Opera Chic

Aargauer Zeitung: Christoph von Dohnányi Out Of Zurich's "Tosca", Paolo Carignani In

Swiss newspaper "Aargauer Zeitung" reports that maestro Christoph von Dohnányi is out of Zurich Opera's Tosca opening this coming Sunday (with Jonas Kaufmann and Thomas Hampson singing his first Scarpia; directed by Robert Carsen); Paolo Carignani steps on the podium (CvD himself had earlier replaced the original choice for the production, Michael Tilson Thomas). Now von Dohnányi has left: either -- the paper speculates -- out of disagreement with the singers or the director.

Opera Chic is an unabashed von Dohnányi fan -- a true musician and a man of deep nobility -- but the consolation is at least that Carignani is a very worthy replacement.

"I Only Felt Pity For Them"; Christoph von Dohnányi Talks About The Nazis Who Murdered His Father

Christoph von Dohnányi talks to Norman Lebrecht about the sham Nazi trial that sentenced to death his father Hans, jurist, Resistance fighter, rescuer of Jews, Righteous Among the Nations.

Maestro von Dohnányi, in that charming accent of his, also spoke to Uncle Normy about lighter subjects: his grandfather playing for Brahms, his first job in music, his invitation at Bayreuth by Wieland Wagner ("I would never go back... this family business is disgusting for me"), Georg Solti's character, Fritz Reiner being a d0uche, Lenny on Mahler ("He is an end, not a beginning", he told CvD), George Szell ("He was a teacher, people don't like teachers very much"), about having the "education" to resign from an orchestra post to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest (quite lollersome by today's standards!), about how a forte is not a fortissimo and if you play it as forte people will think you're boring, and the notion of success in the music world ("If you make a lot of money, people think you're great").

Three days left to listen (or, you know, download the podcast) so hurry up.

Christoph von Dohnányi & Philharmonia, L.A. d00dz

There are conductors who, maybe, if the past indeed was really as awesome as they told us it was -- Opera Chic isn't necessarily a big fan of nostalgia -- would not have been that big a deal fifty or sixty years ago -- but then, men like Votto and Molinari Pradelli and so many other conductors were considered solidly second string too, back then, and today one suspects they'd be the very cream of the crop.

Christoph von Dohnányi is one such conductor: variously dismissed as "cold fish", "ice man" or as a merely correct second-string conductor, some sort of living breathing human metronome (and yes, he is not another Claudio Abbado obv -- but then who is nowadays?) to Opera Chic's ears his work consistently sounds very precise, very clean, elegantly transparent, and his confident grasp of Brahms, Strauss, Beethoven is indeed very impressive.

Now, if one's local concert hall or opera house is routinely graced by the presence of Wilhelm Furtwängler's, Otto Klemperer's and Bruno Walter's ghosts then one can safely deride CvD (who comes from a most musical family) as a lamer and a "routinier" (the same destiny that struck another conductor whom OC deeply respects, Kurt Masur).

But unless those giants of the past conduct regularly at a venue near you, well, then there isn't much room to feel dismissive about El Christoforo either.

Anyway: he's appearing tonight in Los Angeles in the debut  of the Philharmonia at Frank Gehry's cool metal box, with this program:

Tuesday, May 6, 2008 @ 8 pm
Philharmonia Orchestra
Christop von Dohnányi, conductor
Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 4, “Italian”
Mahler's Symphony No. 1

Wednesday, May 7, 2008 @ 8 pm
Philharmonia Orchestra
Christop von Dohnányi, conductor
Beethoven's Egmont Overture
Schumann's Symphony No. 1, “Spring”
Beethoven's Symphony No. 5

Our words of advice to CvD: dye that hair platinum blonde, or wear a wig; and make them play louder.

***update***

Tim Mangan compares the 78-year-old maestro to Wilt Chamberlain.

No, not that way.