La Scala Opera Season 2016-2017 – full dates and casts
Recital and Concert Season 2016-2017
The new season opens with another step along the path of Riccardo Chailly’s Puccini Project, Madama Butterfly, which will be directed by Alvis Hermanis (Die Soldaten and I due Foscari at La Scala) with Maria José Siri as Butterfly and Bryan Hymel as Pinkerton. It will use the original version of the opera which premiered at La Scala in 1904.
2017 opens with three major Verdi productions: Don Carlo with Myung-Whun Chung in the pit and Ferruccio Furlanetto, Krassimira Stoyanova and Francesco Meli among the cast; Zubin Mehta will conduct Falstaff in Damiano Michieletto’s staging with Ambrogio Maestri; and Liliana Cavani’s 1990 production of La Traviata with star Anna Netrebko under the baton of Nello Santi. Santi will also conduct Daniele Abbado’s Nabucco later in the season.
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg is part of a triptych of operas which lies in the musical culture of German Romanticism – the other two being Hänsel und Gretel and Der Freischütz. Meistersinger will be directed by Harry Kupfer with Daniele Gatti on the podium and Michael Volle as Hans Sachs.
Anna Bolena makes a long-awaited comeback to La Scala with a very young leading lady from the La Scala Academy, Federica Lombardi, conducted by Bruno Campanella. In 1817 Rossini presented The Thieving Magpie at La Scala which returns with Chailly and the new production marks the debut at La Scala of the Oscar-winning director Gabriele Salvatores.
Thomas Hampson makes a welcome return in Don Giovanni in the revival of Robert Carsen‘s production, conducted by Paavo Järvi. It is also wonderful to see Luca Pisaroni’s name in the cast who sings so rarely on Italian stages. Franco Zeffirelli’s historic Bohème is the occasion of a La Scala debut for one of the soprano revelations of recent years, Sonya Yoncheva, who will be conducted by Evelino Pidò. The twentieth anniversary of the death of Giorgio Strehler will be marked by the revival of his magnificent production of Die Entführung aus dem Serail conducted by Zubin Mehta.
Handel’s Tamerlano will again see La Scala’s orchestra playing on period instruments in a new production by Davide Livermore – the well-known Italian director will be collaborating with La Scala for the first time – and with a fine cast including Plácido Domingo, Bejun Mehta and the stunning Franco Fagioli. Der Freischütz is another new production, staged by Matthias Hartmann, the former director of the Burgtheater in Vienna, and conducted by Myung-Whun Chung.
The season finished with a world premiere, a new opera by Salvatore Sciarrino, Ti vedo, ti sento, mi perdo, directed by Jürgen Flimm and conducted by the Maxime Pascal.
4 December: Young People’s Preview
7, 10, 13, 16, 18, 23 December 2016; 3, 8 January 2017
Giacomo Puccini
Madama Butterfly
Prima versione. Teatro alla Scala 1904
Conductor – Riccardo Chailly
Director and designer – Alvis Hermanis
Costumes – Kristīne Jurjāne
Lighting – Gleb Filshtinsky
Video – Ineta Sipunova
Choreography – Alla Sigalova
With
Maria José Siri, Annalisa Stroppa, Bryan Hymel, Carlos Álvarez, Carlo Bosi
La Scala Orchestra and Chorus
New production Teatro alla Scala
17, 22, 26, 29 January; 1, 4, 8, 12 February 2017
Giuseppe Verdi
Don Carlo
5 Act version in Italian
Conductor – Myung-Whun Chung
Director – Peter Stein
Sets – Ferdinand Woegerbauer
Costumes – Annamaria Heinreich
Lighting – Joachim Barth
With
Krassimira Stoyanova, Ekaterina Semenchuk, Francesco Meli, Simone Piazzola, Ferruccio Furlanetto, Orlin Anastassov
La Scala Orchestra and Chorus
Production Salzburg Festival
2, 5, 7, 10, 15, 17, 19, 21 February 2017
Giuseppe Verdi
Falstaff
Conductor – Zubin Mehta
Director – Damiano Michieletto
Sets – Paolo Fantini
Costumes – Carla Teti
Lighting – Alessandro Carletti
With
Ambrogio Maestri, Massimo Cavalletti, Francesco Demuro, Carlo Bosi, Francesco Castoro, Giovanni Romeo, Carmen Giannattasio, Yvonne Naef, Giulia Semenzato, Annalisa Stroppa
La Scala Orchestra and Chorus
Production Salzburg Festival
28 February, 3, 5, 9, 11, 14 March 2017
Giuseppe Verdi
La traviata
Conductor – Nello Santi
Director – Liliana Cavani
Sets – Dante Ferretti
Costumes – Gabriella Pescucci
With
Ailyn Perez/Anna Netrebko, Leo Nucci, Francesco Meli
La Scala Orchestra and Chorus
Production Teatro alla Scala
16, 19, 23, 26, 30 March; 2, 5 April 2017
Richard Wagner
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Conductor – Daniele Gatti
Director – Harry Kupfer
Sets – Hans Schavernoch
Costumes – Yan Tax
Lighting – Jürgen Hoffmann
Choreography – Derek Gimpel
With
Jacquelyn Wagner, Wiebke Lehmkuhl, Michael Volle, Markus Werba, Michael Schade, Peter Sonn, Albert Dohmen, Detlef Roth
