Italy - Milan
Teatro alla Scala Milan

In the history of opera, no other house has been so highly revered, so often imitated, nor so regularly used as a standard doe comparison as Teatro alla Scala. But La Scala, as it is usually called, is much more than a beautiful place for opera; it symbolizes the essence of the Milanese. For this reason more than any other, its reopening in 1946, after damage from Allied bombs, was the most promising sign that the oppression of Mussolini’s regime and the horrors of World War II were finally over.

After fire destroyed the original building in 1776, architect Giuseppe Piermarini was appointed to design a new theatre. Maria-Theresa, Empress of Austria and Duchess of Milan, gave permission for the new theatre to be built on the site of the Santa Maria della Scala church. The exterior was planned to be simple in design with a Rusticated ground floor. The facade gradually breaks forward with a series of bays framed by pairs of pilasters or engaged columns. The three-bay carriage entrance is topped by a triangular pediment.

The opulent effect was reserved for the interior. The red, gold and white boxes are reached by a maze of reception rooms, stairway, and corridors. Massive fluted columns frame the stage. The horseshoeshaped auditorium is vast, with a seating capacity of 2,200 made up of 678 stalls, two galleries, and four tiers of boxes.

Volumes have been written on the people and events that have shaped La Scala’s incomparable 220-year history. In 1904, the premiere of Puccini’s Madame Butterfly did so badly that it was quietly removed from the program. A moving tale centers on Arturo Toscanini, who conducted the premiere of Turandot in 1926. Puccini had died before finishing the opera, and it had been completed by Franco Alfano. When Toscanini reached the part where Puccini’s work ended, he put down the baton, turned to the audience and said, “Here the opera ends, because at this point the maestro died.” With that he left the podium.