La Scala opens its new season on Sunday with Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, an opera promoting women's rights that was once banned in Russia.
The Milan opera house is staging the work in a tribute to Shostakovich 50 years after his death.
The opera, based on a play by Nikolai Leskov, debuted in St Petersburg in 1934 and was originally intended to be the first of a trilogy dedicated to Russian women.
Despite its initial success, the opera faced criticism from the Soviet leadership, including Joseph Stalin, due to its depiction of sex, violence and female rebellion and it was banned for nearly 30 years in the country.
"Opening the season with this opera is ... a tribute to a 20th-century giant and to an opera that suffered for far too many years," Riccardo Chailly, La Scala's principal conductor, said.
Speaking about calls to exclude Russian performers from European stages, Russian director Vasily Barkhatov said that personal political views and cultural identity should be kept separate.
"If you openly support the Russian government, you must be aware of the possible consequences of your choice," Barkhatov told Reuters.
"It's different, however, if you are discriminated against just because you are a Russian artist," he said.
KATERINA'S CHARACTER 'LIKE A RACING CAR'
The opera tells the story of Katerina who, trapped in an unhappy marriage, murders her husband and father-in-law with the help of her lover, but is eventually discovered and sent to Siberia where she commits suicide.
"It's a story about women's freedom and human happiness," said Barkhatov.
U.S. soprano Sara Jakubiak, who plays Katerina, said her character "is like a racing car that goes from zero to 100 km in a couple of seconds."
The opera was originally set in the countryside of 19th- century Russia, but Barkhatov and Belarusian set-designer Zinovy Margolin have shifted the three and a half hour production to an urban setting of 1950s Moscow.
"We wanted to do something different. We thought that setting it in the city where Shostakovich lived would be fitting," said Margolin.
Russian tenor Yevgeny Akimov plays Katerina's husband, Zinovy, while Uzbek tenor Najmiddin Mavlyanov stars as her lover Sergey.
This season will be the first for La Scala's new artistic director, Fortunato Ortombina.
La Scala, inaugurated in 1778, has become one of the world's most prestigious opera and ballet theatres.
The opening night of La Scala's season is a highlight of the social calendar for Italy's political and business elite, coinciding with Milan's St. Ambrose holiday celebrating the city's patron saint.
Sunday's opening performance, which is sold out, will have an audience of 2,000 people. Tickets, costing as much as 3,200 euros ($3,725) - will generate a record 2.8 million euros in revenue.
The opera will be performed at La Scala until December 30.
($1 = 0.8590 euros)
