Cristóbal Tapia de Veer reveals he won’t be returning as ‘The White Lotus’ composer

By Lisa Respers France, CNN

(CNN) — “The White Lotus” has been a popular destination for viewers, but one artist who has contributed to the success of series announced he won’t return for another stay.

Cristóbal Tapia de Veer, the composer for the HBO drama, told the New York Times that he’s had creative disagreements with the show’s creator and director, Mike White, since the first season.

“I feel like this was, you know, a rock ’n’ roll band story,” he said. “I was like, OK, this is like a rock band I’ve been in before where the guitar player doesn’t understand the singer at all.”

CNN has reached out to representatives for HBO for comment. (CNN and HBO are both part of Warner Bros. Discovery.)

Tapia de Veer has won three Emmys for his work on “The White Lotus” and said “for sure” the third season will be his last. He was asked how White responded to his decision to part ways with the show.

“I can’t really talk about that,” Tapia de Veer replied. “There was a French movie, ‘La Cage Aux Folles.’ You know how there’s Albin, which is like the star, and there’s Renato, who is the producer who is always taking care that Albin doesn’t lose his mind about something, because Albin is the diva and Renato is the guy who is trying to make everything work. To me, the show felt very much like that.”

Tapia de Veer said changes to the opening theme music in Season 3 were met with a strong reaction, “When that came out, I had TMZ calling me, even people from England and from France, because they wanted some kind of statement about the theme.”

“People are furious about the change of the theme, and I thought that was interesting. I texted the producer and I told him that it would be great to, at some point, give them the longer version with the ooh-loo-loo-loos, because people will explode if they realize that it was going there anyway,” he added. “He thought it was a good idea. But then Mike cut that — he wasn’t happy about that.”

“I mean, at that point, we already had our last fight forever, I think. So he was just saying no to anything,” he added.

“The White Lotus” is streaming on Max.

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