2023-08-25 16:34:52
After hitting singer William Thomas backstage at the Berlioz Festival in Isère, the 80-year-old British chef will not conduct the rest of the performances of the opera “Les Troyens”. In a statement, he said he regretted his action.
It’s a rather surprising physical attack in the stuffy world of classical music: a pif fluff between a conductor and his singer marked the Berlioz festival of La Côte Saint-André this week. On Tuesday 22 August, as the first two acts of Berlioz’s “Troyens” performed by the Monteverdi Choir faded to applause, backstage, British conductor John Eliot Gardiner slapped and then punched to singer William Thomas.
What does he reproach him for? Well, according to the site Slipped Disc, for leaving the wrong side of the stage at intermission. Interviewed by the New York Times, an anonymous witness claims that no particular outing had been planned, but that the octogenarian chef, annoyed by the behavior of the 29-year-old bass singer, allegedly approached him, a mug of beer in his hand, telling him that he wanted to “spill it over his head”. Before giving him a slap and a punch. For the second part of the opera, Gardiner was replaced by the formation’s associate conductor Dinis Sousa.
heartache
To justify this violence, some sources invoke pell-mell the intense heat of the Lyric Theater where the phalanx was performing that evening, the recent change of medication for the heart that Gardiner is taking, or even the difficulty of the work – which lasts more than five hours. In a statement, the maestro, back in London to consult his doctor, claims to have apologized to the singer. He also withdrew from the remaining concerts of the Trojans tour, which continues in Salzburg, Versailles, Berlin and then the BBC Proms.
“I make no apologies for my behavior and have personally apologized to Will Thomas, for whom I have the greatest respect. I do it again, as well as to other artists, for the distress it has caused”, writes John Eliot Gardiner. “I know that physical violence is never acceptable and that musicians must always feel safe,” he adds finally, before asking for “patience and understanding” while he reflects on his actions.
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