Opera Chic

Pereira in the Eye of the La Scala Storm

Even before he's to be officially sworn-in as La Scala's new intendant on October 1, Alexander Pereira's in hot water.

Milan's mayor Pisapia and the theater's board/administration are fuming, following news that broke in the Austrian papers that Pereira bought, on Scala's tabs, seven productions (and rumors indicate that the number is even higher) from the Salzburg Festival, which he's currently heading until the end of September.

A 'stupefied' Pisapia will oversee a meeting today with Scala board members, none of whom were pre-advised of the purchases. Pisapia only heard about the affair recently through newspaper clippings and he's asked for more info and documents from Camp Pereira this weekend before todays's big Scala summit, which will try to sort out this 'pasticcione' in addition to setting down new regulations for co-productions and relationships between other theaters.

Rumors abound that angry board members are calling for Pereira's resignation based on misconduct, stemming from the fact that he made the purchases before his official contract starts on October 1 (he doesn't actually have the power to sign or make official comments on buyout packagages of shows from other theaters.)

It's rumored that he brought the Salzburg Don Carlo by Peter Stein, Die Meistersinger by Stefan Herheim, Lucio Silla by Marshall Pynovski, Falstaff by Michieletto, Il Trovatore (Alvis Hermanis), Der Rosenkavalier (Robert Carsen) and Gyorgy Kurtag's Endgame. But the board's scratching its head over repeat productions such as Falstaff -- Scala had a great success with the Robert Carsen Falstaff, which premiered earlier this season, but Pereira's bought the Salzburg/Michieletto Falstaff for future seasons (scheduled for 2017). Another issue is that costs will balloon when Salzburg sets are modified to fit La Scala's stage dimensions.

La Scala's gone through this before -- during the Lissner/Barenboim years, Scala purchased a few co-producitons from Berlin, also criticized. This time, Chailly's stading behind Pereira. Lissner is not -- the current intendant does not play well with Pereira and will be absent from the press conference in May when Scala rolls out its 2014-15 season.

Filarmonica della Scala's Final Abbado Farewell to Thousands

About two hours ago in Piazza della Scala, the small courtyard that bridges Teatro alla Scala with Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in downtown Milan, eight thousand penitent (including OC) gathered to bear witness to Claudio Abbado's brilliant legacy -- an elegant, humble gentleman who shaped with great care forthcoming generations of mini-maestri.

Lissner, Pereira and Milan's mayor Pisapia held down the theater's facade while Riccardo Chailly humbly bowed his head among the adoring hoi polloi (and many Scala employees) fringed by via Filodrammatici. The concert was streamed live on Corriere della Sera's and the Comune di Milano's websites. OC captured four minutes for the curious, clip above, photos from Corriere below.

It was a very dignified send-off for a beloved maestro.

Filarmonica della Scala's Final Abbado Farewell to Thousands

About two hours ago in Piazza della Scala, the small courtyard that bridges Teatro alla Scala with Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in downtown Milan, eight thousand penitent (including OC) gathered to bear witness to Claudio Abbado's brilliant legacy -- an elegant, humble gentleman who shaped with great care forthcoming generations of mini-maestri.

Lissner, Pereira and Milan's mayor Pisapia held down the theater's facade while Riccardo Chailly humbly bowed his head among the adoring hoi polloi (and many Scala employees) fringed by via Filodrammatici. The concert was streamed live on Corriere della Sera's and the Comune di Milano's websites. OC captured four minutes for the curious, clip above, photos from Corriere below.

It was a very dignified send-off for a beloved maestro.

Putting La Scala into Zegna

Italian luxury menswear giant Ermenegildo Zegna uses a La Scala playbill into its current Christmas campaign, which seems like it's that interminable Stéphane Braunschweig Don Carlo from October. 

We've caught luxury brands grabbing the Scala coat tails in the past, like this campaign for DSquared2.

The menswear brand, coveted by celebs like Robert De Niro, also dresses Gianandrea Noseda, Valery Gergiev and Placido Domingo and has been a longtime patron of the Mariinsky.

The Lady of the Whaaaaaa?: La Traviata Season Opener at La Scala

(Corriere della Sera has excellent screenshots here)

Who: Diana Damrau, soprano. Piotr Beczala, tenor. Daniele Gatti, conductor. Dmitri Tcherniakov, director + extras, an orchestra, journalists, media crews, security, police and impeccably-groomed spectators.

What: Opening night of Teatro alla Scala's 2013-14 Season, La Traviata

When: December 7, the traditional Sant'ambrogio feast day of Milan's patron saint.

Where: Milan, Italy.

How: Euros & couture, fake tans & kiwi-sized jewels.

Why: Dmitri Tcherniakov, why do you hate Giuseppe Verdi so much?

(Corriere della Sera's breakdown)

The aftermath: After all was booed and politely applauded in ten minutes of thanks for months of labor, another war erupted as the VIPs filed out of the theater to check-out minks from the coat check while companions checked-out legs over peach marble floors. Loggionisti who hadn't hightailed out of the upper decks cried 'buffone', eager to lure Gatti et al. for additional curtain call flogging. On the platea floor, the response from a passionate white tie was 'Vai a casa'. Go home.

