Full house and standing ovation: how the La Scala theater opened the season with the opera Boris Godunov

On Wednesday, December 7, Milan's La Scala Opera House opened the new season with a production of Boris Godunov.

The premiere was attended by high-ranking guests, including Italian Prime Minister George Meloni, President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, other politicians and representatives of Bohemia and business.

The guests shared their opinion about the production and about Russian culture in general.

So, Prime Minister Meloni noted that she does not share the controversy over Russian culture, despite the situation in Ukraine.

Governor of Lombardy Attilio Fontana urged not to make culture part of the controversy, and the President of the Italian Senate, Ignazio La Russa, said that great art has no color.

“I love a good opera.

Mussorgsky is phenomenal, Tchaikovsky is also phenomenal, ”TASS quotes von der Leyen.

Before the premiere, strict security measures were taken in the center of Milan: the square in front of the theater, along with the surrounding roads, was blocked by the police.

Only holders of tickets, the cost of which reached up to €3,000, could get past the fences. As explained in the press service of the theater, the introduction of special security measures is quite a standard phenomenon.

Taking advantage of the fact that a lot of influential people gather at the premieres, various activists are trying to attract attention by all available means.

So, in the morning on the day of the premiere of Boris Godunov, environmental activists doused the facade of the theater with paint.

The goal was to draw the attention of politicians to the problems of environmental pollution and global warming.

Utilities quickly cleaned up the stains, and the activists were detained.

In the afternoon, other protesters arrived at La Scala, who disagreed with the social policy of the republic and the rise in prices for utilities.

About 50 people tried to break through the fence by force, but were stopped by the police.

Not without pro-Ukrainian activists, upset by the decision of the theater management to start the season with Russian opera: about two dozen people staged a picket with chants, but did not attract much attention to themselves.

According to Corriere della Sera, soon after the doors opened, the theater foyer began to resemble a tin can due to the huge number of spectators.

The critics of the newspaper, who were present at the performance, highly appreciated the production, giving the highest score to Ildar Abdrazakov, who played the main role, and noting the excellent work of conductor Ricardo Chailly.

The audience was also delighted with the opera, in which Russian singers performed many roles - in addition to Abdrazakov, Alexei Markov, Anna Denisova and guest soloist of the Mariinsky Theater Dmitry Golovnin took part in the production.

As the reporters noted, at the end of the speech, not a single disapproving exclamation or whistle sounded from the hall, but the applause lasted 13 minutes.    

The decision to open the new season at La Scala with Modest Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov was announced in June 2022.

As director of the theater Dominik Meyer later clarified, the repertoire is not directed against Ukraine and was formed three years ago: it also includes Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker and Swan Lake staged by Rudolf Nureyev.

The chief conductor of La Scala, Ricardo Chailly, said that refusing Pushkin and Mussorgsky is the same as refusing Dante and Shakespeare.

Andrey Kartysh, Consul General of Ukraine in Milan, expressed disagreement with the inclusion of works by Russian composers in the La Scala repertoire, because, according to him, the Ukrainian community in Italy perceived the program negatively.

In addition to this, the diplomat accused the Italians of supporting "Russian propaganda".

Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala, commenting on Kartysh's statement, said that the protest against "Boris Godunov" seemed to him "a really wrong act on the part of the consul", and Italian Deputy Minister of Culture Vittorio Zgarbi called calls to cancel the opera stupidity, adding that this work is "a masterpiece, belonging to humanity."