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The comments appeared to be a pre-emptive defense for a new
work by Austria's Georg Friedrich Haas that is part of the
2015-16 program that the opera house announced on Wednesday.
The new season also includes crowd pleasers such as "Boris
Godunov", with Welsh baritone Bryn Terfel in the title role;
"Lucia di Lammermoor" with German soprano Diana Damrau in the
famous "mad scene"; and "Werther" with Italian tenor Vittorio
Grigolo in the title role and American diva Joyce DiDonato
singing the role of Charlotte for the first time.
The premiere in November of Haas's "Morgen und Abend" (Morning
and Evening), an opera based on Jon Fosse's novel about a
Norwegian fisherman, promises to be a more controversial choice.
Haas has employed many techniques of modern composition in his
works, plus offbeat effects such as switching off all the lights
in the concert hall for one of his string quartets.
"There's so many mathematician conductors out there and that's
not what the composers want, they really don't, and for somebody
who can bring an understanding to that music and make it live,
that is very, very important to me," Pappano told a news
conference.
Pappano said he was not criticizing anyone in particular but
felt that in some interpretations of modern music "there's
sometimes a concentration to such a degree on precision and
getting everything perfect rather than sometimes the spirit that
is in the music".
Kasper Holten, the Royal Opera's director, said it had sold out
94 percent of its seats for the current season.
He said a mix of traditional favourites like "Tosca", which is
coming back early next year, and "Nabucco", which will see the
return of Placido Domingo in the lead baritone role, made it
possible to mount works like the Haas opera, or the Polish
composer Szymanowski's "Krol Roger" (King Roger), opening next
month.
"It would be a sad day to say demand controls our program, but
when we program we obviously think about it," he said.
The Royal Ballet said it would present a newly choreographed
"Frankenstein" with music by American composer Lowell
Liebermann, and a program of four dance vignettes, including the
famous Jerome Robbins choreography of Debussy's "Afternoon of a
Faun", that will be broadcast to cinemas.
(Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
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