Transsexual prostitute trumps Joan of Arc to grab headlines on La Scala's big night

Opening night at La Scala, the big night in Italy’s social calendar, can be guaranteed to grab the headlines for the wrong reasons – and this year was no exception.

The opera – the first outing in 150 years for Verdi’s Joan of Arc – should have been the talking point. Instead it was a political protest from a high-profile, transsexual prostitute that dominated news of the first performance. Efe Bal, a sex worker who sashayed up to the glittering event in a slinky black dress and a €2,200 ticket in her clutch bag, seized the moment by tossing into the orchestral pit a small protest banner that read: “Let’s legalise prostitution for a freer and fairer Italy.” In order to throw the banner she had to roll it up, and it landed in a trombone – to the surprise of visiting VIPs, including the Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.

Ms Bal insisted the protest, which came just after the opera had finished, had not been meant to disrupt proceedings. She said she had recognised several of her high-society customers in the crowd – and may even have met a new one during the interval. When asked what the Maid of Orleans would have thought, Ms Bal said she and the warrior saint had both fought for what they believed in.

Turkish-born Ms Bal has form on protests. At once showing her understanding of the Italian establishment and the financial means to get its attention, she had readers of the stately Corriere della Sera spluttering on their breakfast cappuccinos in February 2014 when she paid for a whole page in the Italian journal of record that called for her profession to be legalised.

She has also taunted the racist Northern League party, claiming to have clients among party figures, and a crush on its demagogue leader Matteo Salvini. “He seems a bit Turkish in his appearance,” she once said, explaining her soft spot for the politician.