Milan's mayor announced Tuesday that the board of the famed La Scala opera house has agreed on a new general manager to succeed Austrian Alexander Pereira, whose money-making but sometimes troubled 5-year mandate expires in February.
Mayor Giuseppe Sala, who is chairman of the board, declined to identify the candidate due to on-going personnel negotiations, saying only "I will leave it to your imagination." Italian media has focused on the manager of the Vienna Staatsoper, Dominique Meyer, after another candidate withdrew. The board will meet next week to confirm.
Pereira, who was tapped for his fund-raising prowess and is also the theater's artistic director, has helped find 58 million euros ($65 million) in new private funding, but had political run-ins from the start. During one, Sala said that the Austrian had demonstrated a level of political naivete in navigating behind-the-scenes management of one of the world's most prestigious opera houses.
FILE - In this Wednesday, May 30, 2018 file photo, Milan's mayor Giuseppe Sala, left, Italian conductor Riccardo Chailly, center, and La Scala's general director Alexander Pereira pose for photographers prior to the start of the press conference to present 20182019 season, in Milan, Italy. Milan’s mayor announced Tuesday that board of the famed La Scala opera house has agreed on a new general manager to succeed Austrian Alexander Pereira, whose money-making but sometimes troubled five-year mandate expires in February. Mayor Giuseppe Sala, who is chairman of the board, declined to identify the candidate due to on-going personnel negotiations, saying only ‘’I will leave it to your imagination.” Italian media has focused on the manager of the Vienna Staatsoper, Dominique Meyer, after another candidate withdrew. The board will meet next week to confirm. (AP PhotoAntonio Calanni, File)
He nearly lost the position after buying productions from his last employer, the Salzburg Festival, during a transition period before he had legally assumed the job. And he faced criticism earlier this year for a badly handled fundraising deal with Saudi Arabia, which ended with the return of 3 million euro ($3.4 million) that had been placed in an escrow account. The board's issues were not over Saudi Arabia's human rights record, but more technically that it had not been notified of the deal and that the bank transfer had not been properly flagged.
The Saudi deal debacle culminated also with public calls by the governor of Lombardy, which is represented on the La Scala board, to resign — even though there was no follow-up in board meetings.
During his tenure, Pereira also has increased the number of productions and performances, including by the opera house's academy, raised the number of ticket sales, launched a popular series of opera and ballet for children, and reached a deal on a new work contract with the often-contentious La Scala unions, without a single performance being canceled by strike.
The powerful CGIL union, citing weeks of newspaper reports speculating on a management transition, called for continuity "in the virtuous model of production," that has been established in recent years, saying it had also created more jobs inside the theater.
Sala confirmed that Periera's contract would not be extended, but he declined to say whether he would remain on for two years to manage the seasons that he has already lined up.
The mayor has also previously suggested that the positions of general manager and artistic director should be split in the future, but he said that would be decided in the upcoming negotiations.
Meyer, 63, is a Frenchman who was formerly general director of the Lausanne Opera and general and artistic director of the Theatre des-Champs-Elysees in Paris. Since 2010, has been running the Vienna Staatsoper, where he has been credited with stabilizing finances and driving up attendance.
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union marks its annual Europe Day on Thursday, but instead of the humdrum celebrations, all eyes are on the EU elections in a month's time, which portend a steep rise of the extreme right and a possible move away from the bloc's global trendsetting climate policies.
After decades in which the EU elections hardly caused a ripple, the June 6-9 voting is the most important in memory. It is being held at a time of continuous crises on a continent which is experiencing a war in Ukraine, climate emergencies, a shifting of geopolitical plates and fundamental questions on the reach and purpose of the EU itself.
“It will be an existential fight,” said Guy Verhofstadt, a former Belgian prime minister and outgoing free-market liberal member of parliament who has been in the thick of EU politics for over a quarter century. It will pit “those who want less Europe and, then, those political forces who understand that in the world of tomorrow you need a far more integrated European Union to defend the interests of the Europeans,” he said in an interview.
In naked political terms, it means those traditional socialist, liberal and green forces that ran the EU parliament with the Christian Democrats over the past five years against the surging powers of the hard nationalist right, exemplified by leaders like Viktor Orbán of Hungary and Georgia Meloni of Italy.
The vote is the second-biggest exercise in democracy behind the elections in India, as the 27-nation bloc of 450 million people will be picking 720 parliamentarians to serve them over the next five years with decisive votes on everything from digital privacy rules to international trade policy and climate measures.
But more than that, when the results are made public late on June 9, it will be an indication whether the continental political drift will match the rightward swing seen across much of the globe from Argentina to the Netherlands and Slovakia.
Even if surveys diverge somewhat on the margins of the gains, they all point toward one thing: The nationalist hard right and populist parties will make strong gains.
