Judgment Absolution: There was no embezzlement in Les Arts de Helga Schmidt
Valencia.The Palau de Les Arts removes the name of Plácido Domingo from its Center for Improvement
Government.Cultura dismisses Plácido Domingo in "solidarity with those affected"
Davide Livermore
was mayor of the Palau de les Arts de Valencia at a particularly critical time: when the opera and theater institution was the subject of a judicial process that affected his predecessor in office, Helga Schmidt.
The latter was accused of awarding contracts to a company of which she was a director, Patrocini de les Arts, as well as the printing of programs and brochures to a company supposedly close to the Generalitat.
Schmidt passed away a month before the celebration
the trial, in which she was acquitted 'in absentia'. In Valencia, Livermore came into contact with
Placido Domingo
, who introduced him to the world of zarzuela.
"The friendship and deep respect" he feels for the tenor converted into a baritone, "the greatest diffuser of zarzuela in the world", helped him discover a universe that Italian stage directors like him hardly touch.
Now, that circle closes with a montage of 'Luisa Fernanda' -the zarzuela that Plácido was going to sing in Madrid a year ago to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his debut in the city, and which was
canceled by the Ministry of Culture
by accepting the accusations of sexual harassment leveled against him - that
opens this Thursday at the Teatro de la Zarzuela.
Livermore, who is currently in charge of the Genoa Opera, says that "the zarzuela is not a minor repertoire" and that, in his approach, he wanted to emphasize that
"Maestro Moreno Torroba did not direct for a museum, but for his contemporaries"
.
Thus, he has displaced the original action prior to the Glorious Revolution of 1868 to 1932, when the zarzuela was premiered.
And he has set the action at the Cine Doré, a bit in the style of Giuseppe Tornatore's 'Cinema Paradiso'. For him, his approach, like that of any foreign director who approaches the quintessential Spanish lyrical musical repertoire, is enriching .
"Because it brings a different vision" and also "because it helps to combat regionalisms and localisms that sometimes occur in this type of show."
Thus, the similarities between the revolutionary era of the 19th century and the pre-revolutionary climate prior to the Civil War have inspired his imagination for the staging. The Italian director returns to Spain with enough time elapsed to reflect on what happened in Valencia.
"The scandal at the Palau de Les Arts is much more remembered than the sentence of full acquittal to Helga Schmidt," he denounces.
«I hope that people who have used in a horrible way the name of a great lady like her
end up suffering the same pain you caused.
It was a horrific political operation
».
And he points out that, for example, "there were those who invented a vote that was manipulated by people in the orchestra who did not want a teacher, something without foundation." In similar terms, he manifests himself regarding the Domingo case.
"We are facing the human miseries of someone who lives a lifetime of frustration against someone who is leading an extraordinary life, full of value, full of beauty and full of wealth," he emphasizes.
«
It has been a media defamation process without a complaint, without the intervention of the police
, without anything at all. "And he pointed out directly:"
The shitty politicians of Valencia have removed the name of Plácido, who has done so much for Valencia
, to a center of excellence of the Palau de Les Arts ».
They and many others, he maintains, “were riders on a horse that was the one that did not win.
Because also with the teacher Plácido Domingo it has been seen that the truth, evidently, was different ».
"That Plácido Domingo cannot sing in Spain is an act of stupidity"
», He says about the boycott imposed by Rodríguez Uribes, which he attributes to a misinterpretation of the apologies that the singer issued a year ago, as a result of investigations into his behavior in the United States.
"The Minister of Culture of Spain will have my respect the moment he apologizes to Plácido Domingo and acknowledges the mistake he has made with him."
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