Kalash of temperament

By BAZ BAMIGBOYE

Last updated at 08:43 29 June 2007


Alfie Boe

Raised voices could be

heard in the executive

suite at the English

National Opera - and

they weren't coming from

any tenors.

Rather, it was executive and

artistic turmoil caused by the fallout

from the disastrous production

of Kismet that ENO staged

at the Coliseum.

As this page exclusively

revealed last week, the production

was left in disarray when the

show's choreographer, Javier De

Frutos, was fired after clashing

with director Gary Griffin.

Officials were left ringing round

various choreographers to come

and bail them out.

Anyway, those who attended a

dress rehearsal went into complete

shock when tenor Alfie Boe

came to the front of the stage

armed with a Kalashnikov rifle.

"It was meant to symbolise

what's going on in Baghdad now,

but it was ill-thought out and

quite awful," an eye-witness told

me, adding that Kismet is a silly

fantasy set in old Baghdad.

After a backstage row between

Griffin and ENO's management,

the Kalashnikov was dropped

before the public were allowed to

see the show.

ENO board members plan to

ask executives John Berry and

Loretta Tomasi what they're

playing at, how Kismet has been

turned into such an artistic

disaster, and even more

pertinently, why was it picked in

the first place.

Next year ENO plan to do

Meredith Wilson's musical The

Music Man, but I don't think we'll

be hearing those famous Seventy-

Six Trombones while there's such

discord behind the scenes.

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