Vittorio Grigolo

[sydneyboy]

This marvellous tenor has just been sacked from future performances at the Royal Opera House and the Metropolitan for “aggressive and inappropriate conduct” on a recent ROH tour of Japan. I heard him in Tosca at Covent Garden mid year and thought he was sensational and judging by the audience reaction after his big arias and at the final curtain I was not the only one who thought so. There was a strong “melodramatic “playing to the gallery aspect to his performance but with a voice like his it was totally in order. I was looking forward to his Edgardo in Lucia in London next year but it is not to be. Another one bites the dust.

[MscleLovr]

Thanks for posting @sydneyboy I hadn’t read about this.

 

I too admired VG’s singing and acting.

[+ quoththeraven]

It would be nice if talented people learned they can't just do what they want anymore.

[TruHart1]

Grigolo wrote and posted a public apology online but the horse is already out of the barn, as they say. Besides the inappropriate behavior on his part, a few of his colleagues (this happened during bows after a ROH on tour performance of Faust) tried to stop his behavior and he got into a physical altercation with some of them! How public can you get?!! It's sad a singer with his great talent cannot control either his temper OR his libido. :(

 

TruHart1

[sydneyboy]

As much as I enjoyed his singing in Tosca in London mid year it was obvious that he is a Prima Donna from central casting. He milked the adulation at the final curtain for all it was worth.

[+ WilliamM]

Grigolo wrote and posted a public apology online but the horse is already out of the barn, as they say. Besides the inappropriate behavior on his part, a few of his colleagues (this happened during bows after a ROH on tour performance of Faust) tried to stop his behavior and he got into a physical altercation with some of them! How public can you get?!! It's sad a singer with his great talent cannot control either his temper OR his libido. :(

 

TruHart1

Grigolo has been a star for too long too long to play innocent.

[+ g56whiz]

It would be nice if talented people learned they can't just do what they want anymore.

I would respectfully disagree @quoththeraven. This is a conundrum to me. The subset of humans capable of being trained to make a sound that will fill a 4,000-seat auditorium is not very large. And within that group, the subset of those who’s sound is both pleasant and musical is smaller still. And within that tiny group the number who can project that musicality with passion is almost infinitesimal. And now we expect all those in this tiny group to be able to turn that passion on and off with the decorousness of a Swiss Banker?

 

There’s more than a bit of hypocrisy going on here. I can’t believe that The Met was unaware of James Levine’s’ shenanigans: rumors were rampant for decades or of Domingo’s many peccadilloes. But Domingo and Levine put a lot of butts in the many seats in that house.

 

Of course, any performer who assaults another physically or sexually deserves appropriate punishment. Same to those in authority who offer career advancement in return for sexual favors (a la Levine and Domingo). But short of that I think we all (performers, administrators and fans alike) better grow up and act as adults. Some of the passion expressed on the operatic stage is a substitute for the passion missing in our lives and the pursuit of such passion is not always appropriate. They’re performing at The Met or La Scala not the Sistine Chapel. If this #MeToo movement persists in the opera world, we’ll be reduced to Toscas that will have all the heat and energy of a Handel oratorio. I love Handel oratorios but I love opera too. We need both. [End Of Rant]

[bostonman]

There’s more than a bit of hypocrisy going on here. I can’t believe that The Met was unaware of James Levine’s’ shenanigans: rumors were rampant for decades or of Domingo’s many peccadilloes. But Domingo and Levine put a lot of butts in the many seats in that house.

 

That may be exactly the issue in this case with Grigolo. Levine and Domingo were tacitly allowed to get away with what they did, for way too long, but now there's clearly an attempt not to let that happen with anyone else. In an earlier time, Grigolo would have gotten away with this too. I'm not sure if this was being overly cautious or not, but the more people are called out for this kind of behavior, hopefully the less people will do it.

 

There was an incident in a Boston production last year with TV/Broadway star Tom Wopat groping women in the cast, showing up to rehearsals drunk, and other ugliness. He was arrested and fired from the show. I was telling this story to a colleague the other day, and she told me she was aware that he had a history of that sort of behavior - something that I didn't know. Thanks to the courage of one of the women in the show who spoke up about what happened, they caught him this time. Good.

