When even the minister comes

Attended an opera: While cities like Vienna and Salzburg, have regular - if not non-stop - programmes with their native composers' oeuvre, Slovakia's capital Bratislava's frequency to perform operas of its famous son Johann Nepomuk Hummel - or his compositions in general - is almost zero. You would as why? I simply don't know. Perhaps, it's too much of a burden. But, last Sunday, Hummel's opera Mathilde de Guise was performed, and remarkably in an HIP version. Historically Informed Performance. Not the standard modern instruments, but real gut-strings, natural horns and trumpets, etc. A tantalising flavour for real connoisseurs.

It was a great surprise, that unlike during the Slovak (and world!) première of the opera Svätopluk by Eugen Suchoň, which has been hailed as the nation's national opera by the government leaders earlier, but where not one single dignitary bothered to be present, at this performance, lo and behold the Minister of Culture himself was present. Would he suddenly demonstrate interest in early music?

The performance itself was merely a concertante\show. Usually, players and singers are the one who suffer and sweat. The builders of the opera made sure that this suffering was to be more balanced; not only the acoustics of the auditorium (especially erected for operas!) is a dull as a gymnasium, they made sure, that the temperature in the hall would be at around 28 degrees centigrade, which - at least if you didn't show up in bermuda shorts and t-shirts, your going-out wardrobe became more than just uncomfortable. 

The whole project - as it was obvious - was hardly worthy than it would befit. A clever marketing boss from Bratislava would make this into a happening with fireworks, with prestigious drumrolls and streamlined PR. As the conductor himself was no one else but Maestro Didier Talpain, who happens to be in fact the cultural attaché of the French Embassy, and is using the French tax-payers' money to sponsor his own conducting projects at the expense of many Slovak musicians, it was exactly this what was wrong with the whole happening. A poorly planned musical one-nigh-stand to inflate monsieur Talpain's ego. 

But yet, since a diplomat sent an invitation, the minister bothered to attend, even if all of the early music attempts are gravely ignored by his bureaucrats. Perhaps it looks as a good sign, yet it is a harsh but real sarcasm. Only the really impressive performance and singing technique by Íride Martínez was a balming compensation for the whole.

MS

When culture seems not to matter any longer

Sadly enough, my observations throughout the past few years on Slovak culture have been a bit grim, to put it mildly. Minister Maďarič, who is bestowed with the honour of keeping a watchful eye on Slovakia's cultural institutions and developments, has - contrary of what one would expect from him - shown little interest in this field. 

Perhaps life has become too fast for the Culture Ministry to notice all the developments. Not only was it visible, that the demolition tactics within the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra has devastated the foundation of the oldest professional orchestra in Slovakia, money wasting in the Slovak Philharmonic by its Manager Mr Lapšanský was equally alarming, which on top was marked by again a walk-out of another Chief Conductor, Maestro Feranec. Not the first one, to leave because of internal conflicts, hardly the last. Equally with the National Museum, who is run by incompetence and letting its foreign partners in deep despait, as their project of manuscript conservation is in jeopardy. 

The State Opera has had the most dubious set of Managers' switches, with a mysterious misty shroud of quiet spokespersons, no press releases or contradictory statements. If you have every few months a new director, especially since your club is running on public tax payers' money, you have to explain a lot. Not so in Slovakia. In the best scenario, the Ministry is closing an eye and hoping that public either will not notice, or quickly forget. 

But never mind the small change - who in Europe has ever heard of a Slovak National Museum, a Slovak Philharmonic (unless you are a NAXOS collector) or the like. Better, when Slovakia has proudly boasted of making its Eastern Slovak city of Košice into a European Capital of Culture! Prestige all over from Alaska to Tahiti. So one would expect, at least.  

Nevertheless, as it appeared in the newspapers today; the prestigious project, backed by patronage the Ministry of Culture and Brussels to turn this little gem into a capital in 2013, and to make in a dazzlig cultural town full with events, it appears that the Ministry has somewhat failed to fulfill its financial obligations. One would ask why. Not that the State has gone suddenly bankcrupt. The reasons are vague, to say the least. It's just ... political. 


This is definitively not the first time, where cultural projects are bleeding because of the incompetence, to move forward, or to at least stick to the set deadlines to deliver reports, decisions or what you have. A bureaucratic moloch, which shows hardly any interest in supporting culture at all.

Knowing, that the Manager, Ms Zora Jaurová, who as usual thoroughly prepared all documentation is far from happy. The whole project is at peril, perhaps to fatally end in a disaster. I know the feeling. Unfortunately, Mr Maďarič doesn't. Another case, where Slovakia has lost international prestige and added another embarrassment to its list. I am afraid, it's far from the last scandalous result of the present government. The frustrations of all those, who put their heart, soul and endless energy, ending up with empty hands cannot be described. In Slovakia, officially culture seems not to matter any more. One can only pray for a miracle, but almost too much harm has been done. 

MS 

Opera Soap

After the last stalemate in the candidacy race to become the next lucky (perhaps rather unlucky) General Manager of Slovakia's National Opera, there is - believe it or not - some movement. In fact, any movement would be more than welcome, as the incompetency of not being able to find a suitable manager for a prestigious organisation like the Opera is really becoming more than embarrassing.

The fact remains that for more than three years a centralist management has been causing many upheavals and controversies, where the Opera wore out every few months another manager. Controversially mainly because all new incumbents were hailed as the brighter than bright future, leading the Opera to the heights of European, eh no: even World level! The dream-team bubble burst only within a too short a period, with a record of merely 3 months to be attributed to the famous singer Gabriela Beňačková. Whoever was to blame, three in a row was simply too much of a coincidence, yet it had to take a coup-d'état of 3 directors had to take place, before the General Manager Ms Hroncová was forced to step down.

While these things might equally happen in any other country as well, what is a bit frustrating or disturbing is the fact, that misty and vague interviews (if any) are given, leaving an odd flavour of political intrigues and hidden agendas. But let's call it sheer mismanagement.

As I described in one of my earlier blogs on this, 7 new candidates submitted their applications to the selection committee. For some unconvincing reasin one candidate withdrew one day before the interviews. The outcome: nobody made it. Fulfilling al requirements, plus handing in a fully elaborated strategic business plan seemed not sufficient enough to convince the committee to pick the right successor. 

Then Minister of Culture offered the famous singer Peter Dvorský - currently also in charge of the Košice Opera - to become the next General Manager. Although in this was suspected for a long time, this obviously was far from a surprise. Knowing, that Mr Dvorský has aspirations for this post, there is however a slight twist to the matter; somehow, Mr Dvorský didn't meet the requirements as stipulated in the aforementioned selection procedure. Since this was unsuccessful, now the Minister can adjust the requirements according to his own discretion, paving the way for a selected... well; preselected candidate. 

Whether Mr Dvorský would be able to manage the SND Opera is debatable. What is a big shame is the murky process. A farce to justify the next political moving of the chess figures on the board. A slight sense of exhaustion takes hold of me when I try to fathom all this fiddling around and wasting money just to play the pathetic old game of who gets what. Bratislava will probably never reach any level at all with its Opera, neither the global, nor the European standard. It's a costly soap situated in a provincial village where nobody cares. Very costly with a dragging yet sad ending.

MS