Although the international financial crisis has strongly affected the Italian economy, the legendary opera house La Scala in Milan has registered a rise in subscriptions, especially among younger people.
This success is attributable to Elias Tzempetonidis, the current Casting Manager of La Scala from Thessaloniki.
Two years after taking over the Casting position, Tzempetonidis has seen subscriptions rise by 5% despite the current economic crisis in Italy. “We are talking about young people, 25 to 30 years old, mostly coming from Milan and the broader region of Lombardy” said Mr. Tzempetonidis.
The 40-year old Greek Manager is one of the youngest people to have ever worked in such a high ranked position within La Scala. He studied Law, Contact Management and Art in Germany, and his first contact with classical music and opera was in 1994 when he participated in Nafplio’s festival. He worked in the Munich Opera (1997-2000), and returning to Greece, worked in artistic programming at the Thessaloniki Concert Hall. Since 2006, he served as director of planning and casting at the National Opera.
Tzempetonidis will work in La Scala as Casting Director until 2013, and has already announced the finalized castings of the opera house for 2012 and 2013 (years of Verdi and Wagner respectively). Always bearing in mind that such complicated things like organizing and staging an opera concert cannot be completed from one day to the next, Tzempetonidis is already planning the next three seasons, searching at the same time for the new “Aida” or the next “Rigoletto”.
“We have found a new way to attract young people to the opera. We invented the Ante Prima: three days before the official premiere of any performance, people aged up to 30-years-old can watch the play by paying only 10 Euros for their ticket instead of the price for an orchestra-level seat priced at about 240 Euros.” said Mr. Tzempetonidis.
“In this way, we keep quality going despite the crisis” sums up Mr. Tzempetonidis.
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