Clashes outside Milan’s La Scala opera house and an unprecedented outburst by its Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim inflamed a debate in Italy yesterday over deep cuts to public spending on culture.

Riot police fired tear gas at students who threw firecrackers and charged at police lines just before a performance on Tuesday of Wagner’s The Valkyrie at the season opening of La Scala – one of the world’s most famous opera houses.

Mr Barenboim then broke with tradition ahead of the opera by addressing a prestigious audience that included President Giorgio Napolitano and saying he was “very worried about the future of culture in Italy and in Europe.”

The celebrated Argentinian-born conductor told reporters after the performance: “By cutting culture, the soul of Italy is being cut.”

“Everyone wants to resolve problems without culture... It’s hard to think of resolving the economy’s problems through culture,” he added.

Mr Napolitano later went to meet Mr Barenboim during the opera’s second intermission and met with culture workers worried about the cuts.

The august setting of these scenes amplified a protest movement that has been simmering in Italy for months after the government agreed to cut culture budgets by €280 million over the next three years.