La Scala announces 2021-21 season, with hope of fewer limits

Audiences returned to La Scala last month, and, in the next significant step, the theater will remove flooring form the main seating area where the full orchestra has been playing at a social distance on risers and with plexiglass dividers separating woodwind and brass musicians.

“It will be the end of this horrendous experience,’’ said La Scala’s music director, Riccardo Chailly.

The conductor has been placed about 30 meters from musicians, and the musicians have been spaced at a distance where they can’t properly hear each other to play, especially challenging during complicated executions, Chailly noted.

“It means creating music of 100 musicians without the possibility of hearing. This hasn’t been emphasized enough. The orchestra made a huge effort, and no one fell into emotional excess,’’ Chailly said, giving them both praise and thanks.

For the moment, the theater that seats around 2,000 people is limited to 500 audience members. The timing of further loosening of restrictions is up to government officials, general manager Dominique Meyer emphasized. But for the fall conclusion of the 2020-21 season, La Scala is focusing on music that requires less than a full orchestra to facilitate any future distancing requirements.