Genoa – The letter of resignation, addressed to the president of the Carlo Felice Foundation, the mayor Marco Bucci, is dated 6 December. But the news of the farewell of five-star senator Luca Pirondini to the Genoese theater's board of directors has so far remained under wraps. Even if it is a controversial resignation towards the Ministry of Culture, from which Pirondini was appointed in 2019 (click here for the article), by the then Grillino minister Alberto Bonisoli, and then confirmed by his successor, the dem Enrico Franceschini. And the news comes in busy days for the Carlo Felice, with the strike called by the Snater union, which looms over the premiere of the opera Edith on December 17th.
Pirondini, why this resignation?
«Because, for me, there are no longer any conditions to represent the Ministry, since it has decided to cut both the so-called Genoa law, which since 1999 has guaranteed an extra contribution to the Carlo Felice theatre, bombed during the war and then rebuilt, that the FUS (Single Entertainment Fund, ed.) for all Italian opera and symphonic foundations”.
How big are these cuts?
«According to the Genoa law, this is a reduction of over 43 thousand euros, on a figure that had already been reduced for some years to just over 872 thousand euros, compared to the 2.5 million we started with. But it's not just the 43 thousand euros, which more or less correspond to the gross salary of an orchestra professor. It's a question of principle. For the Fus, however, a cut of around 10 percent is looming, which is still difficult to quantify for the Carlo Felice. All this seems to me to clearly indicate that there is no desire to invest in the Lyric and Symphonic Foundations and in their future.”
Is no rethinking of the government possible?
«With regards to the FUS, they asked me to transform the amendment I had presented into an agenda which was approved unanimously in the Culture Committee, but it is, in fact, an agenda. And there are no conditions for the amendment to the Genoa law to be approved, unless the majority does so. I hope that my resignation will cause a shock and lead to a change of direction.”
But hadn't there been cuts in contributions to opera theaters in recent years?
«Since I have been on the Carlo Felice board of directors, this is the first time this has happened. And just yesterday I was also accused by Fratelli d'Italia of having a conflict of interest, because I presented the amendment on the Genoa law and I am on the board of directors of Carlo Felice. This confirms that I was right to resign from a position which, I would like it to be clear, I carried out for free”
How has your experience on the Carlo Felice board of directors been so far? Are there other reasons that influenced the decision to resign?
“Not at all. I worked well with both the superintendent Claudio Orazi and the mayor Bucci, and I leave the theater in much better conditions than I found it. Carlo Felice had a debt of around 40 million euros which has been halved, it has no pending lawsuits, 38 temporary workers have been stabilized and new hires are now being made. And it is also the Foundation that made the least redundancy payments during the Covid pandemic, and I fought for this.”
In recent months there has been much controversy over the consultancy for the Paganini Prize entrusted by the superintendent to some former collaborators of former M5S ministers. You, who are an exponent of this Movement, didn't you feel politically embarrassed in that circumstance?
«I never met any of those consultants and I found out about the whole affair after the fact. Those assignments were not decided by the theatre's board of directors, so much so that one of the arguments used by those who had accused the superintendent at the time was that he had not involved the board. The State Attorney's Office, however, said that the assignment of those roles was legitimate and I respect the opinion of the Attorney's Office.”
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