John Deacon wonders why Americans are down on Muti as an opera conductor.
it is true that most of his activities have been in Europe, but he did do
a number of operas, not just Pagliacci, in Philadelphia, and I, for one,
have heard him in Europe conducting opera and have owned at one time or
another a number of his recordings.  I think this is a simple matter of
taste.  I tried, really I did, to listen to the broadcast of the La Scala
Goetterdaemmerung last year on America's NPR; it simply paled in comparison
to anything Levine and the Met can do.

Beyond taste, I also find his conduct to raise serious questions about his
judgement and personality.  I'm not sure how much Europeans are aware of
what happened here; it was pretty ugly.  I've come, as I get older, to a
position of not being able to separate completely the human being from
the musician (there's now not exactly not a lot of H v K recordings in my
colleciton!).  Composer, maybe, conductor, not.  (My, that's opening a big
can of worms, isn't it?).

But, in general, the main question is Muti's suitability to hold a major
postion with an orchestra in this country.  Has he learned anything in the
past seven years? From the various hissy fits he's pulled over the past
year or so, I don't think so.

Robin Mitchell-Boyask
Temple University
Philadelphia PA 19122