“A former intern says that acclaimed Boston Symphony Orchestra guest conductor Charles Dutoit sexually assaulted her at Tanglewood 20 years ago,” write Malcolm Gay and Rebecca Ostriker in Tuesday’s (1/2) Boston Globe. “The orchestra has since launched an investigation. Fiona Allan, who now runs one of England’s most popular theaters [the Birmingham Hippodrome], said she was working as an intern at the Tanglewood music festival during the summer of 1997 when she entered Dutoit’s dressing room alone to deliver some papers. Within a couple of minutes, she said, Dutoit began groping her…. The alleged incident occurred the summer before Mark Volpe, the BSO’s managing director, began in that role in September…. Allan … would routinely bring musical scores and other documents to visiting conductors or soloists’ dressing rooms…. Upon leaving Dutoit’s dressing room, Allan said, she immediately encountered then-BSO orchestra manager Ray Wellbaum in a corridor, and he warned her not to meet Dutoit alone…. Wellbaum … retired as full-time BSO orchestra manager at the end of 2016 and now holds the BSO title of adviser to the managing director…. ‘[Wellbaum’s] current status as a consultant for the BSO will be reviewed upon completion of the investigation,’ the BSO said in its statement.”
Posted January 3, 2018
