A gala concert conducted by Ennio Morricone in Adelaide has been labelled a "fiasco" after it was disrupted by noise from a nearby V8 Supercar race.
by Jonathan Pearlman
05 March 2012
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Ennio Morricone CREDIT: Photo: EPA |
The last forty minutes of the special outdoor Morricone tribute concert were described as "cringeworthy", as moments of silence were filled by the sounds of engines from the Clipsal 500 event.
The disruption prompted the Premier of South Australia, Jay Weatherill, who was at the concert, to try to have the race stopped, without success.
"It is disappointing that such a world eminent artist's concert was disturbed in this way," Mr Weatherill said. "We took steps to have the car race brought to an end. It was in the final stages of the event in any event."
The intrusion, during a concert to open the Adelaide Festival on Friday night, drew an angry response from some concert goers.
"I think it's a total embarrassment to the entire state," said a former Adelaide Festival director, Anthony Steel. "The fact that there's so much going on in March, and let's forget about the car race, just so much in the broader sense of the word the arts... I think that has been a total disaster for the festival."
One attendee told ABC Radio: "Right in the middle of 40 or 50 V8s roaring around the track - hopefully the poor old maestro and the orchestra couldn't hear or see any of that."
Another said: "This was a fiasco."
The festival director, Paul Grabowsky, said the concert was a triumph but the car race should not be held at the same time as the festival.
"The actual event itself was not destroyed in any way, shape or form," he said.
"Of course it wasn't ideal and it shouldn't have happened. [We] did everything possible to maintain communications with Clipsal about any possible scheduling conflict and at no point during those conversations were we told that this race was going to be happening at that time.”
First published at The Telegraph (UK edition), March 5, 2012