Chorus of La Scala

In 1776 Milan's Regio Ducal Teatro, built in 1717, burned down. Empress Maria Theresa of Austria commanded work to begin at once on a grand new theater. Giuseppe Piermarini designed the building, built on the vacant site of an old church called Santa Maria della Scala (named after noblewoman Beatrice della Scala, wife of Bernabò Visconti). The new opera house was accordingly named the Teatro alla Scala and opened in August 1778, with Antonio Salieri's L'Europa riconosciuta. Teatro alla Scala quickly became the greatest opera house of Italy. It was there where Napoleon was crowned "King of Italy" in 1805. Rossini's operas leapt to worldwide fame from its stage. Meyerbeer, Mercadante, Donizetti, Bellini, and Verdi all had early operas premiered there. La Scala became virtually synonymous with Italian opera. No important Italian operatic figure of the Romantic era failed to appear there. During the 19th century, La Scala was supported by the city of Milan, but the outmoded and decrepit theater was suddenly closed when the city government cancelled its subsidy in 1897. Duke Guido Visconti di Modrone became La Scala's savior. He formed a syndicate that took over the house and began a long, careful renovation and appointed two great leaders: Arturo Toscanini as music director and Giulio Gatti-Casazza as manager. They quickly restored La Scala to its glory. In 1907, modernization of the theater resulted in the long-overdue construction of an orchestra pit. Toscanini left the company to go to the Metropolitan in New York, but continued to dominate the company's history. In 1920 a new self-governing body, the Ente Autonomo del Teatro alla Scala, took over the house. Once again Toscanini was brought in to be the first music director of a newly constituted La Scala. While the stage was being entirely rebuilt, Toscanini formed a new orchestra for the opera house and took them, the chorus, and the soloists of La Scala on a long tour of Italy and North America, then returned to pilot La Scala through one of its golden ages. He left for primarily political reasons in 1929. On August 13, 1943, the building was gutted by bombing. Milan gave it one of the highest priorities for reconstruction, and rebuilt it on the original plans, with an enlarged audience capacity of 3,000. Once again Toscanini launched a "new" La Scala, leading its reopening concert on May 11, 1946. The workmen and staff reportedly burst into tears of joy after the Maestro walked around the theater clapping his hands to judge the sound and declared the famous acoustics as good as ever. In 1955, the company opened Piccola Scala, a 600-seat theater next door, for early and chamber opera, inaugurating it with Cimarosa's Il matrimonio segreto. It was closed in 1983. La Scala's company has remained one of the great opera companies of the world, with its musical matters headed since 1986 by conductor Riccardo Muti. Under his leadership, the orchestra of the opera company, playing as the Philharmonic Orchestra of La Scala, established a concert series and soon became recognized as one of the world's major symphony orchestras. In 2006, Daniel Barenboim became de facto director of the company, continuing its grand tradition of renowned music-making.
© TiVo