I spent a year performing with the Accademia Santa Cecilia Orchestra in Rome. I distinctly remember a rehearsal and concert that was cancelled due to a strike. Michael Stern was the guest conductor, and I was hanging out with him afterwards. Neither of us knew why the strike occurred, nor were we in the loop as to when it was to happen. Consequently, we both showed up to an empty hall. It was not the result of any specific grievance, but more like something they simply did every once in a while. The same was true for the public transportation. The "sciopero" was more like a national holiday. All in all, it was fairly amusing, and Michael and I ended up going out to dinner instead of performing. Off the subject, but in line with Italian anecdotes, We played a fairly contemporary piece by a well known Italian composer which had written in it an usually lengthy piccolo cadenza. About a minute and a half into the cadenza, some of the audience began hooting and yelling "basta!" while others were shouting down the hecklers and insisting the piece be heard. Not what I expected from an audience at a venue located in Vatican City. I don't think I ever laughed so uncontrollably while on stage ever before or since.
I love Italy, and still can't figure out why my grandparents left it (or why I did, for that matter). -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Chris Tedesco Sent: Monday, April 04, 2005 7:46 PM To: The Horn List Subject: Re: [Hornlist] Musician Strikes As I understand and have experienced, strikes are pretty common in Italy, but I wonder, how often, if at all, do Italian musicians strike? Chris --- Fred Baucom <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > April 4, 2005Rebellion Made Fall of Muti InevitableBy JAMES R. OESTREICH > > With the attention of the world focused squarely on Rome over the weekend, > you may have missed what happened in Milan on Saturday: the culmination of > another drama of consuming national interest in Italy. > > After weeks of vitriolic public wrangling, the renowned Italian conductor > Riccardo Muti, who had been music director of the famous opera house Teatro > Alla Scala for 19 years, gave in to the demands of the house's orchestra and > workers, and announced his resignation. Though simmering tensions rose to a > boil only in mid-February, Mr. Muti's departure had come to seem inevitable. > The only real questions were the timing and whether Mr. Muti or the Scala > orchestra would finally force the issue. > > If Mr. Muti, who continues to turn down requests for interviews, was trying > to bury the news, he could hardly have chosen a better moment. But it doesn't > seem his style. The 63-year-old Mr. Muti has never shunned the spotlight, > whether in triumph or in conflict. It seems more likely, given his intense > pride, that he was seizing perhaps the last opportunity to leave more or less > on his own terms. > > He was scheduled to begin rehearsals today with the Filarmonica Della Scala, > the theater's orchestra, for concerts scheduled later this week, and many > were convinced, despite assurances to the contrary, that the orchestra would > strike, as it has done repeatedly in recent weeks. (Those concerts are now in > jeopardy, along with stage productions to have been conducted by Mr. Muti.) > He may have chosen to head the orchestra off at the pass. > > Then again, the intensely proud Mr. Muti may simply have been worn down by > unrelenting attacks in the media. Among the more recent, the influential > daily Il Foglio described him as a tyrant and an egomaniac. It also said that > he had a bad international reputation both as a conductor and as someone to > work with, a recurrent charge that has people mystified from the Philadelphia > Orchestra, where he was music director from 1980 to 1992, to the Vienna > Philharmonic, which he is to conduct at La Scala next month. > > The battle was touched off in February by what the orchestra saw as Mr. > Muti's heavy hand behind the ouster of Carlo Fontana, La Scala's former > general manager, and his replacement by Mauro Meli, the former director of > its theater division. The orchestra sought not only Mr. Muti's departure but > also Mr. Meli's. > > "We don't want Meli because he was Muti's page," Sandro Malatesta, a longtime > trumpeter in the Filarmonica, said yesterday. > > Mr. Meli, for his part, says he has no plans to leave. "Fortunately, it's not > the unions who decide on management decisions," he said. "It's not true that > we make decisions after deliberating with the unions. They were never > involved before." > > Of his immediate job prospects, he added, "I'm very unworried." > > So the impasse remains, with the orchestra saying it will continue to strike > the first performance of each production. But at least some players may have > begun to wonder whether they have thrown out the baby but not the bathwater. > > The orchestra, said Danilo Rossi, a violist, had not initially wanted Mr. > Muti's resignation. "If Meli had stepped down before," he added, "we would > never have arrived at this point." The players, he said, are "madder than > before." > > Both Mr. Meli and the players acknowledge that Mr. Muti will be hard to > replace. "It hurts just to think about it," Mr. Meli said, adding that he > hoped that the Scala board, at an emergency meeting called for today, might > persuade Mr. Muti to remain. > > Early speculation on a successor focuses on three Italian maestros, all > heavily committed elsewhere: Riccardo Chailly, Antonio Pappano and Daniele > Gatti. Whoever it may be, in the current politically charged climate, he had > better watch his back. > > > > Elisabetta Povoledo contributed reporting from Rome for this article. > > _______________________________________________ > post: horn@music.memphis.edu > unsubscribe or set options at > http://music.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/tedesccj%40yahoo.com > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! 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