"More than a missed opportunity, it was badly managed", the mayor of Milan Beppe Sala finally ruled, putting the word end to the negotiations to let the government of Saudi Arabia enter the capital of the Teatro alla Scala of Milan, with a share of over 15 million euros and a potential appointment as founding partner. The move by the Austrian Superintendent Alexander Pereira, whom Sala described as "naive", immediately sparked the political controversy within the various factions of the Board, above all by the Lombardy Region (represented on the board by Philippe Daverio) with Northern League traction and therefore hostile to the "de-Italianisation" of one of the country's top cultural institutions.
But in reality nobody liked the hypothesis, given that in the session of Monday 18 March the Board of Directors unanimously decided to return "immediately"
the down payment of 3,1 million euros to Prince Badr al Saud Arrived March 4th, with the official reasoning that this funding, agreed on his behalf by Pereira, who maintained until the end that he had informed all the councilors, even though he never received a formal authorization to proceed, "does not comply with the procedures set out in the Statute of the theater for the competition for the Foundation".
Mayor Sala, who emerges better than anyone from this affair, having kept a low profile and not having in fact closed the door to anyone, while expressing perplexity about the operation, however specifies that "towards Saudi Arabia, Scala's board of directors will not has no foreclosure. There is no blacklist of countries you don't talk to. Either our government tells us not to talk to them, or La Scala will evaluate the projects from time to time. And if there are other possibilities for collaboration we will evaluate them, we will not close the doors". For now, however, it is certain that the hypothesis of the Saudis entering La Scala is waning – albeit not definitively. Instead, the 2020 tour has been confirmed, where La Scala will bring La Traviata to Riad in concert form conducted by Zubin Mehta in the auditorium owned by Saudi Aramco, the oil company of the Saudi Arabian government.
The Lombard governor of the Northern League Attilio Fontana, who on the eve of the board of directors had fired at zero against Pereira, even asking for his dismissal, limited himself to saying that he "shares the choice of the board". The leader of the League Matteo Salvini on the dismissal of the superintendent seems satisfied and says: "For me, Fontana speaks". In reality, the hypothesis of dismissing the Austrian superintendent before the expiry of his mandate, which ends in a year, is quite remote. “He remains in his place”, assured the mayor Sala while admitting that however the appointment of a successor will already be discussed by May. The current shortlist includes the names of Carlo Fuortes of the Rome Opera, Fortunato Ortombina of the Fenice of Venice, Peter Gelb of the Metropolitan of New York, Dominique Meyer of the Staastoper of Vienna, Serge Dormy of the Lyon Opera who, however, has already signed the contract to move to Monaco, Filippo Fonsatti of the Turin Stabile.