[+ quoththeraven]

I would respectfully disagree @quoththeraven. This is a conundrum to me. The subset of humans capable of being trained to make a sound that will fill a 4,000-seat auditorium is not very large. And within that group, the subset of those who’s sound is both pleasant and musical is smaller still. And within that tiny group the number who can project that musicality with passion is almost infinitesimal. And now we expect all those in this tiny group to be able to turn that passion on and off with the decorousness of a Swiss Banker?

 

There’s more than a bit of hypocrisy going on here. I can’t believe that The Met was unaware of James Levine’s’ shenanigans: rumors were rampant for decades or of Domingo’s many peccadilloes. But Domingo and Levine put a lot of butts in the many seats in that house.

 

Of course, any performer who assaults another physically or sexually deserves appropriate punishment. Same to those in authority who offer career advancement in return for sexual favors (a la Levine and Domingo). But short of that I think we all (performers, administrators and fans alike) better grow up and act as adults. Some of the passion expressed on the operatic stage is a substitute for the passion missing in our lives and the pursuit of such passion is not always appropriate. They’re performing at The Met or La Scala not the Sistine Chapel. If this #MeToo movement persists in the opera world, we’ll be reduced to Toscas that will have all the heat and energy of a Handel oratorio. I love Handel oratorios but I love opera too. We need both. [End Of Rant]

You're assuming people can't learn and adapt. I'm not.

 

No group is a special snowflake worth protecting from consequences, and you don't know how many talented people leave or are discouraged from pursuing a career because they are expected to put up with this behavior. Levine and Domingo are why this needs to be dealt with instead of taking the position that someone is too valuable to suffer consequences. There are always new people developing their abilities. It isn't necessary to keep the creeps around.

 

WNYC fired my favorite host/announcer Leonard Lopate for sexual harassment, and while the replacement show is nowhere near as good, I value employee health and safety over Mr. Lopate's continued employment after having been put on notice/warned once. Also the kind of questions I heard him ask of Anita Hill in an interview about Google firing an employee who claimed women weren't up to the job made me unsurprised about the allegations.

[+ g56whiz]

You're assuming people can't learn and adapt. I'm not.

 

No group is a special snowflake worth protecting from consequences, and you don't know how many talented people leave or are discouraged from pursuing a career because they are expected to put up with this behavior. Levine and Domingo are why this needs to be dealt with instead of taking the position that someone is too valuable to suffer consequences. There are always new people developing their abilities. It isn't necessary to keep the creeps around.

 

WNYC fired my favorite host/announcer Leonard Lopate for sexual harassment, and while the replacement show is nowhere near as good, I value employee health and safety over Mr. Lopate's continued employment after having been put on notice/warned once. Also the kind of questions I heard him ask of Anita Hill in an interview about Google firing an employee who claimed women weren't up to the job made me unsurprised about the allegations.

I'm sorry @quoththeraven: that's not what I meant to imply. I assume from decades of observation that some people can and will learn to adapt, and I know that there are others wholly unable or unwilling to do so. I have no idea what Sr. Grigolo's "aggressive and inappropriate conduct" entailed. If it involved any sort of assault on another individual's person or career perhaps the loss of some performances or even his career is not penalty enough. But I think it's the height of hypocrisy for us to expect that those who put the entirety of their passionate emotions into their performances for our appreciation night after night be expected to conduct them selves as prissy Sunday school teachers in all other aspects of their lives. I'm hoping that performers, administrators and audiences a like act like mature, sophisticated adults. But then again I may be naive.

[bostonman]

I think it's the height of hypocrisy for us to expect that those who put the entirety of their passionate emotions into their performances for our appreciation night after night be expected to conduct them selves as prissy Sunday school teachers in all other aspects of their lives.

 

The CRAFT of acting is the ability to do what needs to be done onstage without letting it become so personal that it intrudes on real life. A good actor will fool us into thinking they ARE the character fully in whatever emotional situation they are in - and yet, that performer then goes offstage and gets ready for the next scene.

