Rome Opera, Hoping To Challenge La Scala, Recruits Riccardo Muti

“Riccardo Muti has agreed to lead Rome’s opera house as the Italian capital tries to raise its music profile in a country where Milan’s La Scala dominates the field, the city’s mayor said.” The maestro, who begins a five-year term as the Chicago Symphony’s music director in 2010, ended a two-decade tenure at La Scala in 2005 following a series of ferocious disputes.