A few hours earlier, the usual suspects arrived at Scala's marbled, mirrored foyer -- debonaire Robeto Bolle, sprightly Carla Fracci and dignified Giorgio Napolitano -- navigating deep décolletage, architectural up-dos, angry video crews and anxious security apes. Longtime Scala patron Marta Marzotto, reliably dripping in Pucci and Bulgari was MIA with Amazonian sidekick Valeria Marini and her vintage Braccialini purses. We could have used the humor. 

The evening began optimistically. After a moment of silence for Mandela, before the curtain rolled back and the opening notes of Traviata swept forward, 'Viva Verdi' was shouted from the galleries. In the month leading-up to opening night, nary a whisper escaped from Scala's backstage about last minute cast changes or stranger-than-fiction conspiracies. The most scandelous rumor encircled Violetta's death, surmised by overdose or atop a washing machine (freak hausfrau accident?) Don’t exhale just yet.

For all of the Italian media press clippings that exited this week detailing Dmitri Tcherniakov's deep respect and meticulously-scoured pages of La Traviata's manuscript, and for all of Daniele Gatti's intelligent remarks on characterization and his restoration of all things Verdi-sacred, the final product was baffling at best. Neither Italian nor French, Tcherniakov borrowed the whitewashed 19th century continental chic that giftwraps dozens of modern stages and trimmed it with dissonant costumes, like his woman in full Native American headdress. Was the Josephine Baker banana skirt costume on loan? Isn't Traviata supposed to be the height of haute bourgeois elegance?

There was technically-solid music making from everyone, including Damrau, although she was as close to Marilyn Monroe as Christina Aguilera's rose-lensed pipe dreams. Misfires here and there in a score marked with affectation apnea, Damrau/Barone flubbed the Act II 'Ah perché qui venni incauta' with a late cue. With eyes wide open, Beczala took the most serious hits for an unintelligent, charmless Alfredo, preparing pasta and chopping vegetables as Germont served trauma and then bringing Violetta sweets and flowers as she lay dying, everyone preoccupied with a vase. If Tcherniakov had a point, he didn’t quite make it.

The most critical held Gatti responsible -- the Milanese maestro who spent his junior years watching the podium from afar in La Scala's loggione -- for allowing such a misguided production. Or maybe it was his in-joke. Outside of Milan, Tcherniakov's shortcoming has been shifted to the public. Boys will be boys, whores will be whores, but dogs usually bark for good reason.

After so many years of non-Italian opening nights -- Wagner, Bizet and more Wagner -- and especially after Lohengrin greeted Verdi's bicentennial birth year at last year's opening, Scala finally welcomed its native son back to the fold, with arms wide open, regardless of Wagner transgressions. But when they rolled back the rock, it was a Frankenstein monster. Seal it back up! 

Native Italian opera risks extinction, domestic talent gone fair-weather for Europe and America, although blameless, we've all gotta pay the bills (or find bankrolled Swiss lovers). The public isn't angry, they're afraid.

Paolo Isotta, in a teaser column signed "persona non grata" in today's Corriere, called the whole thing ridiculous and totally unrealistic. He titled his piece "Quelle Camelie sbagliate" (not online), those befuddled camellias, citing the red camellia placed in Damrau's hair during the first and second acts. As everyone knows, says Isotta, the courtesan protagonist of Alexandre Dumas, fils' La Dame aux camélias wore a white camellia at her chest when she was accessible to her lovers and a red one when she wasn't.

He's critical of Gatti, whose Verdi is almost always correct, respectful, informed and enlightened. But Isotta accuses Gatti of playing to the director’s/singers' whims by allowing ridiculous giggles and pauses that sacrificed tempi and for affecting a big band sound, comparing it, at times, to Gilbert and Sullivan's Mikado (like the Lucic/Damrau 'Ah non udrai rimproveri').

Beczala, aside from an incredible cadenza before "O mio rimorso, infamia" was given over to sobbing, bleating and braying throughout the remainder of the opera. Damrau, undeniably an amazing coloratura, made an uneven first act full of vocal and acting ticks that simply weren't in the manuscript, seeming not to know when she should cry or laugh. Her 'addio del passato' was solid, but 'Prendi quet'e' immagine' was impeded by bad direction. Isotta also cites her 'amnesia' on flubbed entrances.

Still, for anyone who's been to opening night at La Scala, there's no such thing as a bad night. After all, who could complain? We hope not the singers who garner small fortunes nor the audience whose (admitedly expensive) tickets guarantee equally savagery and delight in a setting that's a tone poem of elegance. What's to hate?

Armani (in Armani)

Bolle

Fracci

Pereira and his wife

La Scala Traviata Teasers, Violetta Echoes Monroe

La prima della Scala fever spikes and the only medicine is Verdi (and more cowbell). Last night, La Scala opened its doors to an under-30 neophyte litmus in the final La Traviata dress rehearsal before Saturday's official season opener. Applause pounded for Daniele Gatti's Verdi, Diana Damrau's Violetta and Piotr Beczala's Alfredo, with less enthusiasm for Željko Lučić's Germont.

