He leaves the Teatro alla Scala with a smile, thanks and praise for that “team” that welcomed him in 2020 when his role began, becoming his “family”. Dominique Meyer at the helm of Piermarini until his contract expires in February 2025, or at most 5 months after that date if he accepts the extension proposed by the Scaliger board of directors, he does not hide his disappointment at the non-renewal (“At a certain point a minister decided to send me to retire from La Scala”) but draws a line and takes stock of the positive things that have been achieved in these difficult years, in which he held the role of superintendent and artistic director. The occasion was the press conference for the presentation of the next 24/25 season.
“I’m very well – he begins -, I am a happy, serene and joyful man. And I’ll tell you why. Here I often had to wear the clothes of the superintendent and less so of the artistic director. It was necessary. There were consequences of Covid until recently” with shows having to be moved at the last moment. “I am happy because I have directed the greatest theatres”, from Paris to Lausanne, from Vienna to Milan. “Someone who has followed this path does not he has the right to complain about anything. I have worked with all the greatest masters in the world without discontinuity. Thanks Riccardo (Chailly, ed.)”. That’s why he didn’t mind “working 90 hours a week at the theater”.
A beautiful thing happened here, I was welcomed and my team became a family
“I asked you a lot, we renewed the staircase from top to bottom. We did a good job. For me it is a gift, you who were here to ask for the renewal” of the contract, for a new mandate, “as he did it most of the staff. So, brothers and sisters, whenever you need me, I will be there.”
Words of gratitude for everyone, pronounced in the stage area packed with representatives of theater workers, journalists and senator for life Liliana Segre in the front row. “Even those who in theory are enemies, the unions, I thank them because we did a good job, had a good dialogue and signed an agreement in a very serene way.” Then turning to the theater’s dance director, Manuel Legris, “I’m happy to have had him by my side, he’s like my brother and nephew. I knew him as a child when he was with Nureyev: he is his heir.” Words of appreciation for everyone, from the etoile Nicolette Manni “it makes the theater collapse. Good thing we’re insured”, for all the dancers. The list of reforms made is long. Meyer mentions them. “They know that I am not a particularly proud person but I am aware that I am leaving behind me a modernized Scala, a theater in order and prepared for the challenges of the future”.
All this is also done with the “support and help of all of you: private individuals give more money to La Scala than the public. Last year 44 million, it’s an enormous figure”. The numbers “always tell the truth” and are indisputable. The Teatro alla Scala closed 2023 with a profit of 8.7 million and a provision of 5 million to prepare for the future move of the warehouses. “I will leave La Scala with assets that have gone from 109 million to 132.7 million. Revenues have grown, ticket office receipts have gone from 27 to 34 million in one year. And sponsorships have reached 38 million”. Donations have also grown: from 3 million in ’18 to almost 6 million last year. Added to all this is the renewal of the information system, the creation of La Scala on TV and the commitment to sustainability. “We have saved more than 20 percent of energy consumption”. Therefore Meyer, which has always been recognized by mayor Beppe Sala, can well say that he leaves the theater in excellent health to his successor. Fortuna Ortombina, “a friend”. “Life goes on – he concludes -. I will gladly go and help another institution. I do my job, then at a certain point I will leave kindly and with courtesy as I always have.”
the coming year
‘La Forza del Destino’ by Giuseppe Verdi, one of his most complex works, will inaugurate the 2024/25 season of the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, as per tradition on 7 December. As maestro Riccardo Chailly explained during the press conference to present the season, the opera “had been missing for 59 years since 7 December; It’s a masterpiece that we all love.” “We will perform the critical edition in the 1869 version,” he added, “with a formidable cast.” This is a new production, which it will be directed by Leo Moscato. It is a dramaturgically complex work born in 1862 in St. Petersburg. It has been missing from the program since the 2001 Verdi centenary season, when it was brought to La Scala by the St. Petersburg theater ensembles, but the orchestra and choir of La Scala have not performed it since 1999. ‘La Forza del Destino’ is among the most difficult scores of Verdi singing, as explained by superintendent Dominique Meyer, who today presented his last season as director of the theatre.
From June 1st the designated superintendent will arrive from La Fenice Fortunato Ortombina. “One of the protagonists is the choir. And this time too”, Meyer recalled, “the premiere will be broadcast live on Rai1”. The choice to bring it back to Milan was courageous Normathe opera that Bellini wrote for La Scala and which has been missing from La Scala since 1977, “when over a third of our audience today had not yet been born” Meyer observed.
The following are scheduled:
- ‘Falstaff’ by Giuseppe Verdi, ‘The Valkyrie (The Ring of the Nibelung)’ by Richard Wagner,
- ‘Evgenij Onegin’ di Ciajkovskij,
- ‘Tosca’ by Giacomo Puccini,
- ‘The Opera would be’ in Florian Leopold Gassmann,
- ‘The Name of The rose’ by Francesco Filidei, based on the novel by Umberto Eco,
- ‘The Seven Deadly Sins/Mahagonny Songspiel/Happy Ending’ by Kurt Weill,
- ‘Siegfried (The Ring of the Nibelung)’ in Richard Wagner,
- ‘Cinderella’ by Gioachino Rossini,
- ‘Rigoletto’ by Giuseppe Verdi,
- ‘Daughter of the Regiment’ by Gaetano Donizetti
- ‘That’s what they all do’ of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
There are fourteen opera titles, in line with last year, eight of which are new productions plus a new Covent Garden production for Milan, and eight ballet ones. The Symphony Season offers seven programs for a total of 21 evenings, in addition to the ten of the Philharmonic Season, three Extraordinary Concerts, six Guest Orchestras, four piano recitals, seven singing recitals and the Sunday morning chamber concerts in the Ridotto, without forget the two operas for children and teenagers and the program of concert-shows for families and children created by Mario Acampa. The repertoire ranges from Charpentier’s Messe de minuit of 1694 to the novelties of Filidei and Colasanti of 2025 and the dialogue between the different Seasons is constant, in a continuous reference between genres, eras and authors.