Menotti recalls that Ghiringhelli had promised him any singer he wanted for the premiere of "The Consul", but when he suggested Callas, Ghiringhelli said that he would never have Callas at La Scala except as a guest artist. However, as Callas's fame grew, and especially after her great success in "I vespri siciliani" in Florence, Ghiringhelli had to relent: Callas made her official debut at La Scala in Verdi's "I vespri siciliani" on opening night in December 1951, and this theatre became her artistic home throughout the 1950s. La Scala mounted many new productions specially for Callas by directors such as Herbert von Karajan, Margherita Wallmann, Franco Zeffirelli and, most importantly, Luchino Visconti. Visconti stated later that he began directing opera only because of Callas, and he directed her in lavish new productions of "La vestale", "La traviata", "La sonnambula", "Anna Bolena" and "Iphigénie en Tauride". Callas was notably instrumental in arranging Franco Corelli's debut at La Scala in 1954, where he sang Licinio in Spontini's "La vestale" opposite Callas's Julia. The two had sung together for the first time the year previously in Rome in a production of "Norma". Anthony Tommasini wrote that Corelli had "earned great respect from the fearsomely demanding Callas, who, in Mr Corelli, finally had someone with whom she could act." The two collaborated several more times at La Scala, singing opposite each other in productions of "Fedora" (1956), "Il pirata" (1958) and "Poliuto" (1960). Their partnership continued throughout the rest of Callas's career.