A political dispute has broken out over the management of the Teatro San Carlo in Naples following the expiry of French artistic director Stephane Lissner’s contract. The mayor of Naples, Gaetano Manfredi, is defending himself against Lissner’s successor, Fulvio Macciardi, previously director of the Teatro Comunale in Bologna, who was appointed by the Italian Minister of Culture, Alessandro Giuli.

Giuli did so, he announced, « upon the proposal of the Steering Council » of the Foundation, which indicated to the Ministry the former superintendent of the Municipal Theater of Bologna to lead the theater. And this despite the fact that the choice had been made by only three out of five members of the Steering Council, in a meeting whose validity the mayor of Naples, Gaetano Manfredi, and president of the Neapolitan Massimo Foundation, disavows. So much so that he announced, in a close call, an appeal of the appointment decree. He accuses the Minister of Culture of exerting political influence on the theater.

Giuli (* 1975) a former member of Meridiano Zero, a far-right and neo-fascist movement and comes from a family which was openly supporting Mussolini. He is Meloni’s Minister of Culture since September 2024.

A new political and legal dispute is thus looming over the management of one of the oldest and most prestigious opera houses in the world, after the one that pitted the resigned Stephane Lissner, later reinstated by the courts, against Carlo Fuortes two years ago.