Opera houses decree on retirement at 70 'illegitimate'

(ANSA) - ROME, JUL 25 - In a sentence published on Thursday, Italy's Constitutional Court ruled that a government decree converted into law last year providing for opera house superintendents to leave their post once they turn 70, rather than when their contract expires, is unconstitutional.
    The decree is illegitimate because there are no conditions of extraordinary need or emergency to justify it, according to the sentence.
    The top court ruled on a constitutionality issue raised by the tribunal of Naples over the case of Stéphane Lissner, the superintendent of the San Carlo in Naples, the world's oldest opera house, who had to step down before his contract expired in June 2023 due to the decree that 'retired' him having already turned 70.
    The tribunal of Naples, which raised the constitutionality issue, reinstated Lissner to his post after he filed a suit against his ouster..
    The censored measure provided for the early retirement, as of June 1, 2023, of opera house foundation superintendents who had turned 70, regardless of the expiration date of their contracts.
    (ANSA).