Ioan Holender has a dream
As someone who has held a lot of power for a very long time in a very prominent post, Holender does have his big share of detractors (Opera Chic does not immediately remember how do you say "douchebag" in German but quite a few friends and acquaintances do seem to have pretty bad things to say about the man); still, the Director of the Vienna State Opera has a few really nice moments in this interview with Gilbert Kaplan on WNYC.
He talks profusely of his admiration for the man he considers the greatest conductors who ever lived, Carlos Kleiber, and in fact there are very solid arguments to support this position, and it's a sweet shoutout anyway; he doesn't pretend that his Opernball is anything more than a naked money grab, and at least he's sincere; he even lets that old brawl with Scala GM Stéphane Lissner -- a low point in both men's careers -- die the silly death it deserves, declining to attack again the colleague.
But the coolest moment comes toward the end: