Opera Chic

Ioan Holender Slams La Scala: "Not An Artistic Competitor"

Ioan Holender, always feisty, badly slammed la Scala in an interview with the FRANKFURTER RUNDSCHAU:

Haben Sie die Mailänder Scala eigentlich als künstlerische Konkurrenz betrachtet?

Nein, was die machen, kann man nicht ernst nehmen. Denken Sie nur mal an diesen unsäglichen "Simone Boccanegra", der schon in Berlin zu erleben war. Sawallisch hat immer gesagt, wir sind alle erpressbar. Genau das ist aber falsch. Verzichten muss man können. Das ist alles!

English translation:

Did you consider Milan's Scala as an actual artistic competitor?

No, what they do I cannot take seriously. Just think of that unspeakale Simon Boccanegra, that had already been seen in Berlin. Sawallisch used to say that we are all vulnerable to blackmail. It's not true. You have to be able to say no. This is all.

Holender is, of course, the same dude who made cruel fun of Stéphane Lissner, la Scala's GM, because he can't read music.

In all fairness, a few conductors Opera Chic has heard at la Scala clearly couldn't read music either, so it's not just the General Manager!

Staatsoper Wien's Six Hour Marathon, Holender's the Belle of the Ball

 

Six hours after the concert started, historic big cheese of Staatsoper Wien, Ioan Holender, was out with a quickness (well, more like a slowness since he's pushing 80). 

A dozen conductors and roughly 50 opera singers gathered in Vienna last night to party at a farewell gala for the old dude. Placido Domingo, Zubin Mehta, Natalie Dessay, Thomas Quasthoff, Barbara Frittoli, Thomas Hampson, and Anna Netrebko (and friends -- that's totally not a code name for her bewbs) raged all night and toasted the guest of honor, Holender.

Holender has served Staatsoper Wien since 1992 and when he officially ends his contract this summer, he'll be the General Director with the most years of leadership in the opera house's history.

Awesome video here (we're pretty sure Holender gave a frat house style, "Animal House" belch at the end)

Ioan Holender's Dream: A World Without Stage Directors

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:

HOLENDER: I would like to be the general manager from the Musikverein or from the Carnegie Hall to do only music without stage directors.

All Is Forgiven: La Scala's Lissner Invites Vienna's Holender To La Prima In Milan

This past February, Scala GM Stéphane Lissner had slammed in the Italian press the Vienna Staatsoper (Munich, too) "where they don't rehearse as much and this has recently been the cause of substandard shows".

Not to be upstaged in this childish pointless foodfight, instead of letting it slide, Ioan Holender -- Vienna's Staatsoper director -- shot back with all the ammo he could find:

"This (attack) is unprecedented between opera houses: it is very embarrassing to engage in a dispute with someone who cannot read music but I understand Lissner needs to distract the Italian press from what is happening -- or better yet, not happening -- at la Scala".

"To cancel a new production (ed: the Andrea Chenier Opera Chic wrote extensively about) because the director and almost all of the cast have vanished is quite unusual and unbelievable for a opera house. With such attacks against my work Lissner disqualified himself, since he knows that I have been leading for 16 years the glorious Vienna opera with more than 60 operas in repertoire and more than 300 shows every season. Monsieur Lissner's envy is understandable when one sees that these days on the Vienna podium we have Christian Thielemann, Seji Ozawa, Riccardo Muti and Zubin Mehta, who are among the world's greatest conductors. They are not at la Scala where, unfortunately, there is only Lissner: this is sad".

Nine months of frozen silence between the two managers followed; but now, in a honorable attempt to patch things up, Lissner has invited Holender to la Scala for the Dec. 7 prima of Don Carlo.

If unruly unions sink the show (Opera Chic wouldn't bet on it, even last year's Tristan was similarly threatened and the wildly overpriced  show -- that makes la Scala about 2 million euros in a single night -- regularly went on), Herr Holender will have the chance to go shopping in the Quadrilatero and sample himself some tasty seasonal Milanese cuisine (cassoeula a special favorite of the pork-eating gourmets here).

Ioan Holender Nukes La Scala: Attacks "Envy" Of Scala GM Stephane Lissner "Who Cannot Read Music": We Have The Great Conductors And La Scala Doesn't. Vienna vs La Scala Kung Fu Fightin'

It's unusual to see such public vitriol at such high levels, even in the famously snarky world of opera.

A few days ago Scala GM Stéphane Lissner had snarked, in the press, Vienna and Munich, "where they don't rehearse as much and this has recently been the cause of substandard shows", in Italian "spettacoli di basso livello", literally translated as "low-level shows".  "A Vienna ho visto un Don Giovanni di assoluta routine. Per il signor Holender non è mai troppo tardi per imparare", Lissner told Italian paper La Stampa: "In Vienna I saw a substandard Don Giovanni. For Mr. Holender is never too late to learn".

Yesterday Ioan Holender, Vienna's Staatsoper director has shot back with surprising vitriol, as reported in today's papers.

"This (attack) is unprecedented between opera houses: it is very embarrassing to engage in a dispute with someone who cannot read music but I understand Lissner needs to distract the Italian press from what is happening -- or better yet, not happening -- at la Scala".

"To cancel a new production (ed: the Andrea Chenier Opera Chic wrote extensively about) because the director and almost all of the cast have vanished is quite unusual and unbelievable for a opera house. With such attacks against my work Lissner disqualified himself, since he knows that I have been leading for 16 years the glorious Vienna opera with more than 60 operas in repertoire and more than 300 shows every season. Monsieur Lissner's envy is understandable when one sees that these days on the Vienna podium we have Christian Thielemann, Seji Ozawa, Riccardo Muti and Zubin Mehta, who are among the world's greatest conductors. They are not at la Scala where, unfortunately, there is only Lissner: this is sad".

If we were Brits, we'd totally say: Blimey Guv'nor!