Giorgio Armani at La Scala exhibition opens and the opening of La Scala’s 2025/2026 Ballet Season is dedicated to the designer
Teatro alla Scala is dedicating the opening of its 2025/2026 ballet season to Giorgio Armani, who died in September. Sleeping Beauty opens tomorrow, 18 December 2025, and in the foyer, an exhibition of photos titled ‘Giorgio Armani at La Scala‘ will be on display.
This is a tribute to a creator who has helped shape the identity of the city of Milan and project it onto the world stage, but also a testament to a collaboration that has spanned decades and which the images in this exhibition allow us to retrace.
In 1980, Claudio Abbado proposed a 20th-century evening featuring Schönberg’s Erwartung. The composer’s original drawings were projected onto the stage and soprano Janos Martin wore a dazzling white dress designed by Giorgio Armani.
In 1994, Giuseppe Sinopoli conducted Richard Strauss’ Elektra, directed by Luca Ronconi with sets by Gae Aulenti. The Atreides family wore Giovanna Buzzi’s wonderful barbaric costumes, but for Orestes and his guardian, the director and costume designer wanted a contrasting tailored and contemporary look, and suits by Armani, whose style embodies the elegance of a more advanced civilisation, were chosen.
This was repeated the following year by Alfredo Arias and costume designer Françoise Tournafond for a well-loved production of Offenbach’s Contes d’Hoffmann conducted by Riccardo Chailly: Armani costumed the protagonist, a man of today, against a backdrop of dreamlike and supernatural environments and situations.
Year after year, Armani also established itself as one of the favourite brands for gala evenings, interpreting a concept that is very Ambrosian – Saint Ambrose is the patron saint of Milan – of refined elegance, resistant to ostentation.
In 1997, La Scala became a private foundation, and Armani was one of its first supporters. Years later, in 2020, when the pandemic forced the theatre to replace the opening of the season (on the city’s saint’s day) with a televised gala …a riveder le stelle, conducted by Riccardo Chailly and directed by Davide Livermore, La Scala asked the leading figures in Italian fashion to contribute their creations and Armani dressed singers including Lisette Oropesa, Marianne Crebassa, Kristīne Opolais and Vittorio Grigolo, but also the current generation of principal dancers.
At the end of the health emergency, Armani accompanied La Scala and the city in their first steps back to normal life with a huge poster in Via Broletto bearing the words ‘Ben tornata!’ (‘Welcome back!’) and a spectacular floral display for the 7 December 2021 season opening, in addition to returning as a Founder Supporter.
From 2023, Giorgio Armani will become an Honorary Member of the Teatro alla Scala Association of America.
A 45-year relationship based on shared values, but above all on a common vocation to interpret and reflect the ever-evolving face of a city. Milan is the true link between Giorgio Armani and La Scala.
The exhibition can be seen in the Ridotto dei Palchi from 18 December to 13 January.
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.
