Scala old-timers still remember him as the shy, baby-faced kid with the huge head of super-thick, dark hair who, as a student ,would sneak into rehearsals (his dad was a tenor) and sit quietly in the back of the platea, taking mental notes of everything and following every note.
But in the near-future, he could very well become the next Music Director of La Scala after Riccardo Muti's stormy 20-year reign, if increasingly insistent gossip from La Scala is to be believed.
Because now Milan-born Daniele Gatti is 45 and a world-famous conductor (who has worked from Vienna to Berlin to London); his Lohengrin at La Scala convinced everybody: critics, audiences, the dreaded loggionisti, and even Maestro Scaligero Daniel Barenboim, who was in town for the Toscanini concert and managed to catch Gatti's general rehearsal for Lohengrin (Barenboim's TWO THUMBZ UP review: "I tip my hat!"). And, always at La Scala, a series of Brahms/Mendelssohn/Hindemith concerts with Gatti on the podium is getting excellent reviews, too.
Increasingly loud chatter in the Teatro and even, shyly, as a trial balloon maybe, in the press, indicates that Gatti -- who at the end of the season will be free from his Bologna post after a successful decade -- could in the next months receive an offer from La Scala GM Lissner: a Music Director post!
The reason behind this being that Barenboim's role as Maestro Scaligero only entails a few concerts and an opera a year, and some general supervision on the program; but Barenboim's millions of other commitments make it impossible for the Argentinian-Israeli maestro to assume a bigger role at the Teatro.
Gatti's young age plays against him, but his growing international stature -- he has recently developed a relationship with the Wiener Philharmoniker, the first Italian conductor after Muti to land the coveted honor -- makes him the best available candidate. Especially since Barenboim won't leave his Musical Director post at Berlin's Staatsoper, and La Scala cannot remain for many years without a MD.
There is of course a big IF: he'll eventually get the post IF the all-powerful (they're the ones who effectively fired Muti anyway) Orchestra says yes. The professori d'orchestra, as of today, have been keeping their cards VERY close to their white, starched vests.
We'll see. And Opera Chic will be there to report.