Walter Vergnano, the outgoing Intendant of Teatro Regio in Turin, resigned last week from his post. Three days ago, William Graziosi was appointed his successor. Graziosi left his position as director of Teatro Pergolesi in Jesi just before Christmas 2017, leaving a €600,000 deficit.
Turin too is experiencing economic woes and because of this it has decided to cancel a US tour which was to have taken in New York, Chicago and Washington.
The theatre's Music Director, Gianandrea Noseda, yesterday resigned in protest at these decisions:
The recent actions taken by the board of the Teatro Regio Torino are disappointing and disheartening. The fact that the quality which has propelled the theatre on the international scene has not been taken in due consideration provides a clear indication to me that there is no interest to share a common vision for the future of the Teatro Regio Torino.
Furthermore, I understand that the board of the Teatro Regio Torino has decided to cancel a long-planned return to America in May 2019…
Under these circumstances, I will not be available to continue my relationship with the Teatro Regio Torino…
Noseda became the seventh music director of Washington DC's National Symphony Orchestra in 2017, as well as serving as Principal Guest Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Principal Conductor of the Orquestra de Cadaqués, and Artistic Director of the Stresa Festival in Italy.
Today, Vergnano explained that the cancellation of the American tour – already in the announced in the seasons of the Harris Theater (Chicago), Carnegie Hall and The Kennedy Center (Washington, D.C.) – was because of a lack of sponsorship, both in Italy and America, and the law forbids such an enterprise without sponsorship in place unless an opera house's budget is in the black.
Another law states that the Music Director's position becomes vacant on the resignation of the Intendant (who appoints the MD) but Vergnano underlines that Noseda's departure had nothing to do with this technicality.
He said,
I hope that the Teatro Regio soon finds the harmony necessary to proceed with the great work that it has produced during these years which has been valued by Turin and the world over.
Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.
His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.
