Lights out at La Scala

Next month's gala opening of the season at Milan's La Scala is under threat from an internal row about cash that has set orchestra players and choral singers against technicians and craftspeople. Each side is looking for a bigger share of the €11.5m (£9.7m) earmarked for salaries in the latest deal between the opera house and its staff.

One union's representative said singers and musicians were "always ready to use extortion to get more". But a soprano protested to the daily La Repubblica that the stage-workers' unions' proposals would mean money from recordings and televised performances would go to electricians.

The dispute meant last night's staging of Franz Leha's The Merry Widow was scrapped - one of three performances cancelled this week because of a strike called by the union representing most of the performers.

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