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The gala premiere of La Scala is a Verdi opera known to bring bad luck

The gala premiere of La Scala is a Verdi opera known to bring bad luck

MILAN — Milan’s legendary Teatro alla Scala presents Giuseppe Verdi’s “La Forza del Destino” Saturday in its inaugural gala season for the first time in 59 years, seeking to shake the opera’s reputation as a bad luck charm.

The first is a highlight of the Milanese cultural calendar, attracting personalities from the political, economic and artistic world, although this year President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni have chosen to attend the ceremonies marking the reopening of Our- Lady. Paris Cathedral.

Russian soprano Anna Netrebk o sings the role of Leonora in front of the American tenor That of Brian Jagde Don Alvaro. Jagde was recruited at short notice to replace the German tenor Jonas Kaufmannwho left his studies for family reasons.

This is Jagde’s fourth time playing the role of Don Alvaro this year alone, and his third performance at La Scala – he was previously recruited twice as a replacement alongside Netrebko in “Turandot”.

Netrebko called the score of “La Forza del Destino” a “masterpiece”, but confessed that she could not relate to her character, Leonora, “as a 21st century woman”.

“If you look at the history, it’s fundamentally absurd, sorry,” she said at a recent press conference. “If we are serious and try to follow the story, and try to understand, especially the character of Leonora, chased by fear, guilt, despair, and in the end what did she find?”

The opera is an ill-fated love story between Don Alvaro and Leonora, set against the backdrop of a world on the brink of apocalypse, which finds resonance in current global turbulence. There was also a pro-Palestinian demonstration in central Milan just before the VIPs arrived at La Scala. Unions also traditionally protest against this lavish event on the square in front of the opera house.

Verdi’s opera has long been obsessed with the superstition that it brings bad luck, so much so that some in Italy will not say the full title out loud. A reputation that the director of the La Scala production hopes to shake once and for all.

“We will be the catalysts of luck,” Leo Muscato told Corriere della Sera, adding that every production has its “accidents.”

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