Word: barenboim
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...become obvious to me there is no room for a music director," said Previn. The startling announcements fueled a flurry of who-goes-where speculation that had already begun in Paris, where the new Opera de la Bastille is seeking an artistic director to replace the fired Daniel Barenboim (who has been named Sir Georg Solti's successor with the Chicago Symphony), and in Manhattan, where the New York Philharmonic must replace Zubin Mehta, 53, who has said he will leave...
...split puts in conflict two radically different concepts of opera. Barenboim's plan was to concentrate on top talent, starting with himself in charge of everything at an annual salary of $1.1 million; he expected to devote extra time to rehearsals and limit performances to about 160 a year. "He doesn't want a few special roses in a garden of weeds," as Mehta puts it. Berge, who took over the opera association last August, not only requested that Barenboim take a pay cut and give up substantial executive authority but also demanded that the $430 million Bastille opera house...
Berge retorted that he never asked any such thing, only a veto power over Barenboim's decisions. "I have absolutely no interest in artistic control of the new opera," he told TIME. Nonetheless, he argues that Barenboim's choice of classic works is "elitist." Says he: "The program established by Barenboim . . . satisfies neither President Mitterrand nor me." But he puts considerable blame for the furor on the maestro's exalted pay: "I offered Barenboim a salary of 4 million francs (($667,000)), but he would not accept anything less than 5 million...
Berge also complained that Barenboim would be spending only a minimal four months a year at the Bastille. The conductor claimed he would spend at least seven months there and wondered aloud how much time Berge was planning to take off from Saint Laurent to work on opera. "When he refused to accept my conditions," Berge declared, "we broke off negotiations. I cannot let the money of the state be spent in so extravagant a fashion." And he did not like Barenboim's slurs, either. "I am not the head of any old couture house," he said. "I built...
With six months to go before the curtain rises on Bastille Day, Berge is blithely ignoring all the threats of boycott as he considers how to replace the gifted and popular Barenboim. "I'm sure I will find people of excellent quality," he says. Others are less sure of that...