The fabled Milan opera house, La Scala, was on Wednesday night in turmoil after its musicians and other employees voted overwhelmingly for the resignation of its musical director, Riccardo Muti, and the entire governing board.
In a day of operatic drama, rumours swept Milan that 64-year-old Muti had agreed to go. But they were denied by theatre officials.
The former general manager, Carlo Fontana, whose repeated clashes with Muti are at the root of the continuing emergency, was exultant. ”The people of La Scala have rejected absolute monarchy,” he said.
Events began to spin out of control after Fontana was dismissed by the board on February 24 and replaced with Muti’s choice, the former artistic director Mauro Meli. Wednesday’s assembly approved a resolution calling for the board to revoke the appointment of Meli and resign.
The meeting was attended by about 800 workers representing almost the entire staff of the theatre. The final resolution said: ”As to the role and behaviour of maestro Muti, the assembly, taking on board positions that emerged during the debate, asks the musical director to resign from his post.”
In evidence given earlier to a parliamentary commission of inquiry, Fontana said the conductor had evolved the idea of ”not having anyone other than himself” in charge at La Scala. Testifying the previous day, Meli accused his predecessor of currying favour with the staff by arranging for them to receive payments totalling more than â,¬2-million in the three months preceding his departure.
On Wednesday night, Fontana said he had asked his lawyer to issue writs for slander against Meli and the mayor of Milan, Gabriele Albertini, for earlier similar claims.
Albertini, who is also chairperson of the La Scala governors, held a crisis meeting with the new general manager as the government became involved for the first time.
Giuliano Urbani, the culture minister in Silvio Berlusconi’s right-wing government, made it clear that he was siding with the pro-Muti camp. He said he hoped all concerned could find a solution that would allow the conductor ”to continue to direct [La Scala] for the present and for years to come”.
Unusually for a top-flight conductor, Muti devotes himself almost exclusively to La Scala. He first fell out with Fontana over the programme for the 2003-04 season, which he felt was too low-brow.
Several performances have been cancelled and, at the end of last week, Muti wrote to the orchestra to tell them that ”at the moment, there are not the conditions for us to play music together”.
Albertini said that, unless the deadlock was broken, the only way forward would be for the board of governors to hand over the running of the theatre to government-appointed commissioners.
Fontana is backed by the unions and the centre-left opposition on Milan city council. Muti is supported by much of the Italian right. – Guardian Unlimited Â