La Scala’s podcast La Vertigine becomes a vodcast, opening with Otello and The Nutcracker
Recorded live with Damiano Michieletto on 13 November, the first episode is free on YouTube and audio platforms from 3 December, with The Nutcracker, Don Giovanni, Nixon in China and a Dawson / Morau double bill to follow.
La Scala‘s opera and ballet podcast La Vertigine – Scoprire l’opera e il balletto is returning for a third season, and this time you can watch it as well as listen. Made by Chora Media with the Teatro alla Scala and, new this year, the support of Edison, it becomes a video podcast, or vodcast, which the theatre says widens the ways of telling its stories and brings audiences closer to opera and ballet.
The guide is Chora Media author Valeria Luzi, whose young, curious eye is meant to open up a world of stories, languages and suggestions. The aim is to set the traditions of opera and ballet in dialogue with the present, offering new ways in for a wider public.
Five productions, from Verdi to Max Richter
The season covers five productions. Otello and The Nutcracker open the opera and ballet seasons respectively. They are joined by Mozart’s Don Giovanni, John Adams’s Nixon in China and the Dawson / Morau double bill.
Otello is a new production conducted by Myung-Whun Chung and directed by Damiano Michieletto directs. The Nutcracker is Tchaikovsky’s fairy tale in Rudolf Nureyev‘s choreography. Don Giovanni is Robert Carsen‘s staging, conducted by Thomas Guggeis, while Nixon in China is directed by Valentina Carrasco.
The dance programme pairs David Dawson‘s The Four Seasons, set to music by Max Richter, with Marcos Morau’s Étude, created to music by Gustave Rudman. La Scala describes them as two original choreographic visions that reread the codes of tradition through contemporary languages and sensibilities.
Michieletto live at Palazzo Edison
The season opens with a special event. On Friday 13 November the first episode is recorded live in the shareholders’ room of Palazzo Edison. Michieletto, director of the new Otello, is Luzi’s guest. Their conversation promises a look at his reading of Verdi’s opera and at the work behind a new staging.
From Palazzo Edison to the Galleria
The episode will be broadcast from 3 December. It will be free on the main audio platforms and on YouTube.
It is also part of Prima Diffusa, which takes opera out of the theatre and into venues across all of the city’s boroughs. The first episode will be shown in the Octagon of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, turning one of Milan’s best-known spaces into a place for a shared experience of La Scala’s world.
Reaching younger audiences
The vodcast joins La Scala’s other communication channels: La Scala Tv, La Scala – Rivista del Teatro and Spazio Scala, its programme of free cultural events. The theatre points out that one in three of its spectators is now under thirty, which it sees as proof of its bond with younger generations and a reason to keep trying new ways of telling the story of musical culture.
Edison and La Scala since 1883
Edison‘s link with the theatre goes back to 26 December 1883, when it electrified the lighting for the opening night. That began the electrification of Italy and the rest of the continent. Edison has been a founding member of the theatre’s foundation since 2023 and has a key role in the ecological transition of its venues, cutting energy use and carbon emissions. The theatre says this makes it a model for Italian and European cultural institutions. The sponsorship of Prima Diffusa and now of this vodcast extends that partnership to opening up culture to new audiences.