The new production, signed by Dmitri Tcherniakov, places less emphasis on the scenery (scrubbed-up, modernized, mid-19th century throwback) and more 'fantasy' into modern day costumes -- notably Damrau who's been capped with a platinum blond wig of Marilyn Monroe curls (like that Aix-en-Provence Mireille Delunsch Violetta) and wrapped in a costume that oozes glamor (a low-cut blue dress, decolletage dripping with Swarovskyish ice), sexy but naive. In Act II, when Germont comes to tell Violetta that he's got 99 problems but she ain't 1, she's preparing homemade pasta in a well appointed kitchen.

The big shocker, from today's Corriere della Sera by journalist Pierluigi Panza, is that Violetta dies in a wooden chair, in a bare room with one window -- at her side an empty bottle, a telephone (lol landline) and a winter comforter. Austere, Ikea death. The death chair echoes (intentionally or not) the iconic, now-exemplar 1955/56 Scala-Visconti Traviata with Giulini, Di Stefano and Callas, when the world's most stylish diva died in a chair, at the time, very controversial. 

Tchernaikov spoke to Corriere della Sera's Giuseppina Manin and explained that his conception of Traviata was inspired by Ingmar Bergman and the psychological games of the protagonists, represented by an intimate, claustrophobic world of closed spaces where nothing is seen beyond the windows. He said:

The social context stays in the shadows. Since Traivata was first staged, 160 years have passed. Everything's changed from then to now.  First and foremost, morals. Words like 'reputation', 'honor' and 'sacrifice' sound very different than they did in the mid-19th century. Today no one's without sin and therefore who can judge a prostitute? Violetta of today could totally resemble a movie star. A seductive Marilyn Monroe, a bit irrational, beyond any kind of moral judgement.

Tchernaikov analyzed every page of the score with Gatti and said of the collaboration, "His observations were very useful. What was the trend in the 19th century is no longer the trend today [...] It's better to seek the deep motivations of everyone. You will find that even the terrible Germont has his reasons and justificatons."

While we wait for Saturday night, there's an excellent interview in Corriere della Sera's ViviMilano between Milanese conductor Daniele Gatti and journalist Gian Mario Benzing. This will be Daniele Gatti's second Traviata at La Scala and his second Scala season opener. Gatti's professional Verdi roots were planted when he was 20 with Giovanna d'Arco, then a Rigoletto in Bologna with Nucci and June Anderson. As a former La Scala loggionisti, the Milanese maestro grew up with Verdi in his blood and studied Falstaff often with his composition teacher.

Gatti says that Verdi's Traviata isn't necessarily an Italianate opera as it speaks of the influence of European cultures, notably Parisian, like the opening brindisi with a touch of 'folies bergères' and the waltzes and dances have overtones of French gaiety. The waltzer steps are intertwined with Greek meter -- two short and one long with the accent on the third syllable -- and the Greek tragedy manifests itself in the passage of time, especially towards the finale of anguish/death.

On his particular interpretation, Gatti said:

Everyone has their own ideal Traviata and it's difficult to be convincing. I however will not be a conductor who pulls the chariot of tradition: if you come to hear me, don't expect tradition. I feel pure in front of such a work of art -- when I re-study a score, I push myself to interpret it just like as if I had picked it up fresh from delivery.

[...]

La traviata is an opera that's been most performed and most abused. It's difficult to scrape off all the cliches that have famously accompanied it. Instead, cliches need to be avoided. I'm looking for a style that's dry. Expressive, but dry, and less redundant. I wrote out some mini-variations in the 'ripresa' of some of the cabalettas. For example, the one for the baritone, "No, non udrai rimproveri," you sing it two times and I'll make it much quicker, like a song that's anxious and throbbing -- Germont wants to be an affectionate father, but in reality he believes as an instrument in the hands of gawd and knows only how to put on a sense of guilt.

Gatti doesn't believe that Traviata is verismo and considers it more as realism and he wants none of his singers to use an excessive vocality. "It's a tragedy, but intimate and dignified." He continues: "Violetta is Rigoletto in a skirt who also has this 'hump' -- but her hump is a social deformity that sings about love."

This is Tchernaikov's first Verdi production for La Scala -- he's only exhibited Russian titles for Piermarini in the past -- Prokofiev's The Gambler, Tchaikovsky's Onegin and in March 2014 he's signed to a Rimsky-Korsakov The Tsar's Bride.

Coverboy Gatti

Daniele Gatti on Scala Traviata: Looking for Salvation

Not Gatti. Violetta. Although up against La Scala's grizzly loggionisti, only the foolhardy (or arrogant) would shun redemption. Think buoyant. Calm & confident, 007 in Brioni, a martini in one hand and a baton in the other.

As the Milanese maestro dusts off his Traviata white tie for his second Sant'Ambrogio Teatro alla Scala season opener, let's take a moment to remember that spectacular 2008 Don Carlos meltdown when Filianoti was replaced overnight and Gatti was turned into a piñata. Want to kill/time/travel? Linkage here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.

Gatti knows what he's up against and he's seen firsthand an opera house soured and bitter as Campari. Yesterday he spoke to Il Giornale and said that he was up to the challenge of Traviata, notoriously sacred to the loggionisti: "Lots of people have asked me, why the hell would you do something like this? My morality makes me do it. It seems like it's impossible to pull off, but instead I consider it a gift from the heavens [...] I'm going to conduct it like 'Mr.Gatti' would, end-of-story. It'll be an intimate Traviata, both in setting and in the numbers of onstage characters."

