The controversy surrounding the opening of the music festival dedicated to Giacomo Puccini in Tuscany continues the next day. Last night blindfolded Maestro Alberto Veronesi conducted the bohemian of the great Italian composer with an unexpected performance. A form of blatant protest against the decision of the festival, and in particular the director Christophe Gayral, to stage the opera in 1968. And it was worth it for the director, son of the oncologist Umberto and already a candidate, first with Beppe Sala and then with the Italian Fratelli in Lombardy, there were boos and insults from the public at least regionally. Today, Veronesi tells Ansa that despite the disagreements over the choice of venue, he still wanted to direct La Bohème “to respect the contractual obligations” with the festival. “Had I not been directing, I would have created problems for a replacement, and then I’ve always honored my contractual obligations,” he explained, while pointing out that “it’s not written anywhere that I couldn’t conduct blindfolded , so I made that decision.” But the undersecretary for culture, Vittorio Sgarbi, also chimed in the controversy today, confirming that he was essentially the “instigator” of Veronesi’s performance. “I told him to direct La Bohème blindfolded, it’s my idea and he was right to follow it,” Sgarbi says in a note. Who then explains that the staging of Torre del Lago is “a political problem” and not an aesthetic one, namely “the use and abuse by the director of a commission received from the Puccini Festival to explain with the director his political and social problems ?” – psychological intentions. Christophe Gayral’s “Is it a direction or a rally?” provocatively asks the Meloni government representative. Which ups the dose: “And the direction of La Bohème must be the tool to criticize the government and the institutions that fund the festival and the Puccini celebrations?” For ’68 I expect different music, not Puccini’s, who should be left alone.”
Towards the break between the Festival and Veronesi
In the meantime, the Festival bodies met, including with the relevant lawyers, and with a view to continuing the collaboration with the “rebellious” director, announced that the Pucciniano Festival Foundation “reserves the right to take any initiative”. to protect the public and its own collaborators and to spare Veronesi the inconvenience linked to directing the next performances.” In short, we are looking for the most appropriate way to sever the relationship with Veronesi, who according to the invoice (and contract) was also to direct the following three performances of La Bohème in Torre del Lago: on July 29th, then on August 10th and 25th. His gesture, the foundation insists, is “a gesture to be condemned, primarily because it is disrespectful to those who worked with passion and professionalism to create the show.” Moreover, the festival had already opened under the banner of controversy, since the conductor Beatrice Venezi – whose sympathy for the Brethren of Italy and the Meloni government is known – had decided to perform Puccini’s anthem unscheduled in Rome, a work that fascism appropriated at the time and what was also important to the MSI.
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