Breaking: La Scala abandons season opening

Breaking: La Scala abandons season opening

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norman lebrecht

November 04, 2020

The traditional live-TV opening of La Scala on December 7 has been called off, at least as far as the public is cncerned.

The board has declared a public event unsafe, amid rising Covid numbers, and has told sovrintendente Dominique Meyer to come up with a Plan B.

This might be an opera in an empty house, but that would rather defeat the purpose.

Lisette Oropesa: ‘This was the last loss of the year for me. I was set to open the new season at La Scala as Lucia di Lammermoor on the 7th of December, in a new, socially distanced production. I would have had the honor of being the first American soprano to open La Scala in a title role since Maria Callas opened as Norma in 1955. And this would have been the first time Lucia has opened the 7th December since 1967, starring the brilliant Renata Scotto, who also was one of my most important teachers of this role.’

 

Comments

  • Not a big suprise we knew that it would be this way since April… The good news is that La Scala gave us the very emotional Verdi Requiem inside the Duomo and that concert on the Duomo square in September. Concerning Chailly I hope that he will record more records like the excellent last ones for Rota and Respighi. I want a second part for them by La Scala. But the 7th of December is the 7th of December in Milan… and it’s sad to imagine Chailly not working.

  • Greg Bottini says:

    A wise decision.

  • Garech de Brun says:

    Here is a blast of Mathew Locke’s Psyche (1675)

    New London Consort

    Libretto: Thomas Shadwell

    While we to Mars

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCJt8VsXMvQ

  • Doc Martin says:

    Yes an opera house would be a great place to acquire Cov-19, ventilation systems need overhauling, in the oden days they just opened windows, AC just recirculates old air with bugs.

    If staying in a foreign hotel, I always turn off the AC and open all the windows, I also turn the mattress up and check for signs of bed bugs, especially if the cover is brown! I recall a bad place in Nurnberg!

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