Madonna: People like me aren’t welcome at La Scala
The pop star’s tour will see her perform at some of the world’s greatest venues – but she won’t visit Milan
IT IS one of the most discerning opera houses in the world, having featured the greatest practitioners of the art of the human voice – from Caruso to Callas, Pavarotti to Kiri Te Kanawa. But La Scala has turned up its nose at one particular singer, even if her fans have long proclaimed her to be the Queen of Pop.
Madonna has had her request to perform at the Milan’s Teatro alla Scala during her forthcoming world tour politely turned down.
Apparently the prospect of the star writhing around the stage to the strains of Like a Virgin and Papa Don’t Preach didn’t exactly entice opera connoisseurs who run the place.
“They don’t want people like me,” said the singer last week. Madonna approached La Scala about staging her new Madame X show there as part of a world tour that will see her perform at such notable venues as the Howard Gilman Opera House in New York; Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, the Lisbon Coliseum in Portugal and the London Palladium.
She said: “For the moment my new tour Madame X won’t reach Italy. I would have wanted to perform at La Scala in Milan next year, but they didn’t give me the OK. There’s no room there for people like me. It’s a shame.” La Scala’s decision to rebuff Madonna, who was born Madonna Louise Ciccone, is particularly painful for a performer who has always taken pride in her Italian roots. One of the bonus disc songs on the album Madame X, Ciao Bella, is a duet with the Afrobeat musician Kimi Djabaté, which Madonna says is part tribute to Bella Ciao, the anthem of the Italian partisans.
“Kimi Djabaté sings about being someone who fights for freedom. That’s the link,” she said.
Talking about her Italian parentage, Madonna told the Corriere della Sera newspaper: “Everything is a tribute to my roots. When I adopted my twins [Stella and Esther] they didn’t speak English. The first thing they learnt was Dean Martin’s Mambo Italiano.”
Paolo Besana, La Scala’s head of communications, told The Telegraph that they had an unambiguous policy when it comes to those who are allowed to grace its stage.
“We don’t do pop, it’s as simple as that,” he said.
“Every so often we get requests from pop and rock bands to appear at La Scala but we turn them all down. It’s not a matter of personal taste. It’s just that we don’t stage pop.”