The Conductors: Riccardo Muti

Riccardo Muti (1986–2005)

Riccardo Muti succeeded Abbado as music director in 1986. “A great director has left; a great director has arrived,” commented Gianandrea Gavazzeni.

It was the culmination of a perceived rivalry between Abbado and Muti that had captured the imagination of the Italian press for years. Muti would dominate at La Scala over the next two decades, clocking up 844 appearances, the highest number of any music director between 1951 and 2000.

Taking Milan by storm

In 1986, Muti opened the season with Verdi's Nabucco. It was a blistering start. “When we got to the end of “Va' pensiero” [the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves] a huge roar rose from the stalls, the boxes and gallery, followed by thundering applause of incredible power," wrote Teodoro Celli in the newspaper Il Messaggero. "Muti stayed immobile on the podium [...] But the storm did not pass, and the calls for an encore became a howl. Muti resisted all he could. Then he gave into the inevitable, and started the piece from the top."

Like Toscanini before him, Muti sought to remove the crust of accumulated performance tradition. Works were typically performed without cuts and soloists banned from singing unwritten high notes. Verdi was Muti’s battle horse. At La Scala, he conducted over 30 productions of the composer’s operas.

Launching the Academy

In 2001, Muti and superintendent Carlo Fontana launched the La Scala Academy, uniting the theatre’s various education departments. To this day, it is unique in its field for training the whole gamut of opera professionals.

Meanwhile, the Filarmonica had grown in stature. It performed over 150 concerts with 20 conductors in 1991 alone. Carlo Maria Giulini recorded a Beethoven cycle. Figures including Maazel, Bernstein, Prêtre, Gavazzeni, Mehta, Ozawa, Chung, Chailly and Sinopli were invited to conduct.

Muti returns

Muti departed in 2005, and did not return to La Scala for 12 years. It took persistence and patience from superintendent Alexander Pereira to lure him back.

In 2017, La Scala's Museum displayed an exhibition exploring Muti’s Milan tenure, in honour of the conductor’s 75th birthday. The following year, Muti performed two concerts at La Scala with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. A further visit took place in 2020.