Remember the news that Opera Chic reported here, which mentioned the January 16, 2007 free Teatro alla Scala concert (with Maestro Barenboim) in recognition of Toscanini's fiftieth year of passing? And how most of those tickets were supposed to be distributed to the senior citizen associations of Milan? Well, the laudable humanitarian aim has unfortunately turned this gratis ticket advent into a nightmare.
Since the tickets, as per La Scala instructions, have been already donated to the city of Milan’s associations for the elderly, as well as to Milan’s “consigli di Zona” (the nine city districts that administer Milan), everyone was under the impression that once the elderly were taken care of, the other residents of Milan had the secondary priority.
But apparently not. The chairman of Consiglio di Zona 1 tries to control the ensuing chaos with the following statement:
Milano, 8 Gennaio 2007: COMUNICATO STAMPA
Biglietti Concerto Scala del 16 Gennaio
[...]Ho avuto comunicazione dagli Uffici della Scala che solo 600 biglietti verranno suddivisi fra le 9 Zone di Milano (77 circa a zona) e altri 400 saranno consegnati all’Assessorato Politiche Sociali e destinati alla terza età. Il Consiglio di Zona 1, da me presieduto, che si riunirà mercoledì sera, proporrà agli uffici una mozione per i criteri di assegnazione dei biglietti. I cittadini residenti in Zona 1 potranno di conseguenza lasciare il loro nome e telefono agli uffici solo Giovedì 11 Gennaio.
Il Presidente Dott. Micaela Goren Monti
The statement describes that it is now apparent that only 1000 tickets have been given by Teatro alla Scala to the nine city districts and the associations for the elderly, divided thus:
- 600 total for the 9 districts (ie about 77 tickets for each district) and 400 for the elderly. This is a problem.
The city offices are pissed at Teatro alla Scala because:
- They don’t have a structure similar to a box office, so they actually cannot (at the moment) distribute the tickets.
- They must be wondering what the hell happened to the rest of the tickets, since La Scala gave away only 1000, but the theater's capacity is almost 3000.
So here's the deal: The City of Milan will have to wait until January 11th, and those who want the free tickets will have to leave their names and phone numbers with their city district offices, and pray that the lottery hits-them-up with a freebie.
But most of us who are in-the-know realize that two-thirds of the tickets have been already awarded to various freeloading VIPs (who never pay for anything anyway), corporate sponsors, friend of friends, soccer players, TV skanks, mistresses of the rich, assorted escorts, and their ilk. This will not end well.