Riccardo Muti (Photo by Pool/Reuters)
The arts column: Farewell to the last of the great autocrats
[Daily Telegraph, 6 Apr 05]
Rupert Christiansen on the charisma and idealism of Riccardo Muti
Few tears will be shed for Riccardo Muti, who resigned last Saturday from La Scala, Milan, the opera house he has conducted with a baton of iron for the last 19 years. That’s quite long enough for anyone to be in the same job, and Muti’s prestige means that he can take his pick of offers from the international circuit — except perhaps Covent Garden, which is still smarting at his peremptory withdrawal from last October’s production of La Forza del Destino, apparently in protest over the insignificant alteration of a piece of scenery.
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