The Italian maestro conducted the Chicago Symphony in Milan 12 years after his controversial bust-up.

Riccardo Muti’s return to La Scala has been dubbed a triumph, following two nights of concerts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Muti’s return to the theatre where he served 19 years as music director came after a 12-year absence.

The conductor’s tenure as music director came to an acrimonious end in 2005 following a much publicised internal squabble between Muti, then general manager Carlo Fontana and the La Scala orchestra. Muti went on to be named conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 2010 and it was with the American orchestra that he made his return to La Scala.

The programme of the first concert, on Friday night, featured Catalani’s Contemplazione from La Wally, Strauss’s Don Juan and Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony and the Overture to Verdi’s Nabucco – the opera that began Muti’s tenure back in 1986. “In 1986, when my hair was still black, and rumours were going around that I dyed it, I began my wonderful years in this theatre with Nabucco. We’d now like to play the overture from that opera,” Muti said from the stage, according to a report by Graham Spicer.

The Chicago Tribune described the applause that followed the Saturday concert – a programme of Hindemith, Elgar and Mussorgsky – as “heartfelt pandemonium,” reporting that “the throng refused to allow the maestro or the orchestra to leave the stage.” The announcement that Muti and La Scala CEO and Artistic Director Alexander Pereira were discussing bringing the CSO back to the theatre in 2020 brought more enthusiastic applause.


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