Slatkin Responds

If you follow this blog or pay attention to any of the other classical blogs, then you may remember the controversy surrounding Leonard Slatkin a couple of months ago.

Slatkin did not completely absolve himself from blame and admitted he made mistakes opening night. But what he called Gheorghiu’s “unprofessional behavior” — blocking his view of other singers, taking outrageous liberties that went beyond liberal notions of expressive phrasing, entering early and ignoring cut-offs — so unnerved him that he lost his cool in the second act.

 

“It rarely happens to me, but I got thrown,” said Slatkin. “All of a sudden, I was saying, ‘What the hell is going on?’ and there were places where I knew I was wrong, but I didn’t know what to do. I was pretty much up in the air.

 

“At the end of the second act, there is a big ensemble number. It is one place where everybody needs to look at the conductor. They’re all holding notes and I give the cut-offs. She held on past everybody on every one. I can’t say it was on purpose because I don’t know. But it was not in league at all with what anybody else was doing. There was no feeling of cohesion.”