Riccardo Chailly
Andrea Lopalo wears a face mask and plays the drums behind a transparent panel to curb the spread of COVID-19 during a lesson at the Giuseppe Verdi Music Conservatory, in Milan, Italy, Thursday, April 29, 2021. Whatever the instrument, flute, violin or drums, students at Italy's oldest and largest music conservatory have been playing behind plexiglass screens during much of the pandemic as the Conservatory found ways to preserve instruction throughout Italy’s many rolling lockdowns. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
AP PHOTOS: Playing on at Italy's oldest music conservatory

By Colleen Barry And Antonio Calanni Jun. 12, 2021 03:10 AM EDT

A view of the Milan La Scala opera house during a press conference to present 2021/2022 season, in Milan, Italy, Monday, May 31, 2021. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
La Scala announces 2021-21 season, with hope of fewer limits

By Colleen Barry May. 31, 2021 10:24 AM EDT

FILE - In this Dec. 30, 2017 file photo, Italian Maestro Riccardo Muti conducts the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra during a rehearsal for the traditional New Year's concert at the golden hall of Vienna's Musikverein. With a purposeful nod and flick of his baton, the 79-year-old conductor on Sunday, May 9, 2021, ended what has been an unexpectedly long silence in Italian theaters, enrapturing a socially distanced and masked audience with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra’s first live performances since fall, two evening concerts of Mendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms, in his adopted hometown of Ravenna. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak, file)
Muti: Pandemic year silenced culture, leaving world stunned

By Colleen Barry May. 10, 2021 05:52 AM EDT

FILE - In this Sunday, Oct. 25, 2020 file photo, a military vehicle drives past La Scala opera theater in Milan, northern Italy. Milan’s famed La Scala opera house announced Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2020 that it will broadcast a gala event featuring stars including Placido Domingo, Roberto Alagna and Jonas Kaufman on the night of its traditional Dec. 7 season-opener, instead of the planned staging of Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor,” in keeping with restrictions imposed to stop the deadly spread of the virus. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno, File)
La Scala subs closed gala concert for traditional opener

By Colleen Barry Nov. 25, 2020 08:35 AM EST

La Scala general manager Dominique Meyer, left, and director Riccardo Chailly arrive for press conference to present the fall 2020 program of concerts and ballets, in Milan, Italy, Monday, July 27, 2020. The presentation marks the reopening of one of the world’s most renown theaters following the coronavirus lockdown as well as support of artists who were left without work during the shutdowns.(AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
La Scala announces fall season as cultural life resumes

By Colleen Barry Jul. 27, 2020 09:25 AM EDT