On Violetta (to be sung by Damrau), he sees her as someone who's suffered an injustice and is looking for salvation. Although she chooses to frequent a certain type of environment, she still wants to save herself and has aspirations to have a husband and kids. He thinks that Alfredo (to be sung by Beczala) is honest, sincere, a bit naive, provincial and doesn't know how to keep his promises.

Meanwhile, deep in the heart of Italy, Riccardo Muti's had his hands full as Teatro dell'Opera di Roma peacekeeper. Strikes and grumbles was last week's news, but tomorrow his Ernani will bow the new season, as originally scheduled, in a Hugo de Ana production with Francesco Meli in the title role.

Barenboim Says 'Ciao Ciao' to La Scala Two Years Early

Pierluigi Panza writes in today's Corriere della Sera that Daniel Barenboim will leave his role of Music Director at Teatro alla Scala on December 31, 2014, two years prior to the end of his contract and just three months after Lissner leaves for the Paris Opera (who also broke his contract early with La Scala).

"It's the end of an era," said Lissner on Barenboim's early dismissal. "Barenboim was clear that he's got other projects to attend to, like his Western Divan Orchestra Academy that he's building in Berlin with Frank Gehry."

End of an era, indeed (disrupted by recent sideshows of incoming Scala MD designates) with La Scala and its orchestra as backdrop to Barenboim's Wagner legacy (get a room already, you two!), which culminated in a Ring Cycle over the seasons when Italy should have been prioritizing the bicentennial birthday of its native son, Verdi. This, according to a handful of La Scala's Prada-heeled, Bulgari-jeweled donors, who grew as weary as their check-writing hands from the predictable Barenboim/Wagner onslaught that opened its new seasons over the past years.

Since 2007, Barenboim's opened four of Scala's prestigious December opening nights and aside from Carmen in 2009, the remaining three have been Wagner: Tristan (Dec. 2007), Walkurie (Dec. 2010) and Lohengrin (Dec. 2012). Between Wagner, he's given La Scala some Prokofiev (The Gambler); Verdi (Aida and Boccanegra); and Mozart (Don Giovanni). Next year will bring four non-Wagner commitments -- Rimskij-Korsakov's The Tsar's Bride, Cosi fan tutte, Simon Boccanegra and Deborah Warner's Fidelio to open the 2014-15 season.

We'll Drink to That: La Scala Ballet's Newest Sponsor, Vitasnella Water

Water brand Acqua Vitasnella, owned by Ferrarelle SpA, has announced its official sponsorship with Teatro alla Scala's ballet company in a press conference today.

The partnership kicks off with a DIY video contest 'In forma con eleganza' (loosely translated to Keeping Fit with Elegance/In Shape with Elegance. Choose one, we're not picky.

Your mission is to create a short video, scored to Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, that shows how mortals, unblessed with ballerina DNA, stay fit. Although not stated in the rules, perhaps a strategically-placed VitaSnella water bottle will seal you into the final round.

The deadline is on an unmercifully-soon September 27, with more details on the Facebook pages for Acqua Vitasnella and Teatro alla Scala. Winners spend an entire day running around La Scala's backstage labyrinths with the ballerinas -- and we're guessing all the Vitasnella they can drink.

Ballo Premieres at Scala, Loggionisti Get Pissed and Throw Stuff

Earlier tonight at La Scala, steely guardians of Busseto homeboy Giuseppe Verdi's legacy came prepared. With leaflets.

At the premiere of Damiano Michieletto's new staging of Un ballo in maschera, loggionisti traditionalists, in protest of the young Italian opera director's modern spin and election-themed update of Verdi's melodrama, boos were hurled, shouts of "sacrilege" boomed from the upper decks and leaflets were tossed following applause at the conclusion of Act I. (For the record, we've been in the house twice when leaflets were tossed from the loggione -- no biggie.)

Written complaints, all in Italian, registered as "Giuseppe Verdi, please forgive them because they don't know what they're doing" and "This is a sacrilege". A longer screed was composed of five different laments, written in cursive hand as a bullet list with meeting minutes:

• "A director or a stage designer shouldn't offend tradition and good taste."
• "Those who offend and go beyond the limits of respecting art deserve only contempt."
• "Those who don't respect the art aren't worthy of calling themselves artists."
• "The serious and prepared public is nauseated by the artistic slaughter that is being staged for these immortal masterpieces"
• "It's impossible to be offended by a traditional staging and a traditional production of the immortal works of Giuseppe Verdi."

Although keen to update cobwebby stagings, Damiano Michieletto's not (yet been labeled) a provocateur. His La Bohème for last year's Salzburg was set in an American shopping mall and a Trittico from last year was set in an industrial warehouse. In tonight's premiere, Milanese maestro Daniele Rustione led Marcelo Álvarez as Riccardo, Zeljko Lucic as Renato, Sondra Radvanovsky as Amelia, Ulrica was Marianne Cornetti and Patrizia Ciofi as Oscar.

