CRISIS AT LA SCALA

THE TIMES
3 April 2005

































 


Last dramatic act at La Scala for maestro Muti

RICHARD BROOKS, ARTS EDITOR



RICCARDO MUTI, the musical director of La Scala, one of the world’s top opera houses, dramatically resigned yesterday.

The embattled conductor, who has been at the Milan opera house since 1986, cited “the vulgar hostility of colleagues” for his decision to resign.



Muti, 64, had been conducting his own two-year battle with the board of La Scala. Only last month he successfully managed to oust an old enemy, Carlo Fontana, as general manager but in doing so he lost the support of many members of the orchestra as well as stagehands.

The fiery temper of the Naples-born conductor has long been the stuff of musical legend. Last autumn British opera-goers experienced a Muti tantrum when at the last minute he pulled out of conducting La Forza Del Destino at the Royal Opera House in London in a row over sets.

La Scala itself, which was first opened in 1778, reopened only last December after a £43m refit. Resentment had been building, however, over what many musicians saw as Muti’s high-handed attitude and disdain of the powerful Italian trade unions. Labour unrest meant the cancellation of some performances with employees at La Scala threatening to strike for each scheduled premiere.

Two weeks ago Muti told his rebellious musicians: “The conditions no longer exist for us to make music together.”

The crisis came to a head yesterday with Muti, who is regarded as one of the world’s top opera conductors, saying that he had no alternative but to step down.

“Despite the signs of esteem expressed to me by the board, the hostility manifested in such a coarse way by persons with whom I have worked for nearly 20 years makes it really impossible to carry on with a relationship of collaboration, which should be based on harmony and trust,” he said..

“To make music together isn’t only a group labour. It requires sharing, esteem, passion, interest and understanding. These are the sentiments which I believed to have been the constant of these 20 years at La Scala.”

The clash between Muti and the unions might seem to be one between high art and philistinism: a maestro used to getting his own way while performing at a usually very high level, and the old-fashioned workforces of Italy, who at times seem to operate as if this were still the heady 1960s when overmanning was the norm.

La Scala has a behind-the-scenes staff alone of more than 1,000, at least twice as many as the Royal Opera House. La Scala is also hugely subsidised.

Muti, who was still in his twenties when he was appointed music director of the prestigious Maggio Musicale in Florence in 1968, moved four years later to the Philharmonia in London, taking over as principal director from Otto Klemperer. He has also conducted operatic productions in Philadelphia, Munich and Vienna.

Muti’s successor will almost certainly have to be Italian and will be hard to find. The front-runners are probably Daniele Gatti, who is both music director of London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and of Bologna’s Teatro Comunale, and Riccardo Chailly, who has recently left his post in Amsterdam to become music director in Leipzig. He has not yet arrived in Germany, however, which might make him more easily available.

Gatti is highly regarded, but is considered to be a little young and inexperienced for what is not just a musical post but also a political one.

Muti’s predecessor was Claudio Abbado, who made no secret of his close ties to Italy’s socialist government of the time. Some even wonder if Abbado might be tempted back, although there could be concerns about his health.

Another name being mentioned as a successor is Antonio Pappano, music director of Covent Garden. Pappano, who has American parents, took over at very short notice the conducting La Forza Del Destino last October after Muti’s withdrawal.

Some were even wondering this weekend if Muti’s resignation was tactical. “He might have done it more in the hope that the powers-that-be beg him to stay and win his battles with the unions,” said one opera insider.

Link to Musicweb.uk.net

Updates

07/04/2005 Editorial (Muti and La Scala)
07/04/2005 Radio TV
07/04/2005 Classica
May 2005
26/03/2005 Norman Lebrecht about the crisis at La Scala
21/03/2005 Claudio Abbado about Cuba
14/02/2005 Critic of the concert on February 13th
14/02/2005 Concert in Caracas on February 13th
27/01/2005 Wanderer 16: Cuba (with special pics)
27/01/2005 News from concert in Cuba
26/01/2005 Program 2004-2005 of Claudio Abbado updated
26/01/2005 Other news from venezuela's first concert of OJL
18/01/2005 Other news from venezuela
17/01/2005 Claudio Abbado and Southamerican Youthorchestra (2)
16/01/2005 Claudio Abbado and Southamerican Youthorchestra
14/01/2005 Radio TV
14/01/2005 Cuba
06/01/2005 Cuba's gallery
06/01/2005 Cuba Wanderer
06/01/2005 Infobox
28/11/2004 Radio TV
23/11/2004 Programme Lucerne 2005
16/11/2004 Other pictures (Bologna & Orchestra Mozart)
15/11/2004 New pictures (Bologna & MCO)
15/11/2004 Infobox
15/10/2004 The Guardian, 15 october 2004
15/10/2004 Editorial
15/10/2004 Season 2004-2005
15/10/2004 Orchestra Mozart
19/09/2004

Musicweb (CD Mahler Debussy)

19/09/2004 Wanderer 14: Lucerne 2004 (Beethoven and Mahler V )
11/09/2004

Musicweb (seen and heard)

09/09/2004 Lucerne 2004: Member's pics
09/09/2004 Wanderer 13: Lucerne 2004 (Strauss and Wagner )
04/09/2004 New CD
04/09/2004 New DVD
26/08/2004 Lucerne 2004: New York Times
26/08/2004 Lucerne 2004: El Pais (Mahler)
26/08/2004 Lucerne 2004:  El Pais (Tristan)
26/08/2004 next saison 2004-2005: Update n.3
26/08/2004 next saison 2004-2005: Update n.2
22/08/2004 Infobox
22/08/2004 Lucerne 2004: Articles
22/08/2004 Radio TV
06/07/2004 New releases
29/06/2004 Wanderer 12: Berlin June 2004
27/06/2004 Claudio's birthday: The party of CAI in Milan : our pics
14/06/2004 Gallery of CAI member's pics Berlin 2004
08/06/2004 Our Gallery of Berlin 2004
03/06/2004 Radio TV
02/05/2004 Wanderer 11: Two mad girls...
19/04/2004 Wanderer 10: GMJO in Bolzano
07/04/2004 New CD  Netrebko/Abbado
20/03/2004 Infocai: CAI's general assembly
20/03/2004 Classica TV (Ital) March-April 2004
20/03/2004 Infobox
24/02/2004 Cordula Groth pics (Vienna 2002)
24/02/2004 Radio TV
22/02/2004 Our Gallery of Ferrara 2004 (Members of CAI)
22/02/2004 Our Gallery of Ferrara 2004 (Così fan tutte)
04/01/2004 DVD list updated
30/12/2003 Editorial december 2003
23/11/2003 Translation of the book "Musica sopra Berlino" in Japan
18/11/2003 Program of Lucerne Festival 2004
( Lucerne Festival Orchestra cyclus)
18/11/2003 Praemium Imperiale to Claudio Abbado Tokyo: our pics
14/10/2003 Honorary doctorate of Basilicata's University to Claudio Abbado, our pics
13/09/2003 An incredible pic
8/09/2003 Program 2004, first elements
26/08/2003 The New York Times 
25/08/2003 Wanderer :
conclusions
24/08/2003 Wanderer 19:
Mahler II
24/08/2003 Wanderer 18:
Bach
16/08/2003 Chronique du Wanderer 17: Ouverture du Lucerne Festival
08/08/2003 Lucerne
03/08/2003 Discography
14/07/2003 Editorial
14/07/2003 Claudio Abbado is 70

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