate the orchestra. OC loves his ethereal sound. The pros: he's a Giulini clone, and you couldn't clone a greater maestro. The cons: his greatest asset is also an albatross around his neck. He's no Giulini; nobody is, nor will ever be.

• The buzz: he's BEYOND a dark horse, BUT he'd be the first non-European Musical Director in an opera house where visitors from Asia have an ever-growing presence in the audience, and an increasing financial weight, and has a very good American profile. He'd be a very exciting choice, and -- as we said above -- if you cannot have someone as awesome as Muti (that'd be Barenboim), exciting is what you need.

Opera Chic's final recommendation?

All four candidates should be put into an iron cage (inspired by Mad Max Beyond the Thunderdome) and duke it out with fisticuffs!

FOUR MEN ENTER. ONE MAN LEAVES.

Q(o_oQ) Q(o_oQ) Q(o_oQ) Q(o_oQ)

Gatti Wins Over Critics, Audiences; Next Stop the Music Directorship?

Scala old-timers still remember him as the shy, baby-faced kid with the huge head of super-thick, dark hair who, as a student ,would sneak into rehearsals (his dad was a tenor) and sit quietly in the back of the platea, taking mental notes of everything and following every note.

But in the near-future, he could very well become the next Music Director of La Scala after Riccardo Muti's stormy 20-year reign, if increasingly insistent gossip from La Scala is to be believed.

Because now Milan-born Daniele Gatti is 45 and a world-famous conductor (who has worked from Vienna to Berlin to London); his Lohengrin at La Scala convinced everybody: critics, audiences, the dreaded loggionisti, and even Maestro Scaligero Daniel Barenboim, who was in town for the Toscanini concert and managed to catch Gatti's general rehearsal for Lohengrin (Barenboim's TWO THUMBZ UP review: "I tip my hat!"). And, always at La Scala, a series of Brahms/Mendelssohn/Hindemith concerts with Gatti on the podium is getting excellent reviews, too.

Increasingly loud chatter in the Teatro and even, shyly, as a trial balloon maybe, in the press, indicates that Gatti -- who at the end of the season will be free from his Bologna post after a successful decade -- could in the next months receive an offer from La Scala GM Lissner: a Music Director post!

The reason behind this being that Barenboim's role as Maestro Scaligero only entails a few concerts and an opera a year, and some general supervision on the program; but Barenboim's millions of other commitments  make it impossible for the Argentinian-Israeli maestro to assume a bigger role at the Teatro.

Gatti's young age plays against him, but his growing international stature -- he has recently developed a relationship with the Wiener Philharmoniker, the first Italian conductor after Muti to land the coveted honor -- makes him the best available candidate. Especially since Barenboim won't leave his Musical Director post at Berlin's Staatsoper, and La Scala cannot remain for many years without a MD.

There is of course a big IF: he'll eventually get the post IF the all-powerful (they're the ones who effectively fired Muti anyway) Orchestra says yes. The professori d'orchestra, as of today, have been keeping their cards VERY close to their white, starched vests.

We'll see. And Opera Chic will be there to report.

Lohengrin Needs a Swan Like a Fish Needs a Bicycle

Since she's back to the US for a visit, Opera Chic won't be able to check out personally La Scala's Lohengrin -- not to mention, she does have some issues, musical and nonmusical, with Herr Wagner, but we'll leave that to some other post in the future. The coverage in the Italian press and the comments of Opera Chic's Milanese friends anyway do seem to converge: big kudos to young Milanese conductor Daniele Gatti (Principal Conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Music Director of Teatro Comunale di Bologna's orchestra), mad props to signora Waltraud Meier's devilish Ortrud (the diminishing power of the voice she so generously put on the line for all her career notwithstanding). The production's problems?  Well, Robert Dean Smith's Lohengrin (in an opera called Lohengrin, after all, this is probably not the smallest issue) does seem to have too small a voice -- not to mention his voice cracked at least once during la prima -- and the costumes designed by Bettina Walter (Lohengrin sports a shiny metallic suit for no apparent reason) are indeed problematic.

The director's decision to place the action in the 1940's, again for no apparent reason,  has raised eyebrows (not to mention HELLO TEHRE IS NO SWAN WTF WHARES TEH SWAN)?

And the sets? Well, our loggionisti friends would have loved to see everything better, but apparently a lot of the action happens to be placed waaay too deep inside the stage; so if you have seats in the galleria, you are SOL. LOL GET SOME MOAR XPENSIVE SEATS THEIR ONLY 240 BUX OR SOMETHING GET A MORTGAGE OR SOMETHING IF YOU WANNA SEE OUR LOHENGRIN OR WAIT 4 TEH OVRPRICED DVD K THX BI lol Go ask your parents for more allowance money. I'll be standing over here with my 40-digit salary, buying-out all the seats in La Scala for a private performance.