The Opera Theater responds to Afezolli: We do not deny the work of Albanian conductors

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The Opera Theater responds to Afezolli: We do not deny the work of Albanian conductors

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The interview of the general director of TKOBAP for News 24, Abigeila Voshtina, has caused reactions in the artistic community.

Besides the appointment of two Italian artistic directors, for Opera and Ballet, part of her interview on conductors has been received with reservations. A day ago, Petrika Afezolli reacted to a part of Voshtina’s interview regarding conductors in Albania.
Afezolli wrote that “without any argument, Voshtina said that ALBANIA IS NOT PROMINENT FOR SKILLED CONDUCTORS!”.
A day later, the Opera Theater expressed through a reaction that Voshtina’s sentence was taken out of context and that only during this year, well-known names of Albanian music were remembered. Full reaction below.

Feedback:
This is a sentence taken out of context. The director was asked why two foreign directors, and showing the reason why she chose Jacopo as artistic director, she was also showing that she wanted a conductor as artistic director.

Absolutely, the work of the Albanian conductors so far is not denied.
Only during this year, several important Albanian composers and conductors were remembered and honored, with an irreplaceable contribution, such as Rifat Teqja, Simon Gjoni, Česk Zadeja, Feim Ibrahimi, Aleksandër Peçi, etc.

What the director said is that at this moment, the Theater needs to move to another level. We should not be satisfied with what we have achieved, but we should look forward, evaluating the work done so far, as the Theater has done. And the truth is that Albania has never had conductors of European stature, who have developed their careers in major European theaters. We have had tenors, sopranos, instrumentalists, etc. But not decent. The truth is the truth.
Jacopo, as a conductor, has an international career that cannot be compared with any Albanian conductor. And it is lucky for the Albanian conductors, to exchange experiences with him, to improve, and to move forward, being more open-minded and learning from such a personality of European conducting, who continues to have an excellent career and be requested by the prestigious European Theatre. If we are satisfied with what has been done so far, we will not be able to move forward. This is a principle in our work so far.

So once again, the context of this statement was that we need a conductor of European influence, which we STILL don’t have in Albania. Jacopo’s presence here is an important step that young Albanian conductors should take advantage of, and manage to become competitive not only in Albania, but also in Europe, learning from his experience.