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The bizarre story of Italian opera house musical chairs – Meyer, Fuortes, Lissner

ByGramilano Reading Time: 2 minutes
Meyer, Fuortes, Lissner
Meyer, Fuortes, Lissner

An Italian story…

was brought in to manage the House at Christmas in 2013 when the theatre was on the verge of closing with a €32m debt. He overhauled the working practices and finances and knocked it back into shape.

In 2021 he became head of RAI, the Italian public broadcasting company. Yesterday he resigned from his post, mainly because of – to cut a long story short – too much political meddling from the new far right-wing government.

No here’s the fun part… the government is passing a new law that will disqualify anyone over the age of 70 from running one of the state-funded opera houses. It just so happens that , director of Teatro San Carlo in Naples (formerly director of the Paris Opera and ) turned 70 last January. In a familiar scenario of Italian opera house musical chairs, he could be ousted leaving room for Fuortes to take over.

However, Lissner will hardly give up his €240,000 a year job without a fight, and his compensation could be extremely high.

Fuortes says that newspapers speculating about his future may not have it right and indicated that Teatro San Carlo may not be his next stop – La Scala has always been his main objective – but that would mean ousting 67-year-old , the current intendent at La Scala, who will be 70 in 2025. That is why many are guessing that the Naples post will be just a launching pad for Fuortes to arrive at La Scala and take up the reins at Italy’s number-one opera house.

Then the purging of the French invaders will be complete.

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Graham Spicer, aka 'Gramilano', is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. His articles have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the Danza in Italia column for Dancing Times magazine. Graham was the historical advisor on Codice Carla, the 2023 documentary on Italian ballerina Carla Fracci.

Graham also works as a dance photographer, and his photos have appeared in many books, theatre programmes, and magazines, including Dancing Times, Dance Spirit and Ballet2000, as well as all the major Italian newspapers.

He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.

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