La Scala announces its 2024-2025 Opera Season
La Scala in Milan has announced it’s opera programming for the 2024-2025 season. The inaugural title of the 2024-2025 season, La forza del destino – one of Verdi’s most important and complex works – has surprisingly never been featured on the 7th of December opening night.
The Ring circle returns to La Scala, and not to ignore the music of today there will be two premières by contemporary Italian composers: Francesco Filidei and Silvia Colasanti.
For 17th and 18th century opera there will be an opera by Leopold Gassmann, Salieri’s teacher, and there is the return of Norma which Bellini wrote for La Scala, but it has not been seen at the theatre since 1977.
In total there are 14 operas, eight of them new productions, as well as the Covent Garden production of La fille du regiment that is new to Milan.
La Scala 2024-2025 Opera Season
Giuseppe Verdi
La forza del destino
From 10 December 2024 to 2 January 2025
Conductor – RICCARDO CHAILLY
Staging – LEO MUSCATO
Sets – FEDERICA PAROLINI
Costumes – SILVIA AYMONINO
Lights – ALESSANDRO VERAZZI
Riccardo Chailly inaugurates the 2024-2025 Opera Season with a new production of La forza del destino, conducting his ninth Verdi title at La Scala. Leo Muscato will direct yet another cast of extraordinary prestige. A complex opera in terms of dramaturgy, first performed in St. Petersburg in 1862 and debuting in its final form at La Scala in 1869 with the creation of the famous overture, La forza del destino offers some of the most memorable Verdi melodies. It has been absent from the programme since the Verdi centennial in 2001, when it was brought to La Scala by the artists of the Mariinsky Theatre of St. Petersburg; the La Scala Orchestra and Choir have not performed it since 1999.
Il marchese di Calatrava – Fabrizio Beggi
Donna Leonora – Anna Netrebko
Don Carlo di Vargas – Ludovic Tézier
Don Alvaro – Jonas Kaufmann
Preziosilla – Vasilisa Berzhanskaya
Padre guardiano – Alexander Vinogradov
Fra Melitone – Marco Filippo Romano
Curra – Marcela Rahal
Un alcade – Huanhong Li
Mastro Trabuco – Carlo Bosi
Un chirurgo – Xhieldo Hyseni
Giuseppe Verdi
Falstaff
From 16 January to 7 February 2025
Conductor – DANIELE GATTI
Staging – GIORGIO STREHLER
revived by – MARINA BIANCHI
Sets and costumes – EZIO FRIGERIO
Lights – GIANNI MANTOVANINI
Choreography – ANNA MARIA PRINA
Protagonist on the podium in a memorable edition of the opera presented in 2015 with the brilliant production directed by Robert Carsen, Daniele Gatti returns to the La Scala orchestra pit six years after he conducted his last opera. This time it will be Giuseppe Verdi’s Falstaff in the historical ‘Po Valley’ production created by Giorgio Strehler and Ezio Frigerio for the inauguration of the 1980-1981 Season, when it was Lorin Maazel on the podium. The most recent performance of this version, which transposes the adventures of the merry wives of Windsor to the sunset-gilded farms of the lower Po Valley, dates to 2004, when it was Riccardo Muti wielding the baton.
