The scandal of the summer will have allowed a new talent to blossom. After John Eliot Gardiner slapped one of the artists in the cast of Berlioz’s Les Troyens at La Côte-Saint-André, the great anticipated event of the season turned into a sordid news item. John Eliot Gardiner was undoubtedly one of the greatest Berlioz conductors of his generation, but with his thuggish behaviour he left by the back door, raising the painful question of the mistreatment of certain conductors. His withdrawal from the project fortunately gave his assistant, the young conductor Dinis Sousa, the opportunity to explode as a revelation. The Principal Conductor of the Royal Northern Sinfonia and Associate Conductor of the Monteverdi Choir took the rest of the tour to Berlin, Salzburg, Versailles and London.
(c) Sim Canetty-Clarke
