The start of the school year is set. In the form of a musical tribute addressed to the thousands of dead from Covid-19 in northern Italy. La Scala's season kicks off with Verdi's Requiem performed at Milan's Duomo, the famous cathedral in Italy's economic capital, Milan opera director Dominique Meyer announced on Monday. The show will then move on September 7 to Bergamo and on September 9 to Brescia.
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These two cities in Lombardy, the Milan region, were among the most affected by the pandemic which has killed more than 35,000 in Italy. These three shows will be directed by the conductor Riccardo Chailly.
23 million euros loss
Frenchman Dominique Meyer, appointed to La Scala last year after spending ten years directing the Vienna Opera, confirmed that the theater expected a loss of 23 million euros in ticket revenue due to the cancellation of some 150 performances. He however assured that there would be no hole in the accounts of La Scala “because we were helped by the sponsors and the reduction of costs” , he specified. The opening of the theater itself, in Milan, will take place on September 12 with Beethoven's 9th Symphony .
La Scala currently foresees certain restrictions until the end of October with, for example, the operas by Giuseppe Verdi, La Traviata and Aïda , performed in concert form, before a normal resumption of its shows, with full staging, in November.
Among the major dates to remember from the musical recovery, December 5 will be the opportunity to listen to a recital by the famous conductor Daniel Barenboim. The Israeli-Argentinian pianist had been musical director of the Milanese theater in 2015, but had only returned to this famous stage once since. In Milan, we await with the same impatience this double return: that of a normal artistic activity and that of a legend of La Scala at the piano.