Jonathan Miller hits upon Palau opera solution

After conducting a rehearsal for Mozart's 'Don Giovanni', he stated that "we will not fail our public," and confirmed that the opera would be staged as was originally planned, to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the birth of the composer, and that the six performances of the opera would go ahead as planned -on December 16, 19, 22, 26, 28 and 30, with Erwin Schortt in the title role, following his success at Covent Garden in London.

Equally enthusiastic was stage director, Dr Jonathan Miller, who apart from expressing his agreement with Mr Maazel, added that as a result of the accident, he had invented a new space for the opera to be staged in the interior of the auditorium thanks to the extra large orchestra pit, one added benefit of which, he claims, is that it will "bring the opera closer to the audience."

'Human error not to blame' for Palau stage collapse
By: valencialife.net
Wednesday, December 6, 2006

The first report of the organisation that runs the Palau de les Arts in the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia has not placed any blame on the staff of the theatre for the incident that took place last Saturday during a set change.

The installation has a 'black box' that records movements of the complicated equipment and this very clearly recorded that the staff undertook nothing untoward.

Yesterday two regional ministers -Gerardo Camps (Economy) and Alejandro Font de Mora (Culture)- gave a press conference in which they stated that a mechanical error had occurred as a consequence of the breakdown of one of the four hydraulic motors that was raising the set of 'Don Giovanni', and this then became paralysed. Two of the other motors were also damaged, but the cause of this has yet to be determined.

As was revealed yesterday, it was neither speed nor any possible excess weight that caused the accident as the equipment is easily capable of raising 80 tonnes at a speed of 0.18 metres per second, and at the time the incident took place, it was raising a set that weighed three tonnes at a speed of 0.10 metres per second.

Currently representatives of the architect, Santiago Calatrava, are working with representatives of the lift manufacturing company who have a maintenance contract for the equipment, whilst there is also an insurance policy valued at over three hundred million euros, and the Valencian government is considering issuing a claim on this for losses both in material and budgetary as well as damage to the overall image of the Palau.

Mr Font de Mora also stated that all those who wanted the cost of their tickets refunded would receive their money "immediately" if they chose this option as opposed to exchanging their tickets for another performance.

With regard to the future programming for the Palau, directors Lorin Maazel and Jonathan Miller are studying alternatives to stage 'Don Giovanni', and the intention is to preserve that largest part of the programme. 

In this way the Wagner 'Trilogy' will go ahead, 'The Witch', 'Simon Boccanegra' and the Forman operas have been "saved," the only problem is a technical one surrounding the Phillip Glass opera 'Beauty and The Beast' and this will now probably be moved to the next season.

To compensate for this, the performance by the Catalan troupe, Els Comediants, and their 'Mozart Walking' will now form part of the subscriptions to the Palau.

The performances of 'Cyrano de Bergerac,' starring Placido Domingo, requires a different stage setting and this has not yet been approved.

The Palau also stated that there would be alterations in the conc