La Scala's Full [Metal] Wagner Ring Cycle, OC Livetweets

By Milan's early Sunday hours, OC will be fully-immersed in Guy Cassiers' complete Wagner Ring Cycle at Teatro alla Scala, eighteen hours (depending on Barenboim's baton) in (mostly) six-hour meals, which makes us feel like rock stars (like we're on Rihanna's whirlwind 777 Tour) but in those silent, midnight hours, we suspect that we'll feel more like Sergeant Hartman's freshly graduated Full Metal Jacket platoon: "Today, you people are no longer maggots. Today, you've lived through a weeklong Wagner Ring cycle. You're part of a brotherhood. From now on until the day you die, wherever you are, every Wagnerian is your brother..."

Wagner's opus of badly mannered heroes, mostly insane, who make war, not love, kicked off last night at La Scala in its first 2012-13 season Ring-in-a-Week with 2.5 hours of pure Cassiers Das Rheingold madness, which we live tweeted with Matteo Bordone and Teatro alla Scala full of exclusive, backstage photos and interviews.

Cassiers' prologue was leached of Norse mythology and gratuitous visuals -- more gold tallied on a random La Scala patron than onstage nor a rainbow in sight -- as a compact, water-drenched, moldy realm of Nibelungs. It was an intermission-stricken night of solid singing by a well-meshed ensemble and Barenboim's non-interpretation (which isn't a criticism, we actually think it's the best approach to counter the highly-stylized, semi-freddo Cassiers production) of muddy, rich, well-mannered phrasing that allowed him passage into La Scala's books among maestri who've formerly beat off uncut cycles: Ettore Panizza in 1927/28 & 1931, Siegfried Wagner in 1930, Krauss in 1938, von Hösslin in 1943, Furtwängler in 1949/50 and Cluytens in 1962-63 along with Scala's Wagnerians heretofore legacy like Toscanini, de Sabata and Karajan.

Tonight, the live-tweeting saga continues with Die Walküre as the twins and Valkyries gambol illuminated sets. OC knows what she's in for -- we were at La Scala three years ago for its controversial premiere, which opened the Milanese theater's new season, full review here --- a thorny moment on Italy's fragile cultural funding timeline and now sadly, harbinger of the present famine.

Stay tuned for Siegfriend on Thursday and Götterdämmerung on Saturday. If you're in Milan this month, La Scala hosts an encore week: Das Rheingold on the 24th, Die Walküre on the 25th, Siegfried on the 27th and Götterdämmerung on the 29th. With this ring, I thee Wagner.

Operavore on Pereira, OC Blurbs

Fred Plotkin's Operavore commented on the 2015 Alexander Pereira La Scala appointment and asked us what we thought. You can go here to read OC's commentary.

Frankly, the Milanese don't care as much about the murky, bureaucrat GM position as they do its MD, so gawd save Scala if Barenboim's a$$ isn't hit on the way out by an incoming Italian maestro in a bespoke Kiton frac. Pereira and his Tony Montana money/power/women undercurrents are methodically indulged because really, what's more operatic than Scarface?

Next up at La Scala: Pereira with a Pay Cut

Milan's mayor Pisapia announced today at the conclusion of a La Scala board meeting that the next director of Salzburg Festival will be Alexander Pereira, taking over from Stéphane Lissner in 2015 (outbound to Paris Opera in that fall), unanimously elected by the CDA.

Criteria were strict for the cash-strapped Milanese opera house, including an incoming intendant with fund raising experience and one that would cost at least 25% cheaper than Lissner's current salary, about 350k euros.

The 65-year-old Austrian will fit right in with his 25-year-old Brasilian wife Daniela Weisser De Sosa, on her second marriage, who swapped posing for erotic mags for fashion studies in Milan. A match made in heaven.

La Scala's 2013-14 Lean Season

La Scala tightens its belt as it rolls out the 2013-14 season, streamlined under Italy's unflinching economic crisis, down from its usual 13 productions to 10, the Milan opera house also down 5 million euros in funding from the state.

Stars few and far, the idiosyncratic season bows (as always on December 7) with Daniele Gatti for a new Traviata, Damrau as Violetta and Beczala as Alfredo. Verdi gets two more slots: Trovatore (Daniele Rustioni conducting the Hugo De Ana production with Nucci's Conte) and Boccanegra split between Domingo and Nucci with Giannattasio and Harteros as Amelia.

There's that Zimmermann Met Opera Lucia with Grigolo as Edgardo, the Pelly Le Comte Ory with Florez, McVicar's Les Troyens with Pappano, Strauss' Elektra with Esa-Pekka (Herlitzius in the lead, Pape as Orest and Waltraud Meier as Klytämnestra) and Villazon as Ferrando in Guth's Così.

The recital season is slightly more appealing: Furlanetto, Kaufmann, Villazon, Harteros, Agresta, Terfel and Goerne.

Filarmonica della Scala announces its new season in a few weeks and maybe that's our 2013-14 salvation.

Celebrating Richard Wagner's Bicentennial Bash with [...] Furtwängler

Admit it: You thought we were gonna say Solti or von Karajan, right? Girls, girls, tuck your brass knuckles back into your Prada -- you're all pretty.