 

Now, I'm not saying that there aren't demanding roles that don't take a toll on one's real-life psyche, or roles that are just too close to one's personal struggles to be healthy (one example is Dean Jones leaving Company soon after its opening, due to the fact that he was going through a divorce at the time - not an easy fit for him emotionally with his character in the show for sure). But if an actor is really putting his own emotional turmoil onstage night after night, he's not going to last very long.

 

Now, "prissy Sunday school teacher" may be going too far at that end of the spectrum lol - but I do believe that the majority of performers don't bring their work home with them, and cope with personal issues the way we all do. Certainly we've heard plenty of stories about performers of all sorts dealing with addictions, untoward sexual or violent behavior, etc - but I think we'd agree that we don't hear that about the vast majority of them.

 

But - we are in an age where such issues are being exposed more often than they used to be - and if Grigolo is falling into that abyss, I'm very sorry that is happening, but it's better to stop him now if so.

 

But I think it's rather wrong to assume that performers are putting "the entirety of their emotions" into their performances. Part of the fun of that is marvelling how they do it - how they make it seem that way. I often use the final scene of Madama Butterfly as an example. That final aria where Butterfly says goodbye to her son had me bawling my eyes out when I first heard it as a youngster - I marvel how countless sopranos - especially any sopranos who are real-life parents - can sing that without doing the same. But that's the craft. One learns, often through sheer repetition, how to recreate the intensity of the moment without it getting too emotionally "hot" in reality. Otherwise we'd see performers literally falling apart onstage all the time (instead of just their characters doing that).

[+ WilliamM]

I'm sorry @quoththeraven: that's not what I meant to imply. I assume from decades of observation that some people can and will learn to adapt, and I know that there are others wholly unable or unwilling to do so. I have no idea what Sr. Grigolo's "aggressive and inappropriate conduct" entailed. If it involved any sort of assault on another individual's person or career perhaps the loss of some performances or even his career is not penalty enough. But I think it's the height of hypocrisy for us to expect that those who put the entirety of their passionate emotions into their performances for our appreciation night after night be expected to conduct them selves as prissy Sunday school teachers in all other aspects of their lives. I'm hoping that performers, administrators and audiences a like act like mature, sophisticated adults. But then again I may be naive.

 

Grigolo is a professional opera singer with many years experience. Perhaps he thought wonderful, world class singers were free to behave as they pleased, without regard for other people.

[+ WilliamM]

The CRAFT of acting is the ability to do what needs to be done onstage without letting it become so personal that it intrudes on real life. A good actor will fool us into thinking they ARE the character fully in whatever emotional situation they are in - and yet, that performer then goes offstage and gets ready for the next scene.

 

Now, I'm not saying that there aren't demanding roles that don't take a toll on one's real-life psyche, or roles that are just too close to one's personal struggles to be healthy (one example is Dean Jones leaving Company soon after its opening, due to the fact that he was going through a divorce at the time - not an easy fit for him emotionally with his character in the show for sure). But if an actor is really putting his own emotional turmoil onstage night after night, he's not going to last very long.

 

Now, "prissy Sunday school teacher" may be going too far at that end of the spectrum lol - but I do believe that the majority of performers don't bring their work home with them, and cope with personal issues the way we all do. Certainly we've heard plenty of stories about performers of all sorts dealing with addictions, untoward sexual or violent behavior, etc - but I think we'd agree that we don't hear that about the vast majority of them.

 

But - we are in an age where such issues are being exposed more often than they used to be - and if Grigolo is falling into that abyss, I'm very sorry that is happening, but it's better to stop him now if so.

 

But I think it's rather wrong to assume that performers are putting "the entirety of their emotions" into their performances. Part of the fun of that is marvelling how they do it - how they make it seem that way. I often use the final scene of Madama Butterfly as an example. That final aria where Butterfly says goodbye to her son had me bawling my eyes out when I first heard it as a youngster - I marvel how countless sopranos - especially any sopranos who are real-life parents - can sing that without doing the same. But that's the craft. One learns, often through sheer repetition, how to recreate the intensity of the moment without it getting too emotionally "hot" in reality. Otherwise we'd see performers literally falling apart onstage all the time (instead of just their characters doing that).

