There's an odd comment in a BBC report on the South Bank Center new season launch. Referring to the comments of SBC boss Jude Kelly that the classical music business is still weighted against women--in many ways a fair comment and one that has been widely reported--the Beeb suggested that there were dissenting voices from Marin Alsop's selection to conduct the Last Night of the Proms in 2013.
"Alsop was singled out in Ms. Kelly's speech," says the BBC report, "after several prominent men queried her appointment as the first female conductor of the Last Night of the Proms last year."
It then cites controversial statements about female conductors uttered by Vasily Petrenko (who later claimed that his statement referred to the regrettable situation in his native Russia and pointed out that his own wife is a choral conductor) and the Paris Conservatoire head Bruno Mantavani.
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