Riccardo Muti returns to the La
Scala podium on Friday for the first time in 12 years to conduct
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, of which he is music director.
Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala and Culture Minister Dario
Franceschini will be at the Milan opera house for the event.
The programme for Friday's concert includes Strauss' Don
Juan, Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4 and Contemplation by Alfredo
Catalani.
On Saturday Muti will conduct the same orchestra in a
different concert featuring Paul Hindemith's Konzertmusik for
Brass and String Orchestra, In the South (Alassio) by Edward
Elgar, and Night on Bald Mountain and Pictures at an Exhibition
by Modest Musorgskij, the latter in the arrangement by Ravel.
Muti last conducted at La Scala on May 2, 2005, following his
stormy resignation as music director and principal conductor at
the theatre for 19 years.
The concerts on January 20 and 21 are already sold out and
theatre superintendent Alexander Pereira hopes Muti will go on
to conduct an opera at La Scala, possibly The force of Destiny
by Giuseppe Verdi.
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