Premiere of Don Carlo at La Scala – the numbers, the announcements, the protestations, and the photos
Last night’s season opening at La Scala in Milan saw the box office return to its pre-pandemic levels, and a healthy number of viewers on the national television’s first channel, Rai1.
Before curtain up on the premiere of Don Carlo, La Scala’s intendant, Dominique Meyer, announced that UNESCO had added Italian opera to the United Nations’ cultural heritage list, and underlined how opera had helped “the Italian language become known and loved worldwide”.
The habitual glittering opening night saw Patti Smith and Pedro Almodóvar with the Italian VIPs, and the usual clutch of extravagantly and bizarrely dressed spectators. Among the Italian contingent were also the politicians.
The Speaker of the Italian Senate, Ignazio La Russa, a co-founder of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, was in the Royal Box. La Scala’s unions had written that, “Fascists are not welcome at Teatro alla Scala.” The Brothers of Italy has not condemned Italy’s fascist past. Milan’s left-wing Major, Giuseppe Sala wisely invited 93-year-old senator-for-life and Holocaust survivor Liliana Segre to join him in the Royal Box, who received long applause from the audience as she arrived, and her presence meant that booing was impossible towards others in the box. With a twinkle in her eye, she had said in the foyer, “It’s nice everyone wants to sit next to me.” Matteo Salvini and other politicians were seated in the stalls, and so boos were avoided. La Scala was notably anti-fascist during the period of Benito Mussolini’s regime, with Arturo Toscanini famously refusing to play the fascist party anthem.
However, clever seating tactics couldn’t stop a cry of “no to fascism” from the ‘loggione’ just before Riccardo Chailly raised his baton, and another who shouted, “long live anti-fascist Italy”. After the two intervals, the live relay began when Chailly was already on the podium to avoid transmitting other possible disturbances.
There was a curtain announcement by Meyer before the fourth act (beginning with Philip II’s aria ‘Ella giammai m’amò’) who said that bass Michele Pertusi, who was singing the role of Philip II, had been struck by a sudden vocal problem (in fact, he’d made some odd sounds during the closing of the previous act) but had gamely agreed to carry on with the performance. His aria was duly applauded warmly.
The majority of the applause was reserved for Elīna Garanča as Princess Eboli, Anna Netrebko‘s Elizabeth of Valois, and Luca Salsi as Rodrigo, Marquis of Posa.
Boos were reserved for the Spanish director Lluis Pasqual. His ‘traditional’ staging was dramatically inert and visually confusing, though the (Oscar-winning) designer Franca Squarciapino provided some luscious costumes.
The 4-hour production was followed by 13 minutes of applause.
Box office takings returned to their highest levels totalling € 2,582,000, which is € 80,000 up on 2022.
There was an average of 1,400,000 viewers on Rai1 with 8.4% of the television audience during the evening. Almost ten million people saw parts of the broadcast on television or the theatre’s social channels.
Over 130 journalists from 11 countries attended the premiere.
On Tiktok there were 28,300 separate viewers, on Instagram 40 stories covering the backstage preparations reached 229,436 accounts, on Facebook there were 364,447 users and 10,622 interactions, and on X (ex-Twitter) the hashtag #PrimaScala was trending in the top 5 in Italy.
The theatre’s website had 65,000 hits yesterday.
Photo Album – Don Carlo, season opening at La Scala 2023
| Philip II, King of Spain | Michele Pertusi |
| Don Carlo, Infante of Spain | Francesco Meli |
| Rodrigo, Marquis of Posa | Luca Salsi |
| The Grand Inquisitor | Jongmin Park |
| A Monk | Jongmin Park |
| The Monk (Charles the Fifth) | Huanhong Li |
| Elizabeth of Valois | Anna Netrebko |
| Princess Eboli | Elīna Garanča |
| Thibault, page to Elisabetta | Elisa Verzier |
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.
Was the lead singer so insignificant that he didn’t even deserve a mention on your account?
I wanted to avoid saying it as he is a wonderful person, a sensitive musician, and has a rich timbre, but he was off form, the famous ‘acuto’ wasn’t reached and the voice sounded a little tired. I’m sure it’s just a passing moment.