To celebrate Richard Wagner's May 22 bicentennial, Corriere della Sera ran two pieces tied into the current La Scala Ring Cycle, conducted (naturally) by MD Barenboim through June.

The ten conductors of the Scala Ring Cycle Clubhouse are a Mötley Crüe: Barenboim, Ettore Panizza, Riccardo Muti, Arturo Toscanini, Siegfried Wagner, Clemens Krauss, Franz von Hoesslin, Andre Cluytens, Wolfgang Sawallisch and Wilhelm 'Fuffi' Furtwängler, whose 1950 live appointment is available on a special Corriere 2-CD set to honor Wagner's 200th birthday.

Barenboim, the Giorgio Armani of classical music, (read: influential, independent, opinionated and not one to stand down from controversy) has a small interview on the CD's liner notes about Furtwängler's great capacity for Wagner's colossal Ring, which he admires. He believes that Furtwängler harmoniously brings together an impulsive enthusiasm, fluidity and he takes a unique, executive liberty where naturalism and symbolism exist together. Barenboim continues that Furtwängler put in all the right notes and especially everything that occurs between the notes, because he understood better than other conductors that the piece is about the principle of transition and of "becoming":

"He understood that in the Wagner Ring Cycle, the music 'isn't' but rather, it 'becomes'".

The second piece delves into Furtwängler's myth. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with Gawd and the Word was Gawd, if only here, Furtwängler's gawds were his father's august dinner guests, the great icons of German Idealism. 

A life mired in controversy over his ambiguous relationship with Nazism, the choice to remain in Germany after 1933 while his colleagues fled and his crafty subversion of the Third Reich, his protection of Jewish musicians and later, the icons who defended his reputation: Menuhin and Schoenberg, Barneboim and Gergiev.

So Wagner and Furtwängler, both polarizing, share common ties. But this week, we'll think of the music, the beauty, the perfection found in pull-quotes -- like Furtwängler on the love of his great love:

"The question of interpretation is, at the same time, complex and simple, just like in all cases where love plays a fundamental role. Making music -- as a composer, an interpreter or a performer -- is above all an act of love."

To spread the love, here's our favorite Richard Wagner tributes from the webs: Sinfini Music, Alex Ross for The New Yorker and BBC Radio 3.

DSquared2's Shout Out to La Scala

Those darling, pocket-sized Canadian twins behind the Milan-based DSquared2 fashion house have been showing their collections in Milan for almost as long as they've been splitting their time between the Northern Italian city and London, and finally, one of Milan's cultural icons has osmosis'd its way into their brand.

Flipping through the DSquared2 Men's Fall Winter 13-14 lookbook (1940s throwback set in a Parisian jazz club), we found a nicely-composed vanitas of men's accessories, which included a ticket to La Scala's January premiere of the new Roméo et Juliette ballet, James Conlon all over that dramatic, lush Berlioz score.

The Guardian's La Scala Lust

The Guardian's +1 to the glamorous December 7 Sant'Ambrogio La Scala season opener that bowed under Claus Guth's new Lohengrin was a camera crew. Watch the clip for a December throwback starring everyone's favorite Wagner protagonist, Jonas Kaufmann.

Falstaff and the Merry Wives of Windsor Club at Teatro alla Scala

Milan last greeted Verdi’s final opera Falstaff in 2004. Nine years ago, Teatro alla Scala was closed, pending restoration, so the Giorgio Strehler production curtained under Muti's baton at Teatro degli Arcimboldi on the city's outskirts, dedicated to Tito Gobbi's death-year 20th anniversary for his enduring, late 1950s whiskered Falstaff with Herbie von Karajan and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf.

It was also the year of OC's inaugural Milan visit, and over summer break, she visited La Scala's museum, its collections temporarily housed in a stunning palazzo on Corso Magenta that overlooked Santa Maria della Grazia. The Northern Italian city of understated, un-boastful elegance struck OC as one who never tried too hard -- the very definition of cool -- and instantly reverberated with New York-based OC. Aaaand you guys pretty much know the rest of the story.

Falstaff (tonight in its penultimate replication) is the only Robert Carsen- stamped production in Teatro alla Scala’s 2012-13 season (in coproduction with Royal Opera House and the Canadian Opera Company) and as Carsen Crusaders, we weren’t going to miss it. We find his b-side, hidden track of ripe sexuality -- never vulgar or desperate (unless it has to be) -- and his fashion title familiarity a winning match for Milan, and since we’re not convinced that Falstaff needs a traditional Shakespearian director to stage it, we loved it.

We've never supported a buffo Falstaff staging and feel that it needs a delicate balance between commedia lirica and opera seria -- a fat knight mocked in his twilight, a bittersweet glimpse of flawed man too arrogant to realize it until everything converges in absolute absurdity -- tutto nel mondo e' burla -- and that's where a lot of lazy directors get it wrong.

La Scala Intendant Stéphane Lissner Fires Back at Corriere della Sera on its Paolo Isotta Ban

La Scala intendant Stéphane Lissner defends his decision to ban long-serving Corriere della Sera music critic Paolo Isotta from Milan's opera house through a weak sauce letter to the editor published in today's paper.

