Milan's La Scala and Paris Opera commission opera based on Umberto Eco's "The Name of the Rose"

An Italian composer has been commissioned by Milan’s Teatro alla Scala and the Paris Opera to write a new opera based on Umberto Eco’s most famous novel, “The Name of the Rose."

Italy La Scala New Opera (Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Italian composer Francesco Filidei has been commissioned by Milan's Teatro alla Scala and the Paris Opera to write a new opera based on Umberto Eco's most famous novel “The Name of the Rose,'' the opera houses announced Friday.

The world premiere has already been scheduled, at La Scala on April 27, 2025, conducted by Ingo Metzmacher and starring mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsay and baritone Lucas Meachem.

La Scala's general manager, Dominique Meyer, called the new commission “a very important opera.”

“The Name of the Rose” was Eco's debut novel, a medieval thriller set in a monastery. It catapulted him to international celebrity and was made into a 1986 film starring Sean Connery. Eco died at home in Milan in 2016.

Filidei is working on two versions, one in Italian and one in French, the second to premiere at the Paris Opera. The 50-year-old Filidei has composed two previous operas: “Giordano Bruno,” which premiered in Porto, Portugal in 2015 and “L'inondation,” performed during the 2019 season of the Opera Comique in Paris.