MILAN (AP) — Conductor Riccardo Chailly is celebrating 40 years at La Scala next season, which he will open by conducting the Italian opera "Andrea Chenier" starring soprano Anna Netrebko.

Chailly says that opening the 2017-18 season with Umberto Giordano's "Andrea Chenier" is aimed at reviving the long-neglected genre of Italian "verismo." Chailly, who became La Scala's music director in 2015, described the gritty, post-Romantic genre as "extraordinarily intense and tied to La Scala."

Netrebko will share the stage with her husband, Yusif Eyvazov.

La Scala's next season includes 15 operas, eight of which are new productions. Hungarian composer Gyorgy Kurtag's first-ever opera was solicited by La Scala's general manager.

La Scala also will reprise Franco Zeffirelli's 1963 production of "Aida" for the director's 95th birthday.