Barenboim conducts 'Carmen' at La Scala to open season

One flower even hit Rachvelishvili squarely on the face. Showing surprise, she brushed her cheek with a laugh, knelt before the crowd in gratitude and then blew kisses back.

“I heard and I understood that she had a special voice, but talent isn't enough, and she showed herself to be a great artist,” conductor Daniel Barenboim told reporters backstage. “The Georgian should be proud to have a voice like that, and this evening she should go out into the piazza as if she won a world medal.”

Barenboim triumphed with his second gala opening since becoming La Scala's principal guest conductor. The crowd applauded for nearly 15 minutes, raining flowers and shouts of “Bravi!” down on tenor Jonas Kaufmann as Don Jose, Uruguayan baritone Erwin Schrott as Escamillo and soprano Adriana Damato as Micaela — as well as the conductor himself.

“This Carmen will be legend,” Barenboim prophesied afterward.

Tenor Placido Domingo, passing by backstage, said he liked the production very much. “But I need to preserve by voice for the day after tomorrow,” he said before rushing out. Domingo is celebrating 40 years at La Scala with a gala performance on Wednesday.

But the applause for “Carmen'” was punctuated by boos for the stage direction by Emma Dante, a 40-year-old theater director known in Italy for her experimental productions who was making her debut in the opera world. Before taking the job, the Sicilian-born Dante had never set foot in La Scala.

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