 

It may not be fair to single out Dean Jones. That happened decades ago.

[+ g56whiz]

The CRAFT of acting is the ability to do what needs to be done onstage without letting it become so personal that it intrudes on real life. A good actor will fool us into thinking they ARE the character fully in whatever emotional situation they are in - and yet, that performer then goes offstage and gets ready for the next scene.

 

Now, I'm not saying that there aren't demanding roles that don't take a toll on one's real-life psyche, or roles that are just too close to one's personal struggles to be healthy (one example is Dean Jones leaving Company soon after its opening, due to the fact that he was going through a divorce at the time - not an easy fit for him emotionally with his character in the show for sure). But if an actor is really putting his own emotional turmoil onstage night after night, he's not going to last very long.

 

Now, "prissy Sunday school teacher" may be going too far at that end of the spectrum lol - but I do believe that the majority of performers don't bring their work home with them, and cope with personal issues the way we all do. Certainly we've heard plenty of stories about performers of all sorts dealing with addictions, untoward sexual or violent behavior, etc - but I think we'd agree that we don't hear that about the vast majority of them.

 

But - we are in an age where such issues are being exposed more often than they used to be - and if Grigolo is falling into that abyss, I'm very sorry that is happening, but it's better to stop him now if so.

 

But I think it's rather wrong to assume that performers are putting "the entirety of their emotions" into their performances. Part of the fun of that is marvelling how they do it - how they make it seem that way. I often use the final scene of Madama Butterfly as an example. That final aria where Butterfly says goodbye to her son had me bawling my eyes out when I first heard it as a youngster - I marvel how countless sopranos - especially any sopranos who are real-life parents - can sing that without doing the same. But that's the craft. One learns, often through sheer repetition, how to recreate the intensity of the moment without it getting too emotionally "hot" in reality. Otherwise we'd see performers literally falling apart onstage all the time (instead of just their characters doing that).

We're talking about opera singers here not actors and I agree that most actors AND singers "do not bring their work home with them". But short of abuse either sexual, physical or mental or screwing around with a career, I'd give a singer more leeway than they'd get if they were a banker or teacher for example and I expect their colleagues should do the same. I greatly fear an opera world reduced in emotion to the quaint passion of a Gilbert & Sullivan operetta.

[+ WilliamM]

We're talking about opera singers here not actors and I agree that most actors AND singers "do not bring their work home with them". But short of abuse either sexual, physical or mental or screwing around with a career, I'd give a singer more leeway than they'd get if they were a banker or teacher for example and I expect their colleagues should do the same. I greatly fear an opera world reduced in emotion to the quaint passion of a Gilbert & Sullivan operetta.

 

Many actors and actresses sing and act. And on Broadway eight performances a week.

[+ g56whiz]

Many actors and actresses sing and act. And on Broadway eight performances a week.

Yea. With a well placed body mic. It ain't the same @WilliamM.

[+ WilliamM]

Yea. With a well placed body mic. It ain't the same @WilliamM.

 

Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza didn't use body mics in the original cast of "South Pacific." Body mics had not been invented in 1949.

[bostonman]

It may not be fair to single out Dean Jones. That happened decades ago.

 

I didn't intend to "single him out" - the example was on my mind because it actually came up in conversation recently, and here it seemed appropriate to the subject. And yes, it happened decades ago, but I'm not sure why that matters. I'm sure similar things happened back when the ancient Greek plays were premiered, lol. Peace. ;-)

[+ WilliamM]

I didn't intend to "single him out" - the example was on my mind because it actually came up in conversation recently, and here it seemed appropriate to the subject. And yes, it happened decades ago, but I'm not sure why that matters. I'm sure similar things happened back when the ancient Greek plays were premiered, lol. Peace. ;-)

 

I am 76 years old, yet don't remember the details of his leaving. But, I was never that interested with the original cast of "Company."

[bostonman]

I am 76 years old, yet don't remember the details of his leaving. But, I was never that interested with the original cast of "Company."

 

Really doesn't matter lol. It was just an example of an actor stuck in a show that dealt with material too close to his current personal life. Back to Grigolo. ;-)