La Scala’s gala premiere of ‘Don Carlo’ is set to give Italian…

MILAN (AP) – Italian melodrama’s official recognition as a global cultural treasure is getting trumpeted Thursday with La Scala´s season premiere of Verdi´s “Don Carlo,” an opera that hits hot-button topics of power and oppression. In keeping with a La Scala tradition of off-stage melodrama, the issue of who would occupy the royal box at the Milan opera house on opening night spawned a pre-performance kerfuffle. La Scala’s unions protested the institutional seat of honor going to Senate Speaker Ignazio La Russa in the absence of Italy´s president and premier. La Russa, a far-right politician whom the unions claim has not condemned Italy´s fascist past, will sit in the front row of the adorned royal box with Milan Mayor Giuseppe…