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Boycott : un point de plus

Thomas Quasthoff, annulle ses 6 concerts en Israël.

Samedi, 5 février 2011 - 11h51 AM

Saturday 5 February 2011

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Something to celebrate.

Thomas Quasthoff, the internationally celebrated bass-baritone, has cancelled his visit to Israel where he was due to sing 6 concerts with the Israeli Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta, starting February 3rd.

As far as I know the campaign to persuade him not to go started with a BRICUP open letter on December 8th – attached for your interest. This got picked up and translated round the world – and Boycott from…

Within sent their own very powerful letter to him. We had the impression from various straws in the wind that he was undecided, and BRICUP sent him a second open letter in mid-January. Finally it was on Feb 2nd we heard that he cancelled! The ostensible reason given was an illness. But seems like a bit of a coincidence.

The story is given in

Haaretzhttp://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/spages/1212930.html?more=1but in Hebrew. (I believe the report contains some derogatory language about his disability.)
For those of you happier with German there is another brief account athttp://www.europeonline-magazine.eu/saenger-quasthoff-sagt-israel-reise-ab_107907.html
Jonathan