He is 26 years old, he has written a book (or rather, signed a book...), he went on Fazio's show, he conducted at La Scala... and yesterday afternoon at the Teatro Grande in Brescia, after conducting Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore, they booed him and shouted "go back home" at him ...
and I will tell you that I can only agree with the audience ... you don't know how frustrating it is as a chorus member (and, I imagine, as an orchestral musician) not to be able to truly protest against the behavior of one's own conductor. I work in a choir with extremely tight production schedules. This production of L'elisir was exhausting; we put together a complex and taxing staging in 4 rehearsals. We had the same number of rehearsals together (with the orchestra) and Battistoni showed up for only 2! We had to do the dress rehearsal with a substitute, who wasn't really a substitute, because we are talking about Bisanti, a conductor much better than Battistoni. And why? Because behind the young lad there seems to be an iron-fisted management...
besides, I discovered that some of my college colleagues were "instigators of the revolt" :-) the Brescia audience is quite neutral, normally. Neutral and cold, both with successful interpretations and those that are less successful. We will see what they say in Cremona
I too have noticed the very rapid rise of this conductor (who also conducts at the Arena di Verona). However, the problem is very old: the profession of orchestra conductor at the upper levels of the musical system is a matter of power. Norman Lebrecht's book remains excellent, "The Maestro Myth: Great Conductors and Their Battle for Power" (Longanesi 1992): it is written by an English journalist, witty and informed, who begins his story with Hans von Bülow in the second half of the nineteenth century.
those who are not used to dealing "professionally" with conductors do not fully understand the implications of this discussion. But I assure you that the stage is a desert without a baton to guide you. I don't consider myself a great expert, but in 6 years of opera choirs, most of the conductors I have seen had massive flaws. I am hypercritical, but I am talking about MA-SSIVE flaws: people who don't know how to keep time, who beat at belly height or beat above their hair. On the podium, everyone wants to make music and they don't know how to handle "routine administration," when instead that is where one should start, in order to instill confidence in everyone else.
This fits into the discussion regarding Barenboim's "early resignation," which apparently will happen at the end of 2014 http://www.giornaledellamusica.it/news/?num=115155; they have criticized him a lot and perhaps they were right. Barenboim changed La Scala's repertoire, "training" the orchestra, probably. But he was a symbol of the times, a conductor with great musical ideas and, apparently, NO conducting technique. I have only seen him on TV, but even from there, watching him conduct gave me anxiety...