Sir John Falstaff – Ambrogio Maestri
Ford – Luca Micheletti
Fenton – Juan Francisco Gatell
Bardolfo – Christian Collia
Pistola – Marco Spotti
Mrs. Alice Ford – Rosa Feola
Nannetta – Rosalia Cid
Mrs. Quickly – Marianna Pizzolato
Mrs. Meg Page – Martina Belli
Richard Wagner
Die Walküre (Der Ring des Nibelungen)
From 5 to 23 February 2025
Conductor – CHRISTIAN THIELEMANN
Staging – DAVID MCVICAR
Sets – DAVID MCVICAR & HANNAH POSTLETHWAITE
Costumes – EMMA KINGSBURY
Lights – DAVID FINN
Videos and projections – KATY TUCKER
Choreography – GARETH MOLE
Master martial arts/circus performance – DAVID GREEVES
Led by preeminent conductor Christian Thielemann and stage director David McVicar, the Tetralogy returns to La Scala ten years after the memorable edition conducted by Daniel Barenboim and directed by Guy Cassiers. The theatre thus pays tribute to the Wagnerian tradition established by Arturo Toscanini and continued over the years by such luminaries as Victor de Sabata, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Clemens Krauss, Herbert von Karajan, André Cluytens, Wolfgang Sawallisch, and Riccardo Muti. Following up on the prologue performed in autumn 2024, the first day of the Ring des Nibelungen presents what is unquestionably the most popular of Wagner’s works among Italian audiences: Die Walküre. The sword drawn from the trunk of the ash tree, the incestuous love between Siegmund and Sieglinde, the ride of the Valkyries, the disobedience of Brünnhilde, and the enchanted circle of fire are quintessential archetypes of imagination that transcend music and theatre.
Siegmund – Klaus Florian Vogt
Hunding – Günther Groissböck
Wotan – Michael Volle
Sieglinde – Elza van den Heever
Fricka – Okka von der Damerau
Brünnhilde – Camilla Nylund
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Evgenij Onegin
From 19 February to 11 March 2025
Conductor – TIMUR ZANGIEV
Staging – MARIO MARTONE
Sets – MARGHERITA PALLI
Costumes – URSULA PATZAK
Lights – PASQUALE MARI
Choreography – DANIELA SCHIAVONE
Teatro alla Scala presents a new production of Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece drawn from Pushkin’s novel in verse. Its debut in 1879 marked a turning point in Russian opera, abandoning historical tableaux and spectacular effects to paint an intimate portrait of a small group of characters. The composer wrote: “Those for whom the first prerequisite of an opera is stage action will not be satisfied by it. Those, on the other hand, who in an opera are capable of looking for the musical illustration of everyday, simple, universally human emotions, far removed from anything tragic or theatrical, may (I hope) actually turn out to be satisfied with my opera.” The music is entrusted to the youthful Timur Zangiev, who stepped into the spotlight when he replaced Valery Gergiev in the Pique Dame and was consecrated at the Salzburg Festival. Stage direction is in the hands of Mario Martone, now in his tenth La Scala production, returning to the Russian repertoire after the triumphant Khovanshchina of Mussorgsky in 2019 with set design by Margherita Palli.
Larina – Alisa Kolosova
Tatyana – Aida Garifullina
Olga – Elmina Hasan
Filipyevna – Julia Gertseva
Eugene Onegin – Alexey Markov
Lensky – Dmitry Korchak
Prince Gremin – Dmitry Ulyanov
Zaretsky – Oleg Budaratskiy
Triquet – Yaroslav Abaimov
Giacomo Puccini
Tosca
From 15 March to 4 April 2025
Conductor – MICHELE GAMBA
Staging – DAVIDE LIVERMORE
Sets – GIÒ FORMA
Costumes – GIANLUCA FALASCHI
Lights – ANTONIO CASTRO
Video – D-WOK
Rarely has the interpretation of Tosca as a ‘cinematically’ structured work found more rigorous application—starting from the gripping initial ‘extended shot’ of Angelotti’s flight—than in the production conceived by Davide Livermore and his team for the inauguration of the 2019-2020 Season, with Riccardo Chailly conducting and stage sets featuring sumptuous architecture designed by Giò Forma. This compelling edition is now conducted by Michele Gamba, who is back at La Scala after his much-acclaimed Rigoletto and Médée, with a cast alternating Chiara Isotton and Elena Stikhina in the title role, Luca Salsi and Amartuvshin Enkhbat as Scarpia, and Francesco Meli and Fabio Sartori as Cavaradossi.
