![Pg-26-barenboim-epa[1]](http://intermezzo.typepad.com/.a/6a00d834ff890853ef0191022a5eb3970c-500wi "Pg-26-barenboim-epa[1]")
So who'll be on top at La Scala after Stéphane Lissner leaves for Paris in 2015?
The short answer - probably music director Daniel Barenboim, who finds it tough to play #2 to anybody. But there remains a post to be filled, and La Scala's press officer Carlo Maria Cella has just confirmed that a decision will be made by the mayor of Milan later this month. He says there are three neck-and-neck frontrunners amongst the many candidates.
First up is the Austrian outsider Alexander Pereira. In charge of the Salzburg Festival since last year, he ran Zurich Opera for 21 years before that. Previous form includes running Vienna's Konzerthaus and, famously, flogging Olivetti typewriters. Good at raising money and starting fights, bad at being Italian - and his artistic choices are often questioned.
Next is Cristiano Chiarot. A former journalist, his entire operatic career has been with the Teatro la Fenice in Venice. He rose through the press and marketing ranks to become Superintendent in 2010. A vocal critic of public spending cuts.
Finally, we come to Sergio Escobar. Since 1998 he has been Director of Milan's Piccolo Teatro, where he plays a largely administrative role alongside artistic director Luca Ronconi. Before that he held management roles at opera houses in Rome, Bologna, Genoa - and, helpfully enough, La Scala, where he was marketing director and assistant to the general director between 1979 and 1990. His broad exposure to the opera world is tempered by the fact he's been out of it for 15 years.
Crystal balls to the ready.