Lissner dissected Corriere della Sera director Ferruccio De Bortoli's editorial published in yesterday's paper, which was written to defend its music critic Isotta from the baffling La Scala banishment. He adhered that La Scala has taken "a distance" (/lol/semantics/lol/) from Isotta not because he criticises the theater but because he's betrayed the "krinein greco" code (the Greek root for critic i.e. "to evaluate") in which critics weigh logic and ethics into their trade, "to think, to reflect and to mediate understanding between the work of art and the public."

Lissner continues that Isotta went against the ethics of music criticism by wielding personal campaigns and that he used his articles not as moments of reflection but as instruments and weapons of power  -- exactly why La Scala firmly will no loner support persona-non-grata Isotta. La Scala will keep its door open to the rest of Corriere della Sera's journalists, which may turn into a bulletpoint of contention, story definitely to be continued. Taps TomTom >> Point Of Interest >> POI in city >> Dramz = Navigate to Teatro alla Scala.

La Scala Bans Corriere della Sera's Longtime Music Critic, Paolo Isotta

"Teatro alla Scala's door is closed to Corriere's critic Paolo Isotta" heads the letter editorial published in today's Corriere della Sera, signed by the Milan daily newspaper's director, Ferruccio De Bortoli.

Di Bortoli elegantly-whiteknights Corriere della Sera's longtime music critic -- the Neapolitan scholar, author, journalist and notorious crankypants Paolo Isotta -- who has been banned by La Scala's out-bound intendant, Stéphane Lissner. 

Lissner dropped the banhammer following Isotta's enduring criticisms of Daniel Harding and (indirectly) of Claudio Abbado, outlined in a letter sent to Corriere in late October, 2011.

De Bortoli writes that the ban is a smokescreen of La Scala's true problems and defends and praises Isotta, calling the Italian critic extraordinary, intelligent and unpredictable, who understands music better than his Scala detractors. Here's an extract (in Opera Chic's own translation):

Isotta’s no stranger to excess -- editors are also in charge of getting writers to calm down -- but he's an extraordinary, intelligent and unpredictable critic who knows music better than his Scala detractors who think that all praise is due to them, all criticism is suspect and every artist’s whim is legitimate. Lissner wrote me in October 2011 -- something I doubt that he would have done with the press in his own country, but then he maybe considers us a colony -- asking for Isotta’s head.

Isotta's provocative, razor-sharp reviews, buttressed by Latin phrases, are hotly contested and equally coveted among Milan’s classical music fetishists. Corriere can still draw from its excellent cache of classical music reviewers, but Corriere without Isotta's backend knowledge and ruthless wit frankly sucks.

Since the beginning of the year, Isotta's called-out Harding's Verdi Falstaff as "heavy and pedantic" and said that his Wagner with Filarmonica della Scala was so soft that it made one think of a "Wagner omosessuale". Isotta's swag levels are *thunderclouds roll in, howling wind licks at his bespoke Marinella suit* officially too fabulous for La Scala.

Kicking it Old School, Elegantly

Forty-nine vintage photos of La Scala opening nights through the 50s and 60s, like the one of the great Guido Cantelli, above.

Lohengrin La Prima Recap Teaser: I'm Holding Out For a Hero

Last night under Milan's first snowfall, Teatro alla Scala opened its 2012-13 season with a new Wagner Lohengrin from German theatre director Claus Guth. Fat snow dampened Milan's elegant opera house season premiere, sober and bloodless, packed with more politicians (PM Mario Monti trailed by five ministers), bankers, managers and high-roller business dudes than the usual pseudo-celebrities.

Newspaper coverage was as lean as this year’s crop of protestors across Piazza della Scala, who rallied about deep unemployment and job cuts (overheard, "We won't pay for your crisis.") Luckily we had Milan's die-hard art ambassadors such as Marta Marzotto, Roberto Bolle and Carla Fracci for cultural backbone, and what the audience lacked in star power twinkled from onstage -- Jonas Kaufmann as the Swan Knight, Rene Pape as Heinrich and Scala's MD Barenboim guided its orchestra into sweet deliciousness. 

Nice surprise of the night? Since President Giorgio Napolitano wasn't in attendance (he was prompted a few days ago to pen a letter to Barenboim to explain his la prima della Scala absence was dictated by pre-election business -- not in protest of La Scala's decision to pass up Verdi for Wagner to open its current season in this year of Verdi/Wagner bicentennial), Barenboim relegated Inno del Regno d'Italia to post-opera with a costumed cast breaking into the national anthem at the final curtain call.

(Marta Marzotto)

Guth's haunted, symbolically-rich tale of the Swan Knight exhibited neurotic, anxious, traumatized protagonists -- emo kids who had forgotten to take their Adderall and Zoloft -- hopeless Generation X'ers fatalistically aware that they are doomed to failure and lonliness. Props to Elsa, sung by the courageous Annette Dasch, who flew into Milan literally the evening prior to replace principal Anja Harteros, who had cancelled the final dress on December 4 and was replaced by Ann Petersen who also caught whatever illness brewed backstage and equally bowed out of opening night. Jonas Kaufmann triumphed as the barefoot son of Parsifal for his sensitive, introspective performance, followed by Ortrud's effortless Evelyn Herlitzius and Telramund's Tomas Tomasson.