Tosca – Chiara Isotton (15, 18, 20, 22, 26, 30 March; 2, 4 Apr.) / Elena Stikhina (25, 28 March)
Cavaradossi – Francesco Meli (15, 18, 20, 22, 26, 30 March; 2, 4 Apr.) / Fabio Sartori (25, 28 March)
Scarpia – Luca Salsi (15, 18, 20, 22, 26, 30 March; 2 Apr.) / Enkhbat Amartuvshin (25, 28 March; 4 Apr.)
Angelotti – Huanhong Li
Sagrestano – Marco Filippo Romano
Spoletta – Carlo Bosi
Florian Leopold Gassmann
L’opera seria
From 29 March to 9 April 2025
Conductor – CHRISTOPHE ROUSSET
Staging and costumes – LAURENT PELLY
Sets – MASSIMO TRONCANETTI
Lights – MARCO GIUSTI
Choreography – LIONEL HOCHE
La Scala has recently undertaken the systematic rediscovery of the Italian roots of melodrama. After looking to Venice (La Calisto by Cavalli and L’Orontea by Cesti) and Naples (Vinci’s Li zite ‘ngalera), in 2025 the theatre presents an encounter of two of Italy’s premier poets, Pietro Metastasio and Ranieri de’ Calzabigi, with a Bohemian who made Venice his second home, Florian Leopold Gassman, court composer for Joseph II and Antonio Salieri’s teacher. The latter’s Opera seria, presented in Vienna in 1769 and here conducted by Christophe Rousset in a new production by Laurent Pelly with a stellar cast of young talents, is an irresistible satire of the theatre world that aptly conveys the koinè of the Gluckian reform, in which librettist Calzabigi figured prominently.
Fallito – Pietro Spagnoli
Delirio – Mattia Olivieri
Sospiro – Giovanni Sala
Ritornello – Josh Lovell
La Stonatrilla – Julie Fuchs
La Smorfiosa – Andrea Carroll
La Porporina – Serena Gamberoni
Passagallo – Alessio Arduini
Bragherona – Alberto Allegrezza
Befana – Lawrence Zazzo
Caverna – Filippo Mineccia
Francesco Filidei
Il nome della rosa
From 27 April to 10 May 2025
Conductor – INGO METZMACHER
Staging – DAMIANO MICHIELETTO
Sets – PAOLO FANTIN
Costumes – CARLA TETI
Lights – ALESSANDRO CARLETTI
Dramaturgy – MATTIA PALMA
With the world première of Il nome della rosa, an opera based on Umberto Eco’s novel commissioned to Francesco Filidei by La Scala and the Paris Opéra, Piermarini’s stage is once again at the centre of the international panorama of contemporary culture. Il nome della rosa, conducted by Ingo Metzmacher, is the composer’s third opera after Giordano Bruno and L’inondation. Taking his cues from Eco’s descriptions of his novel as an ‘opera buffa’, Filidei develops the music with a central symphonic structure as rootstock for a succession of arias and recitativi, nearly closed forms whose substance derives principally from the variation of Gregorian melodies. In conjunction with the La Scala performances, Milano Musica will also dedicate a monographic edition to Filidei.
Guglielmo da Baskerville – Lucas Meachem
Adso da Melk – Kate Lindsey
La Ragazza del Villaggio / Statua della Vergine – Katrina Galka
Jorge da Burgos – Gianluca Buratto
Bernardo Gui – Daniela Barcellona
Abbone da Fossanova – Marco Filippo Romano
Salvatore – Roberto Frontali
Remigio da Varagine – Giorgio Berrugi
Malachia – Owen Willetts
Severino da Sant’Emmerano – Giovanni Sala
Berengario da Arundel / Adelmo da Otranto – Carlo Vistoli
Venanzio / Giovanni Dalbena – Leonardo Cortellazzi
Girolamo Vescovo di Caffa / Cuciniere – Adrien Mathonat
Kurt Weill
Die Sieben Todsünden / Mahagonny-Songspiel / Happy End
From 14 to 30 May 2025
Conductor – RICCARDO CHAILLY
Staging and videos – IRINA BROOK
Lights – MARC HEINZ
The opportunity to downsize orchestras and scenery ‘facilitated’ by the long months of the pandemic has led to the creation of a small jewel of theatre and music, the diptych dedicated to Kurt Weill by Riccardo Chailly. Director Irina Brook reread Bertolt Brecht’s caustic social commentary from an environmental angle, inventing a minimalistic scenography with discarded materials and a sea of plastic bottles. The diptych comprising Die sieben Todsünden and Mahagonny Songspiel now becomes a triptych with the addition of a new production of Happy End, which introduces “Surabaya Johnny” among the other famous pieces performed (including “Alabama-Song”).
