In an interview with Kurier published Thursday, Alexander Pereira, the manager designate of fabled Italian opera house La Scala, said he is hoping to hire an Italian music director.
Pereira's perfect picks for the podium? Riccardo Muti or Claudio Abbado.
"If there is a non-Italian manager, there should be an Italian music director," Pereira said. "I would be insanely happy if it worked out that Riccardo Muti would conduct at La Scala again. Or Claudio Abbado."
Of course, Daniel Barenboim, the Argentine-born Israeli conductor, is La Scala's current music director.
Pereira, an Austrian who is still artistic director of the Salzburg Festival, will take the wheel from current La Scala GM Stéphane Lissner in 2015.
Lissner, a Frenchman, is moving back to Paris.
Pereira ruffled Austrian feathers by accepting the La Scala post in the first place, which will begin before his Salzburg Fest contract ends in the autumn of 2016.
And a Reuters duly notes, that controversy comes on top of Pereira's tiff with Salzburg mayor Heinz Schaden--wherein Pereira threatened to leave outright regarding local allocations for the festival's budget.
For his part, Pereira told Kurier that he would have no problem fulfilling his dual duties, as the 2015 Salzburg Festival was already 85-90 percent planned (and the 2016 festival is nearly 70 percent done).
"I have given my word to the Salzburgers that I will be responsible for everything until the end," he said.
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