The Teatro alla Scala, Milan’s iconic opera house, is planning to reopen in September with a performance of Verdi’s Requiem. Italian maestro Riccardo Chailly will lead the famed work for soloists, choir and orchestra in memory of the victims of COVID-19.

In the announcement, La Scala manager Dominique Meyer added the Requiem will be performed at later dates in Bergamo and Brescia, two of the cities hardest hit by coronavirus in Italy. Following government measures to slow the spread of coronavirus, Milan’s opera house closed in February and was forced to cancel a number of performances, including a new production of Rossini’s Il turco in Italia, Strauss’ Salome and Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande.