Karel Mark Chichon
Photo: DRP
Nachdem die Leitung der Oper in Sevilla dem spanischen Dirigenten Pedro Halffter und das Symphonieorchester dem Amerikaner John Axelrod anvertraut wurden, erwägt nun ein leer ausgegangener Kandidat gerichtliche Schritte. Laut der Zeitung ‘El Mundo’ lässt der Dirigent Karel Mark Chichon (zur Zeit Chefdirigent der Deutschen Radio Philharmonie) seine Anwälte prüfen, ob es nicht vielleicht Anomalien bei der Besetzung der Posten gegeben hat. Chichon behauptet, sein künstlerisches Projekt habe vom zuständigen Fachausschuss eine der höchsten Bewertungen erzielt. In diesem Programm hat die Ehefrau des Dirigenten, die Mezzosopranistin Elina Garança eine wichtige Rolle gespielt.
UPDATE:
Following the publication of this article about anomalies in the selection procedure of the chief conductor in Sevilla we received a significant clarification in form of the following letter, which explains the origins of this affair.
Dear Mr Franck,
My name is Jose Maria Fernandez. I am the lawyer who was quoted in the article of El Mundo as confirming that Mr. Chichon is considering legal action against the Sevilla authorities which you have included in one of your new items today.
I feel I should clarify to you that I spoke to El Mundo on behalf of the platform of musicians ‘Maestranza’ which was formed by conductors, soloists and other musicians precisely so that the process of choosing a new conductor for Seville would be transparent. I did not speak on behalf Mr. Chichon.
It is this platform ‘Maestranza’ that has alerted Mr. Chichon about the anomalies of the process but of course it is up to Mr. Chichon to decide on legal action or not. We as a platform were not a candidate so we cannot consider any legal action against the authorities in question – only Mr. Chichon can do that. All we can do is try to ask Mr Chichon to help us expose the truth in this cloudy process, because we are all upset at the result of Halffter/Axelrod when the opportunity of having Chichon was in our opinion a one-in-a-lifetime chance for Seville to rise up to the top league of classical music.
I therefore ask you kindly to consider updating your statement to reflect this information or if you wish publishing me letter in full because we feel it’s not really fair on Mr Chichon when he is only trying to help us out of his own freewill when he has nothing more to gain in this situation.
Thanking you
Yours sincerely
Jose Maria Fernandez
