Italian president and dignitaries pay respects at opera in Milan
by Agency staff
2013-12-09 07:21:53.0
MILAN — The Milan opera house La Scala dedicated a minute of silence to honour Nelson Mandela before raising the curtain on its gala season opener on Saturday.
The audience broke out in applause when conductor Daniele Gatti remembered Mandela, who died last Thursday at 95.
Everyone, including Italian President Giorgio Napolitano and European Commissioner José Manuel Barroso, rose for a minute to pay respects to the late South African president before the Italian national anthem played.
La Scala opens the 2013-14 season with "La Traviata", marking the conclusion of the bicentennial celebrations of Giuseppe Verdi’s birth. The season will include three Verdi operas.
Fashion designer Giorgio Armani and Fiat chairman John Elkann were among the VIPs attending one of the premier events of the European cultural calendar, frequented by leading industrial, political and cultural figures. The gala performance is often protested by austerity minded activists — although the event has been greatly scaled back over the years with fewer ostentatious signs of wealth, notwithstanding its exclusivity.
Sapa-AP
Giorgio Napolitano. Picture: REUTERS
MILAN — The Milan opera house La Scala dedicated a minute of silence to honour Nelson Mandela before raising the curtain on its gala season opener on Saturday.
The audience broke out in applause when conductor Daniele Gatti remembered Mandela, who died last Thursday at 95.
Everyone, including Italian President Giorgio Napolitano and European Commissioner José Manuel Barroso, rose for a minute to pay respects to the late South African president before the Italian national anthem played.
La Scala opens the 2013-14 season with "La Traviata", marking the conclusion of the bicentennial celebrations of Giuseppe Verdi’s birth. The season will include three Verdi operas.
Fashion designer Giorgio Armani and Fiat chairman John Elkann were among the VIPs attending one of the premier events of the European cultural calendar, frequented by leading industrial, political and cultural figures. The gala performance is often protested by austerity minded activists — although the event has been greatly scaled back over the years with fewer ostentatious signs of wealth, notwithstanding its exclusivity.
Sapa-AP
