Calendar of Events
Monday 14 December at 8pm – Teatro alla Scala website and Facebook and YouTube pages
Recital
Sabine Devieilhe, soprano
Alexandre Tharaud, piano
Debussy, Fauré, Poulenc, Ravel
Thursday 17 December – recording, to be broadcast in 2021
Dance Gala
Devised by Manuel Legris with dancers from La Scala Ballet
Monday 21 December at 8pm – Teatro alla Scala website and Facebook and YouTube pages
Ballet rehearsal
Manuel Legris rehearses the pas de deux from The Nutcracker, choreography by Rudolf Nureyev
Thursday 24 December at 10.25am – Rai 1 TV
Christmas Concert
Michele Mariotti, conductor
Beatrice Rana, piano
Aida Garifullina, soprano
Teatro alla Scala Orchestra
Mozart
Friday 25 December at 11am – Teatro alla Scala website and Facebook and YouTube pages
Concerts for Children
Eun Sun Kim, conductor
Fabrizio Meloni, clarinet
Teatro alla Scala Orchestra
Prokofiev, Mozart
Thursday 25 December at 6pm – Rai 5 TV
Christmas Concert (repeat)
Michele Mariotti, conductor
Beatrice Rana, piano
Aida Garifullina, soprano
Teatro alla Scala Orchestra
Mozart
Friday 1 January at 11am – Teatro alla Scala website and Facebook and YouTube pages
Concerts for Children
Eun Sun Kim, conductor
Gioele Dix, actor
Teatro alla Scala Orchestra
Saint-Saëns, Mozart
Monday 4 January at 8 pm – Teatro alla Scala website and Facebook and YouTube pages
Recital
Markus Werba, baritone
James Baillieu, piano
Schumann: Dichterliebe op.48 e Liederkreis op.39
Wednesday 6 January at 11 am – Teatro alla Scala website, Facebook and YouTube pages
Concerts for Children
Eun Sun Kim, conductor
Teatro alla Scala Orchestra
Poulenc, Mozart
After the international success of the theatre's gala opening, “…a riveder le stelle”, La Scala continues its television and streaming events while waiting for signs that it will be possible to reopen the opera house. Rehearsals for Così fan tutte for a theatre audience will begin after Christmas, with the management crossing their fingers behind their backs.
The Financial Times' music critic, Richard Fairman, wrote of the gala, “…a gala with no audience, on TV and online only… it is hard to imagine triumph being more comprehensively snatched from the jaws of defeat. This was thanks not only to a glittering line-up of stars, but also a dazzling visual presentation, in which every new image was striking in its own right,” before clarifying, “Even when it bore little relation to the music being performed.”
Musically fine, it certainly had some visual ups and downs along the way. The three-hour gala can be seen on Medici TV.
The new director of the ballet company, Manuel Legris, will rehearse various couples for the company in Nureyev's demanding pas de deux from The Nutcracker. Nureyev's production was due to be revived for the current holiday season.
Concerts for children will be conducted by the Korean Eun Sun Kim, who becomes director of San Francisco Opera next year. Included on the programme are Peter and the Wolf and Carnival of the Animals.
Top photo by Brescia e Amisano © Teatro alla Scala
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.
