MUSIC

Milan’s La Scala opera company has opened a monthlong, 16-performance tour of Japan that will cost upwards of $17 million. The tour’s Japanese promoter, the Japan Performing Arts Foundation, flew more than 550 performers, musicians and machinists from Italy, housing them, paying part of their salaries and giving each a daily allowance of about $200. Included among the performers are conductors Riccardo Muti, Carlos Kleiber and Lorin Maazel, and singers Renato Bruson, Peter Dvorsky, Paul Plishka, Mirella Freni, Ghena Dimitrova and Galia Savova. But unlike most operas and musicals that tour Japan, La Scala is not receiving Japanese corporate sponsorship; Tadatsugu Sasaki, director of the arts foundation, said he “didn’t want a firm to utilize culture just for their own publicity or to improve their image.” Tickets for the Japan performances: $90 to $263.