Although Dolce & Gabbana have already used La Scala to present a collection, it was in the sumptuous foyer Toscanini and not in the main theatre. Tomorrow, 31 January, the pair will present their haute couture collection on a series of catwalks which pass through the stalls, over the orchestra pit and onto the stage. The music for the event will be provided by that promising young composer Giacomo Puccini, and students from La Scala's Academy will perform at the reception that follows.
Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana are longtime fans of Milan's theatre giving scholarships to twenty dancers of the Ballet School, decorating the Royal Box with flowers for the opening of the season, providing the Christmas tree for the foyer, and just recently their company has become a Corporate Sponsor which requires it to pay the theatre €600,000 over a period of five years.
A couple of days ago they told the Repubblica newspaper,
We love this theatre and we don't finance it for business. We don't want to steal the Scala brand; La Scala belongs to the Milanese, Italians and the entire world. We haven't given La Scala money for us in turn to gain from it monetarily or by publicity. We won't use the logo. In fact, we suggested to the theatre management that they should use the theatre's logo on T-shirts and other merchandise as other theatres do to help finance it.
In December they told the Corriere della Sera,
When we enter La Scala as spectators we feel so insignificant when thinking about all the beauty and music that the theatre has witnessed, where you can feel the presence of Callas, Karajan, Nureyev…
Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.
His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.
I wish I could see this! Beautiful!