“This week, the culture commission of the Italian Senate in Rome began taking testimony from those involved in a long-brewing management crisis that led to the ousting last month of La Scala’s general manager, Carlo Fontana, who had a strained relationship with the theater’s music director and conductor, Riccardo Muti.” Muti is accused of banning other prominent conductors from La Scala’s podium, and he and other managers are reported to have kept their employees in the dark about important backstage changes. The controversy has grown so large that it threatens to eclipse the company’s season.