Milan: Tenor “Stabbed in the Back”
Well, La Scala opera house in Milan surmounted strike threats and staged its opening night yesterday, but they couldn’t avoid major drama. The house forced its scheduled tenor, Italian Giuseppe Filianoti, from the production of “Don Carlo,” in favor of the understudy, American Stuart Neill (pictured). But the Italian singer wouldn’t go along with what La Scala was giving out as an excuse. “La Scala wanted me to say I was sick. But I, Giuseppe Filianoti, am in perfect condition, ready to engage myself in a role in which I feel secure,” Milan daily Corriere Della Sera quoted him as saying. Filianoti added that he was “stabbed in the back at the last minute.” Sounds like an opera to me.
