La Scala announces fall season as cultural life resumes
La Scala general manager Dominique Meyer poses at the end of a press conference to present the fall 2020 program of concerts and ballets, in Milan, Italy, Monday, July 27, 2020. The limited calendar runs through Dec. 5, when La Scalas former musical director, Daniel Barenboim, returns to the theater for a piano concert. Chailly will conduct 14 dates this fall, while Zubin Mehta takes on 12. The fall program is envisioned in two parts, with distancing rules in play both on and off stage through Oct. 21, followed by a full opening of the theater, with productions and seating both normalized. That will mean two operas, La Traviata and Aida, will be presented as concerts in the first half, while La Boheme will be fully staged in November.
Muti to conduct classical music's return to Italian stage
SOAVE Riccardo Muti will conduct a youth orchestra in an open-air concert launching the annual Ravenna Festival next month in what organizers billed Friday as Italys first live classical music performance since its strict lockdown to stop the spread of coronavirus. Inspired by Italian industry, the Ravenna Festival prepared its own protocols during the lockdown, which were approved by the Italian government, allowing the quick start, said festival general manager Antonio de Rosa. The festival will open June 21 with Ravenna native Muti conducting the Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra, featuring musicians under age 30, inside the 15th-Century Rocca Brancaleone fortress. The festival, founded 30 years ago by Muti's wife, Cristina Mazzavillani Muti, will present 40 performances, with the full program to be announced shortly. We listened to music, we read books and we watched many musical performances on television, de Rosa told the AP.