Before La Scala, the busiest ever with institutional presences. The three presidents in the box of honor – Corriere.it

The Prima di Sant’Ambrogio 2022 will be remembered as one of the busiest in the history of La Scala due to institutional attendance. At the opening of the Opera Season, tonight at 6 pm, with the Russian masterpiece “Boris Godunov” by Modest Musorgsky conducted by the maestro Riccardo Chailly and directed by Kasper Holtenthe royal park will see a unicum, a real unpublished in memory of the ceremonials, with a presidential trio: alongside the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, an almost regular presence at the Prima – where he is acclaimed every time by the audience as well as from the gallery – there will also be the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

The simultaneous presence of the head of state and the head of government is (almost) a novelty: usually, in fact, the protocol requires that either the Prime Minister or the President of the Republic be present. Only once was there an exception for a singular temporal coincidence: it happened in 2011 when shortly before 7 December he was appointed prime minister Mario Montihistoric visitor to La Scala who had already planned to be present at the inauguration, and who therefore attended next to the President of the Republic Giorgio Napolitano.

In the royal box, as per tradition, the president of the Senate will also be present, Ignatius LaRussasecond state office, the mayor of Milan
Joseph Sala
and the Lombard governor Attilio Fontana. The Minister of Culture is also expected at the Prima della Scala Gennaro Sangiulianothe Minister of Enterprise and Made in Italy Adolfo Urso and the Minister of Reforms Maria Elisabetta Casellati. Due to the large institutional presence, the interval will be lengthened by ten minutes in order to allow all the guests to go and greet the conductor Riccardo Chailly. A representation of the Scala workers will deliver a letter against the cuts to culture to President Mattarella.