La Scala’s gala premiere of ‘Don Carlo’ celebrates Italian opera’s new status as cultural treasure

By COLLEEN BARRY
Associated Press

MILAN (AP) — Italian melodrama’s official recognition as a global cultural treasure is getting trumpeted with La Scala’s season premiere of Verdi’s “Don Carlo.” The start of the Milan opera house’s 2023-24 season Thursday will serve as an unofficial national celebration of the U.N. cultural agency UNESCO including Italian lyric opera on its list of intangible cultural treasures. In keeping with a La Scala tradition of off-stage melodrama, the issue of who would occupy the royal box at the Milan opera house on opening night spawned a pre-performance kerfuffle. La Scala’s unions protested the institutional seat of honor going to Senate Speaker Ignazio La Russa in the absence of Italy’s president and premier.