The very talented young conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Gustavo Dudamel, is in a bit of hot water.
His silence on the topic of the popular uprising against the socialist government of Nicolas Maduro in his home country of Venezuela has not gone unnoticed. Maestro Dudamel may, in fact, support Maduro and may have (tacitly) supported the late unlamented socialist Hugo Chavez. Nevertheless, he is witnessing a massive, sincere, angry outcry by his very brave fellow countrymen protesting the regime’s socialist policies. To his shame, Maestro Dudamel has not commented on the Venezuelan people’s fight against tyranny. If he is a fellow traveler, shame on him. If not, then he’s just the latest sad victim of what befell Wilhelm Furtwängler so many years ago. It would behoove young Maestro Dudamel to remember he was principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra during the entire Nazi era. The bloody stain of his association with the barbarians of the Nazi Party remained with him until his death and continues to this day.
(Read The Devil’s Music Master: The Controversial Life and Career of Wilhelm Furtwangler
