Kasper Holten resigns from the ROH

[Belgrove]

http://tracking.wordfly.com/view/?sid=ODBfMjE1NzRfMzE3NzI5XzcxMzc&l=60739961-949d-e511-bb2d-e41f1345a46a&utm_source=wordfly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2015_Dec_KH_Friends&utm_content=version_A&emailsource=26153

He will be sticking around to direct a new Meistersinger with Pappano conducting in 2017.

[underthecountertenor]

Spelling: KaspEr HoltEn.

[Barbirollians]

A very mixed tenure if one considers his Eugene Onegin and Don Giovanni .

[Conchis]

I didn't see the Giovanni and thought the Onegin was massively unmemorable. Krol Roger (which I likewise didn't see) seemed to restore his reputation as a producer somewhat.

All told, not a very happy appointment.

[MrGongGong]

All told, not a very happy appointment.

Depends on who you talk to.

[David-G]

If you talk to me, I would agree with Conchis. Onegin was dreadful; and Don Giovanni likewise. And of course, the ghastly Idomeneo and Guillaume Tell happened on his watch.

However, it must be granted that Krol Roger was very fine - and L'Ormindo (Royal Opera House at the Sam Wanamaker) was sheer delight.

But overall - too many disasters.

[Prommer]

If you talk to me, I would agree with Conchis. Onegin was dreadful; and Don Giovanni likewise. And of course, the ghastly Idomeneo and Guillaume Tell happened on his watch.

However, it must be granted that Krol Roger was very fine - and L'Ormindo (Royal Opera House at the Sam Wanamaker) was sheer delight.

But overall - too many disasters.

My thoughts precisely. L'Ormindo was indeed very good, as was Krol Roger. It is his judgement that was so often wonky, both in his own productions and his commissioning of others.

Cav & Pag was an unexpected but very welcome triumph after the nadir of Tell. But the run rate was not good enough... So he had to go, albeit in a face-saving manner such as this.

[underthecountertenor]

But the run rate was not good enough... So he had to go, albeit in a face-saving manner such as this.

I don't agree with any of this. And are you suggesting that he had children in order to save face? Or that the offer of a 5-year extension was a sham? Frankly, it's more likely that he got fed up with the mean-spirited conservatism of the booers and claquers, and that returning to Copenhagen to have his children educated in a more enlightened environment became all the more appealing.

I only hope that the ROH finds a worthy successor, and does not retreat timidly to the dreariness of the Elaine Padmore era.

[Prommer]

It has all the hallmarks of a kindly meant parting of the ways, reflecting the fact that he was popular about the house but also that fresh blood is required. When the Music Director got the flak for something over which he has no technical control, it was clear that something had to give.

I too would like exciting, thought-provoking, challenging productions. But they must be good!

[underthecountertenor]

It has all the hallmarks of a kindly meant parting of the ways, reflecting the fact that he was popular about the house but also that fresh blood is required. When the Music Director got the flak for something over which he has no technical control, it was clear that something had to give.

I still don't understand how you can say this, given the statements that have been made. Either you have contradictory inside information, or you are speculating that the press statements are untrue and/or that the offer of a five-year extension to which they refer are a sham.

[MrGongGong]

and in more made up "news".......... ? (or is it?)

I suspect our esteemed member who always goes into the Opera House from the Floral Street entrance knows more than most folks who write in the media or online

[underthecountertenor]

I certainly suspect that he finds the speculation and attempts to read between the lines seen here, and no doubt elsewhere, irritating and wide of the mark.

[Conchis]

I wouldn't be at all surprised if this is a dismissal dressed up as something else.

A large part of a job like this is perception and during Holten's (quite brief) tenure, the ROH has been making headlines for all the wrong reasons. The fact that the biggest headline was tagged to the biggest artistic disaster of the Pappano years (Tell) has to say something. Holten was perceived to be failing; therefore, he had to go.

Richard Jones (who has always given radicalism a good name in my book) would be my dream choice to succeed him but, sadly, that won't happen.

[underthecountertenor]

I wouldn't be at all surprised if this is a dismissal dressed up as something else.

A large part of a job like this is perception and during Holten's (quite brief) tenure, the ROH has been making headlines for all the wrong reasons. The fact that the biggest headline was tagged to the biggest artistic disaster of the Pappano years (Tell) has to say something. Holten was perceived to be failing; therefore, he had to go.

Richard Jones (who has always given radicalism a good name in my book) would be my dream choice to succeed him but, sadly, that won't happen.

Here we go again. You don't know anything. Yet you feel able to speculate that, in effect, Kasper Holten, Tony Pappano, Alex Beard and the ROH are publicly lying because YOU think that his tenure has been a failure, and you clearly cannot accept that anyone else might have a different view. How arrogant. How unpleasant. With poison like this in London, it's little surprise that Mr Holten prefers to return to Copenhagen, where his children might be more likely to learn good manners and an aversion to poisonous speculation and gossip.

[Conchis]

Here we go again. You don't know anything. Yet you feel able to speculate that, in effect, Kasper Holten and the ROH are publicly lying because YOU think that his tenure has been a failure, and you clearly cannot accept that anyone else might have a different view. How arrogant. How unpleasant.

Sorry if that's the way it comes across but the first thing I thought of when I read the headline that he was leaving was, 'This is a constructive dismissal....' Evidently, other people thought the same.

But this is by no means bad news for K.H. Having worked at the ROH can only enhance his prestige, plus his children will be growing up in a much nicer and more civilised city than London.