non, je ne regrette rien
Gerard “La Môme” Mortier told Le Monde yesterday that he has “no regrets” walking away from the New York City Opera. The wily Belgian impresario added, “But through it all, when there was doubt, I ate it up and spit it out. I faced it all and I stood tall; and did it my way.” [via NYT]
Flix culpa. While the puny budget sent Mortier scurrying to Madrid, NYC inadvertently benefited. It is Madrid that will have to deal with innovation for innovation’s sake. While Steel may not be the promised one who will return NYCO to its roguish glory, Mortier would spell disaster. Pobre Madrid, que lastima.
Well, for 30 million smackers, even I could put on an opera season, however abbreviated it might have been. It would certainly have been more than 2 concert performances. I don’t think innovative and expensive are necessarily synonymous. I dunno, maybe it’s me, but I think I’d rather have been the hero of this story by taking the 30 mil, staging a comeback for NYCO, and putting enough in the coffers so that eventually, I could have the 60 mil. I dunno, but that would have looked mighty impressive on a resume…. as opposed to, say, staged performances of Hildegard von Bingzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
By the way, am I the only one who misses MrsJC?
balabanov11: “Lots of my friends have sung for George Steele”
La Cieca nominates that phrase as the new euphemism for “gay.”
For example:
“Him? Married? To a woman? My dear, I knew him when he sang for George Steel!”
I’ve never sung for George Steel, but my boyfriend has.
Leisner to Paris? That’s strange.
Maybe Steel can run La Scala by then.
I’m singing for Mr. Steel this fall, but my boyfriend isn’t.
“Mortier turned to his wife”
Um, no.
Mortier is gay.
Is it true he is thinking of playing a ‘stand in’ toad for Alberich’s character during the mine scene with Wotan & Loge in some Das Rheingold’??!! Criteria needed: Ever watchful, ever grasping for every self career opportunity and needing a gold treasure trove to finance his fanciful ideas, Mortier……what superb casting, that would be! Perhaps Katrina Wagner might be inspired enough ‘to give him a supplementary job at some new Bayreuth ‘mod’ Ring in the future.
Cassandra (regarding your Mortier comment 18) …..surely it definitely must have been his mother …only she could love THAT, in a moment of fleeting misguided compassion.