A story on the France24.com site on Tuesday (6/4) reports, “Austrian musical director Alexander Pereira was picked on Tuesday to head up the prestigious La Scala opera house in Milan, replacing Frenchman Stephane Lissner, the city’s mayor said. The 65-year-old former tourism manager is currently artistic director of the Salzburg Festival and formerly led the Zurich Opera House.… In a sign of the times in recession-hit Italy, Pereira’s salary will be ‘at least 25 percent’ lower than the 350,000 euros ($458,000) a year of his predecessor and he will not have free housing. La Scala took the unusual move of posting the job publicly and received 25 applications.… [Pereira] led the Zurich Opera House from 1991 to 2012, encouraging young singers and seeking to make music more accessible to a wider audience. Lissner has been named to take over the Opera National de Paris from 2015 when the current director Nicolas Joel is due to step down.”
Posted June 5, 2013
