Teatro alla Scala

As per tradition, the 2021/22 season opened in December at La Scala in Milan, this time with a new production of Giuseppe Verdi's 'Macbeth' directed by Davide Livermore and conducted by Riccardo Chailly. Verdi's Shakespeare drama features a star-studded cast: Anna Netrebko and Luca Salsi embody the regicide Macbeth and his lady.

Götterdämmerung, the final instalment of Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung, is a story of human passions. Two essentially benevolent creatures, involved with and possibly doomed by their traffic with the gods, find treachery and evil in the world of the humans, and are ruined by the dark side of humanity. Iréne Theorin, acclaimed worldwide for her portrayal of Wagner’s heroines, stars as Brünnhilde opposite Lance Ryan, who continues his radiant portrayal of the tragic hero Siegfried. The strong cast also includes Mikhail Petrenko as the dark antagonist Hagen and Johannes Martin Kränzle, who once again shines as his father Alberich. Waltraud Meier has a memorable appearance as Brünnhilde’s sister Waltraute. With this 2013 recording of Götterdämmerung, the musically and visually compelling Scala Ring Cycle by Daniel Barenboim and Guy Cassiers was completed and proved to be one of the highlights of the Richard Wagner bicentenary.

Gaetano Donizetti’s comic opera *Don Pasquale* returns to Teatro alla Scala in a 2018 production directed by Davide Livermore and conducted by Riccardo Chailly. Set in a dreamlike, black-and-white Rome inspired by Italian cinema of the 1950s, the staging blends cinematic references, visual spectacle and bittersweet comedy. Ambrogio Maestri stars as the aging bachelor Don Pasquale, alongside Rosa Feola as Norina, René Barbera as Ernesto and Mattia Olivieri as Dr. Malatesta. Elaborate sets by Livermore and Giò Forma, colourful costumes by Gianluca Falaschi and video design by D-WOK bring this classic tale of deception, romance and generational conflict to life.

Mozart’s Così fan tutte returns to Teatro alla Scala in this January 2021 performance, streamed during the pandemic under the musical direction of Giovanni Antonini. The production revives Michael Hampe’s traditional staging, with Lorenza Cantini overseeing the revival and Mauro Pagano’s elegant, Neapolitan-inspired sets and costumes. The opera’s intricate comedy of fidelity, disguise and romantic deception unfolds through the experiment orchestrated by Don Alfonso, testing the love of two young couples. The cast features Eleonora Buratto as Fiordiligi, Emily d’Angelo as Dorabella, Bogdan Volkov as Ferrando, Alessio Arduini as Guglielmo, Federica Guida as Despina and Pietro Spagnoli as Don Alfonso.

A Mozart opera at La Scala in Milan.

Don Quixote is a 19th century work, choreographed by Petipa in 1869. Rudolf Nureyev revived it in 1966 and it is his version in La Scala Ballet’s repertoire, much loved by ballet audiences for its winning mix of technical bravura, exuberance and comic touches. La Scala Ballet brought the world of a fantastical Spain brilliantly to life with their sophisticated dance, music, costumes and sets, energetically accompanied by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Coleman.

The theatre masterpiece by Antonin Dvořák, written in 1900, is a recurrent title on the season programmes of major European and American theatres. Strangely enough, it has never been performed at La Scala. The ambiguous fairy tale about a nymph who takes human form for the love of a prince who will betray her and only repent at death is fertile ground for the much awaited return of Emma Dante, whose career took wing precisely at La Scala with a felicitous production of Carmen. Making their debuts Piermarini’s auditorium, on the other hand, are the director of the Welsh National Opera Tomáš Hanus, a specialist in this repertoire, while Olga Bezsmertna will be in the title role.

First staged at the Teatro La Fenice in 1846, Verdi’s ninth opera, Attila, returns to the stage of La Scala on December 7th. Following the inauguration of the 2015-2016 Season with Giovanna d’Arco and in anticipation of Macbeth, with Attila Musical Director Riccardo Chailly continues his study of Verdi’s early works, renewing a successful collaboration with creative director Davide Livermore that began with his acclaimed production of Donizetti’s Don Pasquale for La Scala. In this complex opera Verdi experiments with fresh perspectives, featuring spectacular historical settings, introspective angles and moral uncertainties. Attila demands of its performers not only passion and confidence, but also the ability to find subtle accents and psychological nuances.

