Stephane Lissner is also musical director of the Vienna Festival

"Our duty is to provide a meeting ground between the great masters and young conductors," he told reporters.

The UK's Daniel Harding will conduct the first night of the opera house's new season, which begins in December.

The house has seen a number of senior employees depart recently, including its musical director Riccardo Muti.

"You don't replace Muti in a month or in a year," Mr Lissner told reporters on Thursday.

"It's impossible to replace a conductor of his ability. If a replacement exists, he's not available."

Daniel Barenboim, Roberto Abbado and Lorin Maazel are among the high-profile names who will conduct at La Scala over the next few years.

'Economic rigour'

But they will share the podium with such emerging talents as Russia's Vladimir Jurowski and the Venezuelan Gustavo Duhamel.

The 2005/2006 season will open on 7 December with Idomeneo, a 1781 opera by Mozart.

Daniel Barenboim has been invited to conduct at La Scala

Mr Lissner said he had set himself three priorities: "Give back the sense of a big artistic impulse, get back to economic rigour and ensure social cohesion in the house."

He has also pledged to scale back his other activities and devote himself "full time" to La Scala, which reopened last December after three years of renovations.

The prestigious opera house has been dogged by in-fighting in recent months, with Mr Muti and Fedele Confalonieri, president of the orchestra, among those to resign.

However, Mr Lissner's appointment in May was welcomed by both employees and the musical establishment.

"The idea that we are here alone in a cosy island is not where my spirit lies," he said.