The two conductors: Valery Gergiev & the birthday boy, March 14, 2010
Boris likes to infuriate his entire staff a few times each year by guest conducting (and eating!) in that most fabulous place on Earth: Italy. Boris had a busy birthday week, beginning with a return to the newly rebuilt Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari, Italy.
Though you may not think of the historic port city (on the heel of “the boot” in the region of Puglia) as one of the major cultural centres in Italy, it most certainly is. Its magnificent Petruzzelli Theatre is one of the grandest opera houses in the country after La Scala in Milan and the San Carlo Theatre in Naples. Host to many famous opera and ballet greats throughout the 20th century, it was nearly destroyed by arson in October 1991. Eighteen years later -- just this past October 2009 -- refurbishments were finally completed and it was reopened.
Boris conducted Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade and Tchaikovsky’s Third Symphony to a sold out audience. He says the players were fantastic and of course, so was the Italian hospitality and FOOD!
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Post concert meal featuring risotto, roasted snapper, seafood salad and then some...
To make matters worse for all of us salivating at the office, Boris is invited back to Bari this Autumn to conduct La Traviata and some other programs. Not to mention Trieste and Verona AND Bari in 2011. It's really not fair!
And it was back to his birthplace, Montreal for his actual b-day – March 14, which he shared with his late father, conductor and composer Alexander Brott -- where he attended the Montreal debut of the great Russian conductor Valery Gergiev, who conducted the Mariinsky Orchestra. The two Maestros reconnected backstage at Place des Arts.
Happy Birthday, Boris!