MILAN -- Riccardo Muti stepped down Saturday as musical director of La Scala, following weeks of bitter dispute behind the curtains of the famed opera house in Milan.
The resignation of the 64-year-old maestro ended his 19-year reign as conductor-in-residence. Move was widely expected after 700 of La Scala's 800 musicians and employees voted for Muti's departure on March 16 as a protest against what they considered his "increasingly despotic regime." The protest forced the cancellation of several performances.
According to many "Scala watchers," the veto of the theater's ranks was just the last episode in the "Muti crisis." Problems date back to at least two years ago, when "differences" exploded between the Italian maestro and Carlo Fontana, the theater's general manager.
At La Scala, ridden by increasingly large financial problems besides its artistic and leadership crisis, there was no immediate word on a possible successor to Muti.
Beginning on April 14, the maestro is scheduled to conduct the New York Philharmonic.
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