After the San Carlo in Naples, a new "war" has erupted over La Fenice in Venice. There is no peace for Italian opera houses amidst governance changes within the Foundations and appointments of superintendents and directors. The latest controversy concerns the appointment of Beatrice Venezi as music director of the opera house, one of the most prestigious in the world. In a fiery letter signed by all the orchestra's musicians and sent to superintendent Nicola Colabianchi, the musicians demand that the director's appointment be revoked, claiming that "she guarantees neither artistic quality nor international prestige."
But after a meeting of the theater staff, who echoed the musicians' concerns, he confirmed his choice of the musician, conductor, and pianist. "She's very talented, she's young, she's a woman, and she can help La Fenice blaze new trails that attract young people," says the superintendent, unable to explain "this rigidity. It's incomprehensible; I don't know what the reasons are."
For the orchestra's professors, however, the main reason for a different choice would be the audience's flight . "Just twenty-four hours after the announcement, long-time season ticket holders were canceling, a loss not only financially for the theatre, but, above all, to its image and credibility," the orchestra members argue, deeming it "unacceptable to sacrifice the trust of a loyal audience, built and maintained over time even through enormous difficulties."
"Our audiences are the pride of La Fenice, as are the caliber of its orchestra and its international reputation. With this decision, these values are seriously called into question," reads the letter signed by the orchestra's musicians. Not only that. "In light of what happened, it is clear that the relationship of trust between the orchestra and the superintendent is now irreparably compromised. We cannot recognize you as the leader of our theater," the musicians write further. In short, in addition to demanding Venezi's "head," they also reject that of the superintendent.
Solidarity with the musicians of the historic theater comes from other theater workers, who gathered today in an assembly and declared "a permanent state of unrest." They also reserve the right to call strikes, demonstrations, and sit-ins to "defend the professionalism of its artists and respect for democratic rules in the management of the Foundation." They too "demand the immediate revocation of the appointment, which was made in a manner and manner that trampled upon every principle of dialogue and transparency." Solidarity also comes from union representatives at the Teatro Regio in Turin, who protest the "appointment imposed from above." The CGIL (Italian General Confederation of Labour) also protests the "authoritarian drift" displayed by the theater's superintendency.
The Minister of Culture has not commented on the case today, even though the opposition, through the AVS party, is calling for his intervention to "restore the necessary quality in the positions: the dignity of his ministry and the entire country depends on it." Elisabetta Piccolotti of the Alliance of the Greens and the Left has reached "a grotesque situation." Defending Venezi, who had already been challenged in Nice and by some musicians from the Politeama orchestra in Palermo (who were subsequently suspended), is Salvatore Deidda of the Brothers of Italy party, president of the Transport Committee, who quips: "Beatrice Venezi certainly doesn't have the cursus honorum some would have hoped for. I suggest she perhaps join a union or the Democratic Party or AV and frequent some radical chic clubs." She, on the other hand, "studies and applies herself; she doesn't need shortcuts."
(Unioneonline)
