Anna Netrebko Opens Milan’s Teatro alla Scala 2024/25 Season

Netrebko performed in Verdi's La forza del destino, after many Western presenters previously canceled engagements due to a lack of explicit criticism for Putin

Verdi’s La forza del destino (“The Force of Destiny”) conducted by Riccardo Chailly and directed by Leo Muscato, is the inaugural title of Milan’s Teatro alla Scala 2024/25 season.

The new season consolidates the cultural lines developed at La Scala in recent years and brings to fruition some of the company’s major projects.

December 7, 2024, saw the opening night with La forza del destino, which will be showing until January 2, 2025, featuring a cast of singers including Fabrizio Beggi, Ludovic Tézier, Vasilisa Berzhanskaya, and Anna Netrebko, among others. 

Russian-Austrian soprano Anna Netrebko, who lost work in the Western world following her original refusal to explicitly denounce Vladimir Putin, is also set to make her first U.S. appearance in six years. She will sing at a gala concert for Palm Beach Opera on February 3, 2025.

Other highlights throughout the season include Riccardo Muti with the Vienna Philharmonic, Sir Antonio Pappano conducting the London Symphony Orchestra, Kirill Petrenko and the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and Gatti leading the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden. 

Featured orchestral concerts at La Scala will include the Filarmonica della Scala, conductor Simone Young, and violinist Sergej Krylov in the Brahms Violin Concerto; conductor Susanna Mälkki in Strauss’ Eine Alpensinfonie; plus Lorenzo Viotti, Daniele Gatti, and Chailly in symphonies by Mahler and Brucker. 

Among the season’s 14 operas and eight ballets, include Verdi’s Falstaff, Wagner’s Die Walküre, Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, Puccini’s Tosca, Bellini’s Norma, and more. La Scala will also present numerous vocal and piano recitals and shows for children. 

La forza del destino (Image courtesy: Teatro alla Scala)