MILAN - An operatic feud at Milan's La Scala came to a head on Wednesday when hundreds of workers called for music director Riccardo Muti to resign from the house he has run with an iron baton for almost 20 years.

From backstage hands and bassoonists to baritones and ballerinas, the people behind La Scala's glamorous image added mutiny to the theatrical ego battles and off-stage manoeuvring that have shaken the famed opera house over the past weeks.

"The relationship between Muti and the orchestra is sick. We're like a separated husband and wife bickering," said flautist Davide Formisano after a union meeting.

Workers have long criticised Muti for running La Scala as his private fiefdom but temperatures have flared further since Muti got his way in a battle with former administrator Carlo Fontana, who was sacked three weeks ago.

"The workers from artists to technicians voted almost unanimously to call for Muti's resignation for the first time," said Nicola Cimmino, a representative of several unions involved in the dispute.

Speculation swirled that Muti had already heeded the call but La Scala denied the "insistent rumors that Maestro Muti is resigning".

La Scala's name conjures up images of glittering opera but discord over how the house is run has sparked angry strikes and cancellations, with a whole run of two short operas postponed because there was no time to rehearse.

Last week, Muti wrote an open letter saying the rifts had torn so deeply at the heart of La Scala that "we can no longer make music together as once we did". He then cancelled a concert with the Scala Philharmonic Orchestra due to be held on Friday.

HERO OR VILLAIN?

	Conductor Riccardo Muti (Michael Rayner/AFP/Getty Images)

Muti is revered as one of the greatest musicians in Italy, whose rich heritage of composers like Monteverdi, Bellini and Puccini is steadily dissolving into syrupy ballad festivals.

He has a pile of recordings as high as his podium, is due to lead the celebrations at Mozart's 250th anniversary at the Salzburg Festival next year and his dressing room is packed with Italy's great and good every year on La Scala's opening night.

But the famously dictatorial and hot-tempered conductor has often made enemies at home and abroad.

Opera critics and musicians blast Muti for his artistic conservatism and for not commissioning new operas for the house that premiered many of Giuseppe Verdi's best-loved works.

Muti has often stormed out of performances abroad, last year abandoning a London production of Verdi's "La Forza del Destino" because Covent Garden had replaced brick walls used on the La Scala set with painted cloth panels.

Italian Carabinieri stand guard in front of La Scala opera house in Milan during the official inauguration for the reopening of the restored opera to its former glory after a sumptuous 61 million euro (US$81 million) makeover. (Giuseppe Cacace/AFP/Getty Images)

He also clashed violently with Fontana, who was generally backed by unions, over how the house should be managed.

The foundation that oversees La Scala eventually sacked Fontana because the split with Muti had stalled operations.

The administrator also lost his job over financial concerns as the house seeks to return to profit by 2006, clawing back from a three-year refurbishment of the theatre, which ran 20 percent over budget under Fontana's rule.

Since Fontana was ousted, a series of contested contracts worth more than 2 million euros ($2.69 million) has come to light, adding fuel to the fire over who should run La Scala and what back-room politics are at play.