(Annette Dasch)

OC's official reviews for Opera Now and Grazia.it exit next week. To see photos of Bolle and Fracci (and other images from opening night) hit up OC's twitter.

Lohengrin La Scala Preview Recap & Guth's Vision

Last night, OC was in Piermarini's elegant cream & gold-leaf den for its final dress anteprima of Lohengrin that officially opens the Teatro alla Scala 2012-13 season on December 7, the feast day of Milan's patron saint, Saint Ambrose. The past few years, Scala's been test driving its la prima for the Scala Under30 club with a 10$ cover charge, and last night the house was packed full of fresh-faced Wagner virgins.

OC was invited by la Scala to live-tweet Claus Guth's new production of Wagner's son of Parisfal, and her chipped Chanel Pêche Nacrée can attest to rapid-fire 140s fired-off for six hours straight. *cracks knuckles, racks-up hashtags and asperands* In case you missed it, you can relive its full glory on OC's stream, Teatro alla Scala's stream, along with in-house twitterers Massimo Bernardini and Matteo Bordone.

Guth's action unfolded in the Victorian era, with a barefoot Jonas Kaufmann as a short-tempered, confused, agitated youth scattering swan feathers around a puffy-chest Rene Pape gleaming with gold buttons against Barenboim's delicate cycle, gentle spin Wagner. And Kaufmann in frac. *Bond. Lohengrin Bond.*

In today's Corriere, Guth spoke to Giuseppina Manin about his new production, based on Wagner's inspiration of Grimms' Fairy Tales. He cast Elsa as a woman with wide-ranging emotional disorders, the payload from losing her parents and her little brother at a young age, which triggers a whole boatload of incestuous issues around her knight-in-shining-incest, Lohengrin. 
 
For Lohengrin, a "hero without identity", Guth drew on the 19th century case of a mysterious teenage boy, Kaspar Hauser, who appeared in the streets of Nurbenberg and claimed that he had been raised in total isolation during the years that Wagner wrote the opera. Hauser was fatally stabbed five years later and rumors arose that he was the hereditary prince of Baden, switched at birth.

Guth concluded: "They were turbulent years, in 1848, Europe ignited a thousand revolts, Marx and Engels wrote the Manifesto of the Communist Party and this was only a couple months after Wagner had deployed to Dresden at the side of the anarchist Bakunin. The industrialism and capitalism of today was born then. It's a crucial moment in history that gave rise, a reaction, the desire to return to the past, a legendary world and irrationality. Lohenrin's a romantic opera born in a time that lived many realists. But behind the curtains of the story comes the disturbed ghosts of a present threat."

December 7th's opening night Lohengrin will be streamed live on Rai5 and Radio3, starting at 4:50 (the opera starts at 5:00pm). On tv, it will be on Rai HD, chanel 501.

La Scala Welcomes Back Ceci (After 19 Years) to a Chorus of Boos, Barenboim Tells Everyone to Shut Up

When OC returned to Milan yesterday from a late-Fall USA vacation, the drama llama came to greet her with Cecilia Bartoli and Daniel Barenboim riding shotgun. 

Last night, as la Ceci and Barenboim opened the 2012/13 season of Filarmonica della Scala at Teatro alla Scala in a sold-out concert, the loggionisti rambunctiously booed them down.

Giuseppina Manin reports for Corriere della Sera that the concert's first half -- Baroquely-devoted to Haendel (assorted arias) and Mozart's Exultate, jubilate -- was roudly cheered.

All hell broke out after the intermission following a Rossini setlist (arias from Otello and La Cenerentola), greatly dividing Ceci's crankiest Milan critics and fans. Booing erupted from the loggione, the two upper-most decks of La Scala's elegant concert hall, followed by shouts -- "Go home", "Poor Rossini" and "Shame on you in a period of economic crisis", alluding to Ceci's exorbitant fees, one of the reasons why the Italian mezzo hadn't graced the Piermarini's stage over the past ninteen years since her last Milan appearance.  

Pro and Anti Ceci factions passionately-swapped insults until ambassador Barenboim turned to face the audience and said, "Siamo a un concerto — ricorda secco il maestro — Adesso state tutti zitti" -- "We're at a concert" - respects the maestro, dryly - "now everyone shut up."

Ceci emerged from the wings, unruffled, graciously thanked her fans and then gave a Cenerentola bis, followed by more applause and boos.

After the tussle, the opening night concert concluded with Mozart's 40th Symphony. At the final applause, stone-faced Barenboim did not look pleased.

La Scala Risks Red (to the Tune of 4.2 Million Euros)

La Scala needs to cough up 4.2 million euros ($5.43 USD) to balance its books before the end of the year. Over the summer, Milan's mayor Pisapia had warned the opera house of its creeping debt after it was awarded a 1.9 million euro contribution by the Italian state.

If Scala breaks even, its workers will be awarded (coincidentally) four million euro in bonuses. If not, a much smaller bonus will be extended. Budget woes come on the heels of [denied] rumors that Scala GM Lissner will soon jump ship to the Paris Opera before his contract expires in 2017.