The new Sovrintendente at La Scala, Alexander Pereira, has backtracked over his decision to start La Scala performances 5 minutes after the official starting time.
The theatre, which has proudly begun almost every performance since the war bang on time at 20.00 (a typical audience comment being that it is the only thing that is on time in Italy), was instructed by Pereira to delay the start to avoid patrons who had paid vast sums for their seat being locked out until an interval, even if they were a minute late. He had said that the ushers were often verbally attacked by angry latecomers.
The Guardian took up the story last Wednesday, saying,
So well known was the rule against tardiness that the only documented exception was made in 1972, when Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton arrived 10 minutes late for the opening night of Un Ballo in Maschera (A Masked Ball) by Giuseppe Verdi, swarmed by paparazzi. The then head of the opera, Paolo Grassi, was incensed by the delay.
“Late arrivals at La Scala are not allowed,” he said at the time.
However, after audience protests – by those who were on time at any rate – he has changed his tune. Before a performance of Fidelio there was five minutes of slow clapping, from 20.00 until 20.05, and before the opening of the ballet season with The Nutcracker there were continuous calls of “vergogna!” (shame on you) from the gods. The orchestra who are required to be ready in the pit by eight o’clock, joined in the slow handclap as they, like the ontime patrons, were obliged to twiddle their thumbs for five minutes.
So Grassi’s rule holds, though, of course, late arrivals are allowed… just not in the auditorium.

Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano’) about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.
His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia’ column for Dancing Times magazine.
A letter to all of us subscribers has been sent by Mr.Pereira in persona to explain the reasons of his back and forward decision. He realized that Milan people is not like Salzburg and Wien’s.
Finally welcome to Milan Mr Pereira 🙂
He informed us that he spoke with the representatives of the maschere in sala and they have reassured him that they will have no problem in dealing with irascible latecomers perhaps by wearing armours ahahahah….
In any case in the letter he says also that all the professors will have to wait for the conductor to be on stage to reply to his greetings to the orchestra before leaving the pit: no more empty pits in front of embarrassed conductors. At least this is good for La Scala orchestra image 🙂