The Teatro de la Scala in Milan has opened its season today with Boris Godunov, a controversial opera by the Russian composer Modest Petrovic Musorgskij based on the work by Aleksandr Pushkin that narrates the extremely high price that a Russian tsar paid for absolute power and the struggles of power in the Russian Empire. The election has been surrounded by controversy, after the Ukrainian protest by what is considered a decision that favors the propaganda of Vladimir Putin.
This is the opinion of the Ukrainian consul in Milan, Andrii Kartysh, and the Ukrainian community in Italy, who have sent a letter to the management of La Scala and the mayor of Milan and have gathered signatures to demand that they rethink their cousin, the emblematic boot of the operatic season, without any effect. Some anti-war protesters have protested outside the theater with Ukrainian flags, questioning why the most famous Italian lyrical temple has not reconsidered the decision nine months after the outbreak of the conflict.
According to Kartysh, “since culture is used by the Russian Federation to lend weight to the assertion of its greatness and power, supporting its propagation can only feed the image of the regime there today and, by extension, its infamous ambitions and myriad crimes”. In his opinion, "only after the return to normality will it be possible to once again appreciate Russian culture separated from its political reality."
"I am not willing to hide when I read Dostoevsky or Pushkin," La Scala superintendent Dominique Meyer has defended himself, assuring that they are not going to renounce Russian culture because of the conflict. “By making Boris Godunov we are not making propaganda in favor of Putin. It is a great masterpiece of art history, and we must differentiate the current political situation in Russia”, Meyer defended during a recent press conference.
The decision to choose this opera for the debut was made three years ago at the suggestion of the in-demand Russian baritone Ildar Abdrazakov, who plays the title role in a cast made up mostly of Russians. The musical direction is in charge of Riccardo Chailly, while the set design is in the hands of the Danish Kasper Holten. Other proper names that participate in the day of Saint Ambrose, patron saint of Milan, are the soprano Anna Denisova and the mezzo-soprano Lilly Jorstad.
The invasion in Ukraine already had a full impact on La Scala in March, shortly after the Russian invasion began, when the theater decided to do without the director Valeri Guergiev, who was to direct The Queen of Spades, because he did not want to raise his voice in favor of peace. He was not asked to denounce Putin but to defend a "peaceful solution", but instead of responding he decided to take a plane to St. Petersburg.
As is tradition, the evening began with a long round of applause for the President of the Italian Republic, the Head of State, Sergio Mattarella, who this year was accompanied in the box by the President of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, and for the first time by the new Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni. "I think that culture is something else and we should not make the mistake of mixing two different things," said the premier about the controversy.
The premiere has also suffered an incident after five climate activists have been arrested after throwing white paint against the facade of the theater in protest against the environmental policies of the Italian government. These are five members of the Última Generación collective, who carried signs against gas and coal and have promised that they will not stop until the Executive commits to "the dismantling of coal plants by 2025 and the commitment to stop to build thermal power plants.
