For the second consecutive week, a one-day strike at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan has forced the cancellation of a special gala performance of Verdi's Requiem conducted by Daniel Barenboim.

The concert, which had been planned for this Saturday, November 17, was to have taken place at the Cathedral in Parma as a tribute to Arturo Toscanini on the 50th anniversary of his death. Last week's cancelled performance of the Verdi Requiem was also planned as a Toscanini tribute, as well as the inauguration of Daniel Barenboim's tenure as maestro scaligero ("Maestro of La Scala"), effectively principal guest conductor and the house's highest-ranking musician.

According to the Agenzia Giornalistica Italiana (AGI), this is the first time in 25 years that a strike has caused the cancellation of an out-of-town La Scala performance. The previous occasion, in 1982, was also a concert of Verdi's Requiem in Parma, in that instance to be conducted by Claudio Abbado at the city's Teatro Regio.

The company's other performance planned for Saturday, of Mozart's Cosм fan tutte at the home theater in Milan, has been called off as well.

The various unions representing La Scala's staff are demanding a new contract with pay increases: the workers at the house complain that they have not had a pay raise in seven years, despite a 67% increase over that period in the number of annual performances.

La Scala management points out, that it is now against Italian law for any major opera house in the country to negotiate a union contract in the absence of a national contract with the same union. (The national unions only began their negotiations with the Italian government three days ago, according to the Associated Press.)

Company administrators further claim that they have offered the unions a scheme to compensate La Scala's staff for their increased workload without violating the law, a plan the unions have refused to consider.

By Matthew Westphal