Vienna (AFP)

The French Dominique Meyer, who will become director of Scala after a decade at the head of the Vienna Opera, wants to win back the audience of the theater Milan and infuse "heat and enthusiasm."

Q: What do we feel when we take the lead of La Scala?

A: We are happy: I have been working for thirty years in this profession which is my hobby and my job at the same time. I leave Vienna, one of the three or four most important operas in the world, to go to La Scala, which is in the same category, in Italy, a country I love and whose language and culture I love.

I was welcomed with open arms by a team I know. The transition is short but has been done in a very correct, respectful way, with a very friendly management team.

Q: What is your roadmap?

A: The first topic is to win back the audience. La Scala has lost a lot of subscribers this year. There is also work to do on the repertoire - we started. It is too scattered and must be refocused because basically it is not a victory to play an exotic piece for 60% of filling.

We must find a strong identity, relight the lash. I see too many shows during which we applaud two minutes then we go away. In Vienna, I have not got used to that, it's a place where the fire of the opera always works. The nights we play "Tosca", it is rare that there is less than 15 minutes of applause. In Vienna every evening there are 60, 80, 100 people at the exit of the artists, a ballet of autographs, photos and I find that it is what is most beautiful.

I hope I can help to find the contact with the public, more happiness, warmth and enthusiasm to listen to the opera.

Q: Does not the Vienna Opera House suffer from an image of a little innovative institution?

A: It's easy to say that. This year, not to mention the children's opera composers, we have in the main program four living composers, I do not know of any other theater that has four living and important composers under its roof this season.

Every year there is an opera order for children, the last was on a green topic, the second to last on blended families. We are in our time. We welcome 20,000 children each year.

Here is a modern opera: I do not know other operas with a system of surtitling providing eight languages ​​on tablets, and a lighting system as modern.

It is also said that Vienna is a tourist opera, but it's not true: we sell 70% of tickets, that is to say 400,000 tickets a year, to Viennese. It's huge for a city of this size and the tourists who come are often music lovers. This is a central issue in our business, we must stop scorning the public.

© 2019 AFP