“If I look at the polls all over Europe, more or less, I can always see the same scenario,” said Nicola Procaccini, Meloni's man in the European Parliament, who typically considers himself as part of the center-right far removed from the neo-fascist roots of his Brothers of Italy party.
He said likeminded parties "are rising more or less, everywhere.” That includes election victories in the Netherlands and Slovakia and polls showing they lead the way in France with Marine Le Pen 's National Rally.
When it comes to the fundamentals, the EU battle could be seen as Verhofstadt vs. Procaccini, with one insisting only more joint policies on issues like defense are the answer to the EU's global challenges ahead, and the other saying how the individual member states, with their cherished nationhood at its core, should always come first.
While 27 nations with often inefficient individual defense programs have left western Europe at the mercy of U.S. goodwill for much of the past half century, Verhofstadt wants a full defense union to stave off a belligerent Russia, and anticipate a non-committal United States if Donald Trump becomes president in November. “It is not individual member states which will protect the people,” he said.
“And that’s the reason why it’s an existential fight. Because if we lose this fight against the right-wing parties, we will be without defense, without security,” Verhofstadt said.
Procaccini instead centers on what many far-right parties see as encroachment and downright meddling in national affairs by the EU's institutions in Brussels and Strasbourg, France. They have specifically lashed out at the EU Green Deal to keep climate change at bay and have specifically targeted measures to force farmers into more environmentally friendly methods as overbearing and overruling national decision making. They want to hark back to the EU's timid origins some 60 years ago when cooperation was much more voluntary and limited.
“We want to restore the original idea of Europe,” Procacinni said.
It is unlikely the anti-EU parties will get a grip on legislative power but a surge into third place behind the Christian Democrats and Socialists would have a major impact. If the forecast of the European Council on Foreign Affairs holds, the think tank says "this ‘sharp right turn’ is likely to have significant consequences for European-level policies ... particularly on environmental issues, where the new majority is likely to oppose ambitious EU action to tackle climate change."
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has already softened some of the climate rules and her center-right Christian Democrat European People's Party, the biggest in the legislature, has moved rightward on migration on top of climate policy.
With a wilting of the Green Deal, it would make sure that beyond facing geopolitical crises, the EU would also face one of its own making.
Thursday's Europe Day honors the memory of Jean Monnet, one of the founding fathers of the European Union, who once said: “Europe will be forged in crises.”
FILE - Members of European Parliament participate in a series of votes as they attend a plenary session at the European Parliament in Brussels, on April 10, 2024. The European Union marks Europe Day on Thursday, May 9, but instead of the traditionally muted celebrations, all eyes are on the EU elections in one month time which portend a steep rise of the extreme right and a possible move away from its global trendsetting climate policies. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert, File)
FILE - A woman walks holding a baby by a sculpture depicting French diplomat Jean Monnet, part of the monument of the European Union Founding Fathers in Bucharest, Romania, on Dec. 29, 2018. The European Union marks Europe Day on Thursday, May 9, but instead of the traditionally muted celebrations, all eyes are on the EU elections in one month time which portend a steep rise of the extreme right and a possible move away from its global trendsetting climate policies. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda, File)
FILE - President of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, Guy Verhofstadt, speaks in the hemicycle of the European Parliament in Brussels, on May 26, 2019. While 27 nations with often inefficient individual defense programs have left western Europe at the mercy of U.S. goodwill for much of the past half century, Verhofstadt wants a full defense union to stave off a belligerent Russia, and anticipate a non-committal United States if Donald Trump becomes president in November. (AP Photo/Olivier Matthys, File)
FILE - People wait in line to visit the European Parliament during Europe Day celebrations in Brussels on May 4, 2024. The European Union marks Europe Day on Thursday, May 9, but instead of the traditionally muted celebrations, all eyes are on the EU elections in one month time which portend a steep rise of the extreme right and a possible move away from its global trendsetting climate policies. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo, File)
FILE - A man wears a suit in the EU colors as he walks outside the European Parliament during Europe Day celebrations in Brussels on May 4, 2024. The European Union marks Europe Day on Thursday, May 9, but instead of the traditionally muted celebrations, all eyes are on the EU elections in one month time which portend a steep rise of the extreme right and a possible move away from its global trendsetting climate policies. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo, File)
FILE- A man holds a European Union flag as he walks outside the European Commission building during Europe Day celebrations in Brussels on May 4, 2024. The European Union marks Europe Day on Thursday, May 9, but instead of the traditionally muted celebrations, all eyes are on the EU elections in one month time which portend a steep rise of the extreme right and a possible move away from its global trendsetting climate policies. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo File)
FILE - A group stands under an election banner outside the European Parliament in Brussels on April 29, 2024. The European Union marks Europe Day on Thursday, May 9, but instead of the traditionally muted celebrations, all eyes are on the EU elections in one month time which portend a steep rise of the extreme right and a possible move away from its global trendsetting climate policies. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo, File)
