{"id":11796,"date":"2023-07-31T06:00:11","date_gmt":"2023-07-31T06:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/?p=11796"},"modified":"2023-07-31T01:59:59","modified_gmt":"2023-07-31T01:59:59","slug":"italian-conductor-fired-conducting-blindfolded-protest-controversial-production","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/2023\/07\/31\/italian-conductor-fired-conducting-blindfolded-protest-controversial-production\/","title":{"rendered":"Italian Conductor Fired for Conducting Blindfolded to Protest Controversial Production"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_11797\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-11797\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11797\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/07\/Alberto-Veronesi.jpg\" alt=\"Alberto Veronesi\" width=\"1200\" height=\"628\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-11797\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Maestro Alberto Veronesi conducted the opening night of Italy\u2019s Puccini Festival wearing a blindfold to protest a production of Boh\u00e8me featuring anti-fascist imagery. (Photo: NoiTv Lucca)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Maestro Alberto Veronesi conducted the opening night of Italy\u2019s Puccini Festival wearing a blindfold to protest a production of Boh\u00e8me featuring anti-fascist imagery.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Wait\u2026 what?:<\/strong> Christophe Gayral and Christophe Ouvrard\u2019s production of La boh\u00e8me transports Puccini\u2019s work to Paris in the 1960s. It features scenes and imagery depicting the \u201cFrench May,\u201d a period of political unrest during which far-left student groups protested capitalism, fascism, consumerism, and American imperialism. Maestro Alberto Veronesi donned a blindfold to conduct during these scenes. Audience members reportedly shouted, \u201cBuffone!\u201d (clown) and \u201cScemo!\u201d (imbecile) from their seats, to which Veronesi replied that he didn\u2019t want to watch the production\u2019s political scenes.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why does it matter?:<\/strong> The Italian Secretary of State for Culture, Vittorio Sgarbi, reportedly asked Veronesi not to conduct the production, which Sgarbi called \u201cnot art, but a political rally to criticize the government.\u201d (NB: Far-right Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is currently also under pressure to fire Sgarbi for<a href=\"http:\/\/www.italianinsider.it\/?q=node\/11990\"> recent vulgar and sexist remarks<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p>The Italian opera scene has been increasingly political as of late, with singers refusing to appear in the famed Arena di Verona Opera Festival following soprano Anna Netrebko\u2019s appearances in blackface.<\/p>\n<p>Veronesi, who reportedly still managed to successfully conduct the orchestra and singers, has been fired and replaced by Manlio Benzi. However, Veronesi still plans to show up at the podium and has threatened legal action if he\u2019s not allowed to perform.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Maestro Alberto Veronesi conducted the opening night of Italy\u2019s Puccini Festival wearing a blindfold to protest a production of Boh\u00e8me featuring anti-fascist imagery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":11797,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[86,3,80],"tags":[308],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/07\/Alberto-Veronesi.jpg","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11796"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11796"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11796\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11810,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11796\/revisions\/11810"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11796"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=11796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}