Passing on the news
New York: SIMON BOCCANEGRA at Carnegie Hall is cancelled due to lack of sponsors: Veronesi had promised them
The organization of the Opera Orchestra of New York, founded and directed by Eve Queler, which for years has produced several performances of more or less well-known operas at Carnegie Hall in New York, has cancelled Verdi's SIMON BOCCANEGRA scheduled for March 7, 2012, under the direction of Alberto Veronesi. Such a sudden cancellation, but above all such a last-minute one, had never happened before for this well-merited American association, which every year rents Carnegie Hall to perform—usually under the baton of Eve Queler herself—two operas and one concert. But the association had the brilliant idea of entrusting itself to Alberto Veronesi, appointed with great enthusiasm based on the certainty, guaranteed by him, that important funds and sponsors had also arrived in America, and more precisely at the Opera Orchestra of New York, given that Veronesi is accustomed to promising significant economic resources (in truth, not yet seen at the Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago, in the midst of an economic crisis due to the lack of Arcus funds, for the Sicilian Symphony Orchestra of Palermo, managed cheerfully and left with millions of euros in deficit, for the Petruzzelli Theater Foundation in Bari, just placed under administration and in full economic crisis, and for its Bellini Opera Festival directed with his Sicilian Symphonic Development Association, which still has to pay contracts) wherever he has attempted or succeeded in being appointed musical or artistic director. Evidently there are those who believe in fairy tales, or at least one would say that if before superintendents and artistic directors were distinguished by management gaps and massive deficits, now the deficits are established a priori; one only needs to bite on the promises to then find oneself with non-existent funds and sponsors, and thus a new deficit. But the Americans did not let themselves be fooled, and so despite ticket sales (in truth, rather poor, since the name of conductor Veronesi is certainly not an attraction), as soon as they realized that not even a single dollar would arrive... they immediately cancelled SIMON BOCCANEGRA and did not think twice, much to the chagrin of Veronesi, who was supposed to conduct it. It must also be said that in New York the reviews of ADRIANA (conducted by Veronesi, again for the Opera Orchestra of New York as the new musical director) were terrible, but in Italy no one spoke about it, while in interviews and presentations Veronesi boasted of being "the second Italian to conduct at Carnegie Hall after Arturo Toscanini"... and other nonsense of that sort. Now, the great conductor Alberto Veronesi will have to work quite hard to return to conducting for the Opera Orchestra of New York, if his collaboration ever has a follow-up. But he will necessarily have to recover at least one of his phantom sponsors, who might fail in some other Italian production... and then watch out: soon we will witness another cancellation, this time in Italy, where the super Italian conductor will try to fix things through one recommendation or another to obtain new funds. Meanwhile, the Opera Orchestra of New York has begun to refund sold tickets, amidst general dismay (and not "concert"), trying to limit the damage to its image and management.