La Scala Orchestra and Chorus
Production Zurich Opernhaus
31 March; 4, 8, 11, 14, 20, 23 April 2017
Gaetano Donizetti
Anna Bolena
Conductor – Bruno Campanella
Director – Marie-Louise Bischofberger
Sets – Erich Wonder
Costumes – Kaspar Glarner
Lighting – Bertrand Couderc
With
Federica Lombardi, Sonia Ganassi, Martina Belli, Piero Pretti, Carlo Colombara
La Scala Orchestra and Chorus
Production Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux
12, 15, 18, 22, 26, 29 April; 2, 5, 7 May 2017
Gioacchino Rossini
La gazza ladra
Conductor – Riccardo Chailly
Director – Gabriele Salvatores
Sets and costumes – Gian Maurizio Fercioni
With
Rosa Feola, Serena Malfi, Teresa Iervolino, Paolo Bordogna, Edgardo Rocha, Alex Esposito, Michele Pertusi, Marko Mimica
La Scala Orchestra and Chorus
New production Teatro alla Scala
6, 9, 12, 14, 17, 19, 28, 31 May; 3, 6 June 2017
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Don Giovanni
Conductor – Paavo Järvi
Director – Robert Carsen
Sets – Michael Levine
Costumes – Brigitte Reiffenstuel
With
Thomas Hampson, Tomasz Konieczny, Bernard Richter, Hanna E. Müller, Annette Fritsch, Luca Pisaroni, Giulia Semenzato, Mattia Olivieri
La Scala Orchestra and Chorus
Production Teatro alla Scala
7, 10, 13, 15, 20, 30 June; 3, 5, 10, 14 July 2017
Giacomo Puccini
La bohème
Conductor – Evelino Pidò
Director and sets – Franco Zeffirelli
Costumes – Piero Tosi
With
Sonya Yoncheva/Ailyn Perez, Fabio Sartori, Simone Piazzola, Mattia Olivieri, Carlo Colombara, Federica Lombardi
La Scala Orchestra and Chorus
La Scala Children’s Chorus
Production Teatro alla Scala
17, 19, 21, 27, 29 June; 1 July 2017
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Die Entführung aus dem Serail
To commemorate Giorgio Strehler twenty years after his death
Conductor – Zubin Mehta
Director – Giorgio Strehler
Sets and costumes – Luciano Damiani
With
Lenneke Ruiten, Sabine Devieilhe, Mauro Peter, Maximilian Schmitt, Tobias Kehrer, Cornelius Obonya
La Scala Orchestra and Chorus
Production Teatro alla Scala
2, 4, 6, 8, 14, 16, 21, 24 September 2017
Progetto Accademia
Engelbert Humperdinck
Hänsel und Gretel
Conductor – Marc Albrecht
Director – Sven-Eric Bechtolf
Scene – Julian Crouch
With soloists from the La Scala Academy of Vocal Studies
La Scala Children’s Chorus
New production Teatro alla Scala
12, 19, 22, 25, 27, 30 September; 4 October 2017
Georg Friedrich Händel
Tamerlano
Conductor – Diego Fasolis
Director – Davide Livermore
With
Marianne Crebassa, Bejun Mehta, Plácido Domingo/Kresimir Spicer, Franco Fagioli, Maria Grazia Schiavo
Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala on period instruments
New production Teatro alla Scala
10, 13, 17, 20, 23, 26, 30 October; 2 November 2017
Carl Maria von Weber
Der Freischütz
Conductor – Myung-Whun Chung
Director – Matthias Hartmann
Sets – Raimund Voigt
With
Julia Kleiter, Eva Liebau, Michael Koenig, Günther Groissböck, Michael Kraus, Frank van Hove, Stephen Milling
La Scala Orchestra and Chorus
New production Teatro alla Scala
24, 27, 31 October; 4, 7, 11, 16, 19 November 2017
Giuseppe Verdi
Nabucco
Conductor – Nello Santi
Director – Daniele Abbado
Sets and costumes – Alison Chitty
Lighting – Alessandro Carletti
With
Leo Nucci, Stefano La Colla, Mikhail Petrenko, Annalisa Stroppa, Martina Serafini / Anna Pirozzi
La Scala Orchestra and Chorus
Production Teatro alla Scala, Royal Opera House Covent Garden,
Lyric Opera of Chicago, Gran Teatre del Liceu of Barcelona
14, 17, 18, 21, 24, 26 November 2017
World premiere
Salvatore Sciarrino
Ti vedo, ti sento, mi perdo
Conductor – Maxime Pascal
Directors – Jürgen Flimm and Gudrun Hartmann
Sets and costumes – Alison Chitty
Lighting – Alessandro Carletti
With
Otto Katzameier
The cast will be assembled when the score is complete
Orchestra of Teatro alla Scala
New production Teatro alla Scala, coproduction with Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Berlin
Commission Teatro alla Scala and the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Berlin
Graham Spicer, aka ‘Gramilano’, is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. His articles have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the Danza in Italia column for Dancing Times magazine. Graham was the historical advisor on Codice Carla, the 2023 documentary on Italian ballerina Carla Fracci.
Graham also works as a dance photographer, and his photos have appeared in many books, theatre programmes, and magazines, including Dancing Times, Dance Spirit and Ballet2000, as well as all the major Italian newspapers.
He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.
Great season of opera coming up!