History
Among the foremost artists of the Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini repertoire should be mentioned the sopranos Isabella Colbran (1785-1845), Teresa Belloc (1784-1855), and Giuditta Pasta (1797-1865), the mezzo-soprano Maria Malibran (1806-1836), the tenor Luigi Pacini (1767-1837), the male sopranos Gasparo Pacchiarotti (1740-1821) and Giovanni Battista Velluti (1780-1861). In ballet, three of the greatest stars in the Scala's history rose to fame: Maria Taglioni (1804-1884), Fanny Cerrito (1817-1909) and the Austrian Fanny Elssler (1810-1884), who in 1848 was forced to leave the Theatre due to suspicions that she was a police informer.
With them must be mentioned the Frenchman Marius Petipa (1822-1910), who also achieved fame for having created in St Petersburg The Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky. In 1839 Oberto Conte di San Bonifacio inaugurated the cycle of operas by Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901), the composer whose name is linked more than any other to the history of La Scala. After the dismal failure of Un giorno di regno, Nabucco was performed in 1842. It was the first, decisive triumph of Verdi's career. At the same time, the strong patriotic feelings stirred by Nabucco founded the "popularity" of opera seria and identified its image with the Scala. After two more operas (I Lombardi alla prima crociata and Giovanna d'Arco), in 1846 Verdi's collaboration with La Scala came to an abrupt halt.
For many long years the works of Verdi were performed elsewhere. But after 1869, reconciliation gradually came, with productions of the master's new version of La forza del destino. In 1872 the first "European" performance of Aida was given at La Scala, and in 1874 Verdi conducted his Requiem there. In 1881 he presented the revised Simon Boccanegra. In 1887 and in 1893, the Scala gave Otello and Falstaff, the last two masterpieces resulting from the composer's collaboration with Arrigo Boito (1842-1918). Among the greatest historic singers of Verdi opera at the Scala must be mentioned the soprano Giuseppina Strepponi (the maestro's wife, 1815-1897), Adelina Patti (1843-1919), Teresa Stolz (1834-1902), Francesco Tamagno (1850-1905, the first to play Otello), and the baritone Victor Maurel (1848-1923, the first Falstaff).
In 1881 Luigi Manzotti (1835-1905) and Romualdo Marenco (1841-1907) created the ballet Excelsior, one of the masterpieces of choreography at La Scala and still part of its repertoire today. In 1883 the lighting of the auditorium and stage was fully electrified. In 1898 the Theatre's financial troubles led to the first experiment in modern management techniques, implemented by Duke Guido Visconti di Modrone, Arrigo Boito and Giulio Gatti Casazza, who was entrusted with the general management (a role later covered by the Superintendent).
Arturo Toscanini (1867-1957) became the artistic director and introduced radical reform into the theatre, both in its organisational aspects and in its relations with the public. Toscanini, one of the greatest conductors of all time, took up Verdi's musical inheritance and launched a tradition of interpretation that continued uninterruptedly and was renewed during the twentieth century. It was he who reappraised and regularly performed at the Scala the works of Richard Wagner (hitherto only belatedly and inadequately recognised). He also firmly extended the Scala's orchestral repertoire to include symphonic music. Operas by Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) were given at the Scala in 1884, starting with Le Villi. This was followed by the others, Manon Lescaut, Madame Butterfly, La fanciulla del west. In 1926, Toscanini conducted the premiere of Turandot (1926), a work regarded as conclusive to the history of Italian serious opera.
In 1891 Cavalleria rusticana marked the first appearance, in the Scala's repertoire, of Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945) and of musical realism. It was followed by numerous other titles by him (Iris, Parisina, Le Maschere), and by the principal works of Ruggero Leoncavallo (1857-1919), Francesco Cilea (1866-1950) and Umberto Giordano (1867-1948). In 1906 the performance of Richard Strauss's Salome came both as a turning-point in the theatre's repertoire towards the new musical movements, and as a decisive opening towards foreign composers. The next few years saw performances of operas or music by such composers as Igor Stravinsky, Claude Debussy, Ferruccio Busoni, Ippolito Pizzetti, Riccardo Zandonai, and Ottorino Respighi. The new artistic trend, one of whose protagonists was the conductor Tullio Serafin (1878-1968) afterwards became a permanent part of the theatre's repertoire. On 8 March 1913 the Scala Theatre Museum was opened, after the purchase of collections from the Parisian antique-dealer Jules Sambon.
