VENICE, Italy (AP) — The storied Venetian opera home La Fenice is embroiled in a dispute with its orchestra and refrain over the appointment of a younger and telegenic musical director with ties to Premier Giorgia Meloni however none with the musicians she has been employed to conduct.
La Fenice’s normal supervisor, Nicola Colabianchi, who joined the theater in March, has defended his selection of 35-year-old Beatrice Venezi, saying her youthful vitality will convey a brand new viewers to the theater the place Giuseppe Verdi premiered ‘’Rigoletto’’ and ‘’La Traviata’’ greater than 170 years in the past.
“She’s young and dynamic, she’s already written several books and she’s conducted many orchestras. She’s a person who attracts a great deal of media attention. So all of this will only bring attention to the theater and the theater’s future,” Colabianchi said in an interview. ”We will’t suppose the theater can survive with 80-year-old season ticket holders.’’
Within the six weeks since Venezi’s appointment, efficient subsequent October, was introduced by La Fenice on social media, placing staff compelled the cancellation of an opera premiere and unions have referred to as for Colabianchi’s resignation.
One other protest was deliberate for Monday, backed by different Italian opera homes in solidarity.
Critics say Venezi doesn’t have the requisite expertise for a theater of La Fenice’s profile, the place famed conductors Arturo Toscanini, Claudio Abbado and Riccardo Muti have lifted their batons. Additionally they counsel the selection was influenced by Venezi’s ties to Meloni and her far-right Brothers of Italy.
Venezi has not publicly commented on the La Fenice dispute, and canceled a public look to keep away from polemics.
She is the daughter of a distinguished member of Forza Nuova, one other hard-right occasion, and has recognized with the best’s conservative values. Nonetheless, she instructed the every day La Stampa in 2023 that she was “offended after they name me slightly fascist.’’
La Fenice’s unions say they don’t seem to be contesting Venezi’s youth, gender or political leanings, however the lack of consultations with the musicians whom she should lead. They be aware that Colabianchi had pledged an open course of simply days earlier than Venezi’s appointment was introduced.
The musical director “provides the theater its musical imprint,’’ mentioned Paolo Bertoldo, a percussionist in La Fenice’s orchestra and a union chief.
“Once you select an individual for this position. you usually select somebody who can assemble a task with the inventive crew. For those who soccer coach doesn’t work nicely with the gamers, the workforce gained’t have outcomes.’’
La Fenice’s unions have requested Colabianchi to revoke Venezi’s appointment, and relaunch the choice course of, permitting the musicians time to work with and develop into accustomed to any candidates, Venezi included. Additionally they have demanded Colabianchi’s resignation.
Colabianchi, for his half, has apologized for hiring Venezi with out extra consultations, however he stays agency in his selection.
‘’I selected Beatrice Venezi as a result of I had invited her, whereas I used to be the overall supervisor in Caglieri, for 3 separate operas, and she or he was an enormous success,” Colabianchi mentioned, including she has a broad repertoire of greater than 50 operas. “She is younger, and we have to promote the younger; she is a girl, and we have to promote ladies.’’
He mentioned there was no query of his resigning and that he would convey Venezi to the theater as quickly because the protests in opposition to her appointment stop. Her first appointment to conduct with the complete orchestra can be in July, for a live performance in St. Mark’s Sq., although others could possibly be added earlier, Colabianchi mentioned.
“There’s a lot of time to get to know one another, to confirm. You possibly can’t create polemics in opposition to somebody with out understanding them, simply due to what you hear,’’ Colabianchi mentioned.