Die sieben Todsünden
Ballet chanté
Libretto by Bertolt Brecht
Anna I – Alma Sadé
Anna II – Lauren Michelle
Fratello – Elliott Carlton Hines
Madre – Andrew Harris
Padre – Matthäus Schmidlechner
Fratello – Michael Smallwood
Attore – Geoffrey Carey
Mahagonny-Songspiel
Opera in three parts
Libretto by Bertolt Brecht
Jimmy – Andrew Harris
Bobby – Elliott Carlton Hines
Billy – Michael Smallwood
Charlie – Matthäus Schmidlechner
Jessie – Lauren Michelle
Bessie – Alma Sadé
Attore – Geoffrey Carey
Happy End
Musical in three acts
Libretto by Dorothy Lane (alias Elisabeth Hauptmann) and Bertolt Brecht
Bill Cracker – Markus Werba
Sam Worlitzer – Elliott Carlton Hines
Captain der Heilsarmee – Matthäus Schmidlechner
Hanibal Jackson – Michael Smallwood
Die Dame in Grau – Natascha Petrinsky
Jane – Lauren Michelle
Vincenzo Bellini
Norma
From 27 June to 17 July 2025
Conductor – FABIO LUISI
Staging – OLIVIER PY
Sets and costumes – PIERRE-ANDRÉ WEITZ
Lights – BERTRAND KILLY
Choreography – IVO BAUCHIERO
After the success of Cherubini’s Médée in 2024, the effort to treat appreciative audiences to legendary titles—not new to La Scala but remaining on the sidelines due to the difficulty of execution or the perils of comparison with epic performances —continues with Norma by Vincenzo Bellini, which received its baptism at La Scala in 1831 with Giuditta Pasta, Giulia Grisi, and Domenico Donzelli in the principal roles. A war-horse for Maria Callas, who sang it on Piermarini’s stage in 1952 and 1955, the opera has not been performed here since 1977, when it was conducted by Gianandrea Gavezzeni with Montserrat Caballé in the title role. The new production is the work of the brilliant Olivier Py, who gained acclaim for Thaïs by Massenet at La Scala, with Fabio Luisi on the podium.
Pollione – Freddie De Tommaso
Oroveso – Michele Pertusi
Norma – Marina Rebeka
Adalgisa – Vasilisa Berzhanskaya
Flavio – Paolo Antognetti
Gioachino Rossini
La Cenerentola
From 6 to 19 September 2025
Conductor – GIANLUCA CAPUANO
Staging, sets and costumes – JEAN-PIERRE PONNELLE
revived by – FEDERICA STEFANI
Every Opera Season features a title entrusted to the students of the La Scala Academy under the watchful eye of seasoned maestri. In 2025, under the guidance of conductor Gianluca Capuano and directed by Federica Stefani, the soloists of the La Scala Opera Academy and the young Academy Orchestra musicians will bring the legendary Cenerentola to the stage, perhaps the most engaging of the works in Jean-Pierre Ponnelle and Claudio Abbado‘s ‘Rossini Renaissance’.