Mozart’s Don Giovanni returned to Teatro alla Scala in October 2006 in a new production directed by Peter Mussbach, who also designed the sets, with Gustavo Dudamel conducting the orchestra and chorus. Blending psychological intensity with stark, contemporary theatrical imagery, the staging explores the darker dimensions of Mozart’s drama of seduction, power and moral reckoning. Carlos Álvarez stars as the defiant libertine, with Ildebrando D’Arcangelo as his resourceful servant Leporello, alongside Anna Samuil as Donna Anna, Francesco Meli as Don Ottavio and Monica Bacelli as Donna Elvira. A co-production with the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, this interpretation brings fresh dramatic tension to the timeless story of a man who refuses to face the consequences of his actions.

Every night, Johann puts on bat's wings and flies off to enjoy himself. Bella, troubled by her husband's hedonistic activities, consults with her friend Ulrich and plots to disguise herself as a mysterious beauty to seduce her husband. A ballet in two acts after Johann Strauss' "Die Fledermaus" choreographed by Roland Petit, staged by Teatro alla Scala and filmed for television.

Rinaldo Alessandrini, one of the most eminent baroque and pre-baroque music specialist, conducts Monteverdi's Orfeo, performed by singers who have been working with the Maestro for many years, and who now play in the middle of Robert Wilson's fairy sets...

Madama Butterfly (Madame Butterfly) is an opera in three acts (originally two acts) by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica. This performance was recorded at the Teatro degli Arcimboldi in Milan in 2004.

Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro returned to Teatro alla Scala in 2016 in a new production directed by Frederic Wake-Walker and conducted by Franz Welser-Möst. Created to mark the 225th anniversary of Mozart’s death, the staging offers a fresh perspective on the composer’s celebrated comedy of love, deception and social hierarchy. Antony McDonald designed the sets and costumes, framing the intricate intrigues surrounding Figaro and Susanna’s wedding. The international cast features Markus Werba as Figaro, Golda Schultz as Susanna, Diana Damrau as the Countess, Marianne Crebassa as Cherubino, and Carlos Álvarez or Simon Keenlyside as Count Almaviva.

Opera di Giuseppe Verdi a Milano.

The version of Le Corsaire by Manuel Legris arrives at La Scala, his first revival of a nineteenth century classic, fully highlighting the intent and innovativeness of his choreographic approach and his musical and dramaturgic quest. With its clear and accessible plot, notable attention to musicality and relations among characters, the sumptuous and evocative décor and costumes by Luisa Spinatelli, it will be an occasion recombining the energy virtuosity, the lyricism and romanticism of one of the 19th century’s most adventurous and thrilling ballets d’action with the talents of the La Scala dancers.

The famos Double Feature of Verismo at La Scala with Daniel Harding conducting from February 2011

Verdi’s I Masnadieri returned to Teatro alla Scala in June 2019 in a new production directed by David McVicar and conducted by Michele Mariotti. Based on Friedrich Schiller’s play The Robbers, this rarely performed early Verdi opera explores the destructive consequences of family rivalry, betrayal and the struggle between idealism and corruption. McVicar’s staging brings the work’s dark Romantic atmosphere and intense emotional conflicts to the forefront, supported by sets designed by Charles Edwards and costumes by Brigitte Reiffenstuel. The cast features Fabio Sartori as Carlo, Michele Pertusi as Massimiliano, Massimo Cavalletti as Francesco and Lisette Oropesa as Amalia, making her La Scala debut.

In the early 1960s two artistic giants, conductor Herbert von Karajan and director Franco Zeffirelli, joined forces to create this milestone production of Puccini’s masterpiece at Milan’s Teatro alla Scala. Filmed in that legendary opera house in 1965, with Zeffireli himself directing for the cameras, this “Bohème” has been acclaimed universally for its unique theatrical impact and visual splendour. Starring the young Mirella Freni in her carreer-making performance. – For the first time the full dimension of opera on film.

Recorded live from the Teatro all Scala, Milan, 2011

In the garden of a Baroque villa, a chamber orchestra is playing Mozart’s wonderful quartets and quintets, and everywhere is pervaded with echoes and references to the composer’s world. As if by magic or conjured by the imagination, figures emerge from the shadows of the labyrinthine garden: they are Mozart’s characters, and they play with – or perhaps make fun of – the guests at the party, embroiling them in their well-known amorous dalliances. This piece, in which the spectator encounters among the dreamlike medley many well-known protagonists from Mozart’s operas (including Figaro, Don Giovanni, and the Queen of the Night), is a full-length choreographic work by Massimiliano Volpini, who himself performed on stage for many years as a dancer with the Scala ensemble.