{"id":18151,"date":"2014-04-08T15:05:28","date_gmt":"2014-04-08T20:05:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=18151"},"modified":"2014-04-08T15:05:28","modified_gmt":"2014-04-08T20:05:28","slug":"peter-sellars-pays-homage-to-legendary-director-gerard-mortier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2014\/04\/08\/peter-sellars-pays-homage-to-legendary-director-gerard-mortier\/","title":{"rendered":"Peter Sellars pays homage to legendary Director Gerard Mortier"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Gerard<\/a>
Gerard Mortier (1943-2014)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As Toronto’s opera lovers are well aware, Peter Sellars will be in town all month for the Canadian Opera Company\u2019s production of Handel\u2019s\u00a0Hercules<\/a>, which opened last Saturday on April 5.<\/p>\n

Mr.\u00a0Sellars has published\u00a0a very touching tribute in the Spanish language\u00a0El Pa\u00eds<\/a>\u00a0newspaper,\u00a0to the ground breaking director, Gerard Mortier, who died on 8 March in Brussels.\u00a0\u00a0Below is an excerpt of the English text:<\/p>\n

Gerard Mortier was a mercurial operatic visionary who transformed the art form\u2014not with a particular production or body of work, but with an attitude. Wherever Gerard was and whatever he was doing, you knew it would be exciting. His imprimatur guaranteed challenge, engagement, pleasure, and the kind of adventure informed and made possible by profound conviction and deep connoisseurship.<\/em><\/p>\n

None of us who knew and worked with Gerard will ever be the same. His visionary, always practical, and constantly generous presence enlivened each conversation, each rehearsal, each project. Perhaps more amazingly, many of Gerard\u2019s rivals, critics, and adversaries will never be the same either. They also did what they did and are doing what they are doing in response to Gerard\u2019s vision, leadership, and permanent challenge. Gerard\u2019s particular brilliance is to be equally vital and ultimately influential to his friends and to his enemies.<\/em><\/p>\n

Gerard\u2019s rare gift was his sense of the delicate alchemy of collaboration. Most of us have met some of the most important artistic partners of our lives courtesy of Gerard\u2019s inspired insight and at Gerard\u2019s elegant invitation. The results could be seen and heard on stage, but many of Gerard\u2019s commitments and innovations remained backstage. While he enlarged, opened, and filled the public spaces of the Th\u00e9\u00e2tre de la Monnaie and the Salzburg Festival with art and light, he also redid the bathrooms, created new rehearsal spaces, and in Salzburg, opened a new canteen for artists and staff that finally served good food. He always took care of the people who remain unknown to the public but who create and sustain the deep ecology of craft and meaning and well being that elevates the atmosphere, and ennobles the fineness of the work that comes out of it.<\/em><\/p>\n

This hyper-\u00addelicate, deeply cultured man was also a fighter. His chivalrous nature demanded dragons, and if they weren\u2019t there, he could create them. His sharp tongue and unquestioned moral high ground made him enemies wherever he went. But his fighting spirit was not grudging or depressed. His relish for the battle brought out his high wit, his wicked humor, his daring, and ultimately revealed his uncanny equilibrium. His unquenchable joy energized everything he did\u2014so he took pleasure in the battle, as he took pleasure in food, fine hotels, friendship, art, and in high ideals.<\/em><\/p>\n

He took artists out for dinner most nights at his own expense for the sheer pleasure and stimulation of intellectual sword play, good gossip, fine wine, and excellent service. He appreciated the finer things in life, including people. He had an eye for young talent, and an ear for an emerging singer, a new conductor, or a good argument. He read constantly, and placed himself in the heart of the conversation focused on the future of Europe. He epitomized a European ideal\u2014sparkling with enlightenment zeal, cultivated, nuanced, and with a permanently progressive stance that was the fulfillment of a hard-won philosophical heritage. And tradition.<\/em><\/p>\n

To read complete text visit: The Rest Is Noise<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Michael Vincent<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Toronto’s opera lovers are well aware, Peter Sellars will be in town all month for the Canadian Opera Company\u2019s production of Handel\u2019s\u00a0Hercules, which opened last Saturday on April 5. Mr.\u00a0Sellars has published\u00a0a very touching tribute in the Spanish language\u00a0El Pa\u00eds\u00a0newspaper,\u00a0to the ground breaking director, Gerard Mortier, who died on 8 March in Brussels.\u00a0\u00a0Below is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":18153,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[117,41,42],"tags":[4537,2627],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2014\/04\/49_Hillaert-VImschoot_interview3_380-244x300.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-4IL","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18151"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18151"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18157,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18151\/revisions\/18157"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18151"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=18151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}