The Teatro alla Scala in Milan is one of the most famous opera houses in the world and a must for music lovers, but not only.
…."I am now leaving La Scala […] It is for me the first theatre in the world, because it is the one that provides the greatest pleasures from music […] As for architecture, it is impossible to imagine anything bigger, more solemn and new", wrote Stendhal of the Teatro alla Scala in Milan in 1816, while the following year, after having visited the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, he declared: "The eyes are dazzled, the soul is kidnapped. […] There is nothing in the whole of Europe that I do not say comes close to this theatre, but gives the slightest idea"….Today these two Italian theatres were elected the most beautiful in the world by National Geographic, surpassing international theatres of great prestige such as the Operà in Paris and the Bolshoi in Moscow.
The Teatro alla Scala derives its name from the place where it was built, designed by the neoclassical architect Giuseppe Piermarini: the site of the church of Santa Maria alla Scala. Wanted by Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, it was inaugurated on August 3, 1778 with "Europa Riconosciuta" by Antonio Salieri.
On its stage have risen the greatest ever, from Rossini to Donizetti, from Bellini to Verdi, the great voices like Maria Callas, Renata Tebaldi, Giulietta Simionato, Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo. They have given great performances to directors like Luchino Visconti, Franco Zeffirelli, Luca Ronconi, choreographers and dancers like George Balanchine, Rudolf Nureyev, Carla Fracci, Roberto Bolle.
If you really cannot attend a performance, visiting the Museum you can see the Theatre from one of the stages.
