During the opera season, I always look forward to one annual ritual that comes as regularly as back-to-school shopping in August or gridlock-alert days in November and December. I’m referring, of course, to the December season-opening gala at La Scala, which is preceded by the inevitable work stoppages and strike threats, only to be averted at the last minute. It’s not only opening night, of course—there was last summer’s strike, for instance, which shut down three performances of La Bohème at La Scala—but it is typically opening night when one or several unions stage protests by walking off the job.

This year was almost an exact repeat of last year, when a November strike, scuttled a couple performances of Verdi’s Requiem and workers also threatened to strike the opening-night performance of Tristan und Isolde, led by Daniel Barenboim. (The show went on.) I am happy to report that, despite generally pessimistic reports of funding difficulties for Italian opera, as of December 2, this year follows the pattern of previous Decembers at La Scala, and the December 7 Don Carlo will go on, at least according to a December 2 Bloomberg news report from Milan.

It turns out there would have been ramifications for New Yorkers, if this Don Carlo had been derailed. New York is one of several U.S. cities where live high-definition theater screenings of Don Carlo are about to take place. read more