Lyric Opera Soloists of the Teatro alla Scala Academy
Teatro alla Scala Academy Orchestra
Giuseppe Verdi
Rigoletto
From 7 to 28 October 2025
Conductor – MARCO ARMILIATO
Staging – MARIO MARTONE
Sets – MARGHERITA PALLI
Costumes – URSULA PATZAK
Lights – PASQUALE MARI
Choreography – DANIELA SCHIAVONE
The production of Rigoletto envisioned by Mario Martone in 2022 tended to tap into the violence that Verdi had in mind when transposing the intricate affair imagined by Victor Hugo into music. The figure of the deformed jester caught between the brutal jeers of the noble court and the fatherly love for his daughter, mixing tenderness with a desire for control, stands at the interface between the sumptuousness of the Duke’s residence and the degraded realm of the dispossessed: contrasting faces of the splendid rotating stage set designed by Margherita Palli. These unmediated social poles are the realm of an inevitable but blinded revolt, not unlike that in Bong Joon-ho’s film Parasite. The opera is newly staged with a splendid cast in the care of Marco Armiliato.
Il Duca di Mantova – Vittorio Grigolo (7, 10, 13, 16 Oct.) / Dmitry Korchak (22, 25, 28 Oct.)
Rigoletto – Amartuvshin Enkhbat
Gilda – Regula Mühlemann (7, 10, 13, 16, 22 Oct.) / Francesca Pia Vitale (25, 28 Oct.)
Sparafucile – Gianluca Buratto
Maddalena – Martina Belli
Il Conte di Monterone – Fabrizio Beggi
Gaetano Donizetti
La fille du regiment
From 17 October to 7 November 2025
Conductor – EVELINO PIDO’
Staging and costumes – LAURENT PELLY
revived by – HANS CHRISTIAN RÄTH
Sets – CHANTAL THOMAS
Lights – JOËL ADAM
Choreography – LAURA SCOZZI, AGATHE MÉLINAND
Juan Diego Flórez once again steps into Tonio’s shoes – and up to his nine high Cs – reprising one of the roles that have made him famous. It was precisely with the acrobatic aria “Ah mes amis” in 2007 that the Peruvian tenor violated, to thunderous applause, Toscanini’s ban on encores at La Scala. He now returns to the stage in the highly acclaimed production by Laurent Pelly for the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, shifting the setting for the love story of the canteen girl, Marie, from the Tyrolean valleys threatened by Bonaparte’s troops to the trenches of the First World War. An amusing and poetic classic embellished by the presence in the orchestra pit of the bel canto specialist Evelino Pidò.
Marie – Julie Fuchs
Tonio – Juan Diego Flórez
Sulpice – Pietro Spagnoli
La Marquise de Berkenfield – Géraldine Chauvet
Hortensius – Pierre Doyen
La Duchesse de Crakentorp – Barbara Frittoli
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Così fan tutte
From 5 to 26 November 2025
Conductor – ALEXANDER SODDY
Staging – ROBERT CARSEN
Sets – ROBERT CARSEN & LUIS CARVALHO
Costumes – LUIS CARVALHO
Lights – ROBERT CARSEN & PETER VAN PRAET
The very precious final opera of the Season is Mozart’s Così fan tutte, directed by Robert Carsen and featuring the La Scala debut of Alexander Soddy, a British conductor much in demand at Covent Garden, the Metropolitan, and the Staatsopern of Vienna and Berlin in a repertoire that ranges from Wagner and Strauss to Mozart and Italian opera. The melancholic geometries of affection designed by Mozart, which are less frequently performed at La Scala than the other titles in the DaPontian trilogy, nevertheless include the legendary version by Guido Cantelli at the Piccola Scala in 1956, the majolicaarrayed stage sets of Michael Hampe and Mauro Pagano reprised more than once by Riccardo Muti starting in 1983, and the pensive work by Claus Guth conducted by Daniel Barenboim in 2014.
Fiordiligi – Elsa Dreisig
Dorabella – Nina van Essen
Despina – Sandrine Piau
Guglielmo – Luca Micheletti
Ferrando – Giovanni Sala
Don Alfonso – Gerald Finley
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 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.
