La Scala – Rivista del Teatro has unveiled a digital version of the magazine with its latest issue. A selection of the articles will be available on the theatre’s website in Italian and English along with an archive of past editions. The magazine will be able to reach a vast online audience and enhance our revamped website where there are an increased number of opportunities for further reading. The print version will continue to be available and free of charge at the box office, in the foyer and in the gallery checkrooms. This is a particularly dense edition because it also covers July and presents future projects like the commissioning of a new opera based on Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose from Francesco Filidei. At the end of May, the theatre presented its new season: 14 operas, 7 ballets, concerts, children’s shows and a bill of cultural events and activities, including the exciting new exhibition the museum will dedicate to the legend Maria Callas. We will just point out a few core themes: the much-anticipated Verdian double bill of the inaugural Don Carlo conducted by Chailly and directed by Lluis Pasqual and Simon Boccanegra conducted by Lorenzo Viotti with the new staging by Daniele Abbado. Following that is a homage to Puccini for the centennial year of his death, with new productions of La rondine and Turandot. The former hasn’t been performed since 1994 and will be conducted by Riccardo Chailly and directed by Irina Brook, whereas the latter will be conducted by Daniel Harding with direction from Davide Livermore. Rounding out the calendar in November 2024 will be an incredible concert conducted once again by Riccardo Chailly with Anna Netrebko and Jonas Kaufmann, as well as an exhibition at the museum starting that same month. Not seen since 1989, Guillaume Tell will be presented for the first time at La Scala in its original French with Michele Mariotti on the conductor’s podium and La Scala debut direction from Chiara Muti. Medée by Luigi Cherubini will ascend our stage for the first time in its original French with Michele Gamba conducting and Damiano Michieletto directing, 63 years after the last production conducted by Thomas Schippers with Maria Callas as the lead. After La Calisto by Francesco Cavalli and Li zite ngalera by Leonardo Vinci, our journey of rediscovery of the Italian roots of melodrama will then move to Orontea by Antonio Cesti, a 1656 opera, with new staging by Robert Carsen and conducted by Giovanni Antonini. There will be much from the 18th century in the next La Scala season: Marc Minkowski brings Alcina by Händel to the stage in the form of a concert with the Musiciens du Louvre, Philippe Herreweghe will conduct the Matthäus-Passion with the Collegium Vocale Gent, and William Christie with Les Arts Florissants brings The Fairy Queen by Purcell with innovative choreography by Mourad Merzouki. Along with this great Italian repertoire will be some spectacular debuts with major European titles, such as the young conductor Thomas Guggeis in Die Entführung aus dem Serail; Alain Altinoglu and Christof Loy with the return of Werther by Massenet after 44 years; and Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss from Kirill Petrenko, Musical Director of the Berliner Philharmoniker. Closing out an ambitious season is Das Rheingold, which will inaugurate a new production of Der Ring des Nibelungen with Christian Thielemann and David McVicar, ten years after the previous version. Coppélia with new choreography by Alexei Ratmansky will premiere at La Scala as the opener of the ballet season, which will offer 7 shows that range from classics like La Bayadère according to Nureyev to great 20th-century works, from Histoire de Manon by MacMillan to Dame aux camélias by Neumeier and the work of Robbins and Balanchine and a revival of Madina, created by Mauro Bigonzetti and Fabio Vacchi for La Scala with an outstanding part for Roberto Bolle. On the contemporary side, the focus is on new names like Garrett Smith, Sol León, Paul Lightfoot, and Simone Valastro. This intense and diverse programme is made possible by the incredible growth of the company in recent years. The program of concerts, hosted in the new acoustic chamber inaugurated a few weeks ago, can be summed up with the names of some conductors and soloists: Martha Argerich, Riccardo Chailly, Myung-Whun Chung, Daniele Gatti, Hélène Grimaud, Daniel Harding, Philippe Herreweghe, Janine Jansen, Misha Maisky, Marc Minkowski, Riccardo Muti, Maurizio Pollini, Beatrice Rana, Daniil Trifonov, Esa-Pekka Salonen. We will share more from them in the coming issues, show by show.

Paolo Besana