MILAN (AP) – Principal conductor Riccardo Chailly is reviving Puccini’s original version of “Madama Butterfly” for the gala season opening Wednesday of La Scala, where it will be performed for the first time since its hotly contested world debut 112 years ago.
Chailly called it a “duty” toward Puccini to present the masterpiece as he originally intended it to be experienced.
“It is more bitter, more dramatic, more theatrically eloquent version,” Chailly has said.
In a rare break with tradition, neither Italy’s president nor premier will attend the gala opening of the famed Milan opera house, one of the European cultural calendar’s premier events and typically attended by captains of industry, culture and politics.
President Sergio Mattarella canceled his attendance at the last minute due to the country’s latest political crisis over Premier Matteo Renzi’s resignation. Hopes that Renzi would be in the audience similarly withered. Culture Minister Dario Franceschini also sent his regrets.