World War II bombing by allied forces destroyed much of La Scala. It was rebuilt in three years and reopened with Toscanini conducting on 11 May 1946.
La Scala closed 2025 with record ticket sales, up +7.3% compared to 2024. La Scala Theatre Museum sales grew by 14%.
American organist, music director, choral conductor and academic, Gail Archer, will tour a Concert for Ukrainian Relief from February until May 2025.
Luciano Ganci talks about playing Don Alvaro in La forza del destino at La Scala as he ends his run of five performances.
An interview with countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński – not about his singing for an opera magazine, but about his dancing for Dancing Times.
Graham Spicer sees the Les Étoiles galas in Milan with ballet stars in thrilling pas de deux and seductive modern repertoire.
When La Scala reopens its doors tomorrow after the summer closure the audience will find 8-language interactive tablets fitted in front of their seat.
Graham Spicer sees Emanuela Tagliavia’s Hopper Variations at the Teatro Paolo Grassi School in Milan
From 1 November to 31 December 2023, Milan will dedicate a programme of events for Callas 100, to mark the centenary of Maria Callas’ birth on 2 December.
Milan’s mayor has launched a €120 million project that will bring all of La Scala’s laboratories and warehouses together on one site.
The Nobel Prize winning writer, actor, painter, composer and director died this morning in Milan at the age of 90. He was born on 24 March 1926 in San Giano, a small town on Lago Maggiore in Lombardy in the north of Italy. Performing and writing until a few weeks ago, even with a new television programme…
Though no special anniversary, Google users in Italy today are seeing a Google Doodle to commemorate the “238th Anniversary of the inauguration of Teatro Alla Scala”. Inside the second ‘O’ is a view of La Scala‘s famous auditorium with the curtains open and a single ballerina dancing onstage with a backcloth, seeming to depict the…
As John Wayne said, “Courage is being scared to death… and saddling up anyway”. Who in their right mind, you may ask, would form a new opera company when Italy is juggling to balance its books and many theatres are playing to less than full houses? Well, the founding members of the association Coin du…
The Louvre in Paris has given the ok for three of its Leonardo da Vinci paintings to travel to Milan for the ambitious exhibition of the painter’s works to coincide with the Milan Expo in 2015. Leonardo lived in Milan for 17 years and, of course, his The Last Supper is painted on the walls of…
Mariuccia is a very special person in Roberto Bolle‘s life, but is seldom seen or talked about. The paparazzi don’t photograph her, and she doesn’t give interviews about her relationship with Italy‘s most famous male dancer, yet for Bolle she is central to his life… she’s his mother. On Boxing Day, Mariuccia will have her…
La Scala sovrintendente Stephane Lissner, on announcing that Daniel Barenboim will leave his post as musical director from 1 January 2015 – two years before the end of his contract – said that it will mark the “end of an era”. It will allow Barenboim to conduct Fidelio which will open the 2014-2015 season on 7 December…
Good news for the La Scala public: Riccardo Chailly will be the next musical director after Daniel Barenboim. He is a conductor whom singers love, and he loves singers, not afraid to ‘accompany’ when necessary, and let them shine. He’s always been popular with the La Scala crowd, including the famous loggionisti. The announcement isn’t yet…
The cliché “better late than never” is the same in Italian – “meglio tardi che mai” – and is certainly adapt for the renowned octogenarian conductor, pianist and composer André Previn, who will make his début at Milan‘s legendary theatre on 24 October. A surprise début too, because 89-years-old Georges Prêtre, who was down to conduct three concerts…
For the autumn/fall issue of Fashionisto, Roberto Bolle has been photographed by Brent Chua for a fashion shoot wearing Prada, Armani, and Dolce & Gabbana. Bolle is a Principal with the American Ballet Theatre and an Étoile at La Scala. While slipping out of his Prada jacket and pulling on his Armani trousers, he talked…
At 10am hundreds of friends, colleagues, and neighbours, including many dancers and doctors, gathered in the sweltering heat to say their goodbyes to Walter Albisetti, a much loved figure who died tragically three days ago. Albisetti, who was only 56 years old, was for twenty years the medical advisor for the La Scala Ballet Company…
Walter Albisetti, Milan‘s most well-known and respected orthopaedist, has died at 56. He was a specialist in treating dancers and most of the ballet company at La Scala had passed through his consulting room over the last thirty years. He was the medical advisor at La Scala. Albisetti was found dead at his house in Merate,…
Joyce DiDonato well and truly conquered La Scala‘s audience during her recital last night. She was greeted by an ovation that took her aback – the sort of applause reserved for a Marilyn Horne or Teresa Berganza, recognising their past triumphs on the legendary stage. In this case is was more of a signal to…
October 2015 marks the start of Alexander Pereira’s reign as sovrintendente of one of the world’s greatest theatres, the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. Yesterday the city’s mayor, Giuliano Pisapia, announced the Austrian’s appointment, He is the person we consider most suited to give true value to the jewel in Milan’s crown. So, coincidentally just as…
The Curse of La Scala strikes again? As already noted in this blog, the recital series at Milan‘s Teatro alla Scala has suffered from a great number of cancellations and postponements during the last year or so. The latest has been Jonas Kaufmann‘s recital on 1 June which, ‘due to a sudden illness’, has been postponed until late October. As…
Tomorrow evening there will be a world premiere of a piece by Giuseppe Verdi, in his 200th Anniversary year. Flautist Claudio Ferrarini was rummaging through the library in Verdi’s home Villa di Sant’Agata (more commonly known as Villa Verdi), where Verdi often made music with Antonio Barezzi, president of the Busseto Philharmonic Society. Ferrarini found many…
Franca Rame has died in Milan at 84. She was an Italian theatre actress with a talent for comedy, playwright and an outspoken political activist. She was married to Nobel laureate playwright Dario Fo who dedicated his Nobel Prize to her. Rame came from a theatrical family in the north of Italy. After making her theatrical debut in 1951, she met Dario Fo and they married in…
21-year-old Claudio Coviello, who famously stepped in at the last minute to replace Ivan Vasiliev, has been named primo ballerino (principal) after yesterday’s performance as Albrecht in Giselle. Born in Potenza, Coviello received his ballet training at the school of the Rome Opera Ballet and was quickly snapped up by the company at Milan‘s La Scala in 2010….
The La Scala Theatre Ballet School was formed 200 years ago, and its students are celebrating with a week of shows at Milan‘s Teatro Strehler. At last night’s opening performance Carla Fracci, maybe the school’s most famous student, was present, and the young ballet dancers were thrilled. After an Overture (a version of Etudes/Class Concert), the…
Ok, the headline is a bit over the top, but the vocal recitals at La Scala have been having a spot of bad luck recently, especially seeing that there are only seven recitals each season. Just over a year ago Daniela Barcellona gave a concert postponed from January because of a ‘sudden illness’. Diana Damrau, having moved a recital to 21…
Milan is the sort of city which empties as soon as holidays arrive, and in Italy there are lots of holidays. The schools are shut and so are private dancing schools… except for that of Walter Venditti. Everyone knows that Venditti will have a lesson, even when there’s hardly a local around. He’s 84, and…
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