Teatro alla Scala reopens, Chailly directs

The theater thrives on art, among the golden inlays and crimson velvet curtains, the cradle of the talent of many international artists. But it also exists for its audience, warm, indulgent and undeterred judge. Culture restarts on September 4th and the Teatro alla Scala is ready to welcome 740 guests, with a new autumn season.

The curtain opens with Giuseppe Verdi’s Messa da Requiem performed by the Scala ensembles and directed by Riccardo Chailly, Artistic Director of La Scala: a moment of gathering dedicated to the deads for Covid-19. The well-known composer offered his Requiem to the city of Milan, conducting it himself in the Menghina church of San Marco on May 22, 1874, for the death of Alessandro Manzoni.

The upcoming performance also recalls that of May 11, 1946, when the theater reopened its doors at the end of the Second World War and after a careful restoration due to the damage suffered during the bombings, with a concert symbol of memory and rebirth.

The double tribute traces history, pain and art, transforming the Teatro alla Scala into a place of culture, memory and meditation, of remembrance and rebirth. For this reason, the appointment of 4 September will also be repeated in Bergamo and Brescia, two of the most affected provinces.

We have to wait until 12 September for the return to the Piermarini hall with the performance of Ludwig Beethoven’s Ninth with the voices of Krassimira Stoyanova, Ekaterina Gubanova, Michael König, Tomasz Konieczny. The evening will be reserved for healthcare personnel with the support of the Bracco Foundation: the Maestro takes up Beethoven’s speech on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth, a sign of hope for culture and the city.

The symphonic appointments continue with Maestro Zubin Mehta, who on 29 and 30 September and 1 October will conduct the Filarmonica della Scala in the Vier letzte Lieder with soprano Camilla Nylund and in the symphonic poem Ein Heldenleben by Richard Strauss. On 14, 16 and 17 October, Maestro Mehta will lead the Accademia’s Orchestra, Choir, White Voice Choir and contralto Daniela Sindram in Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 3.

Finally, on 21, 22 and 24 November, the Baroque autumn appointment with the concert is confirmed conducted by Maestro Giovanni Antonini with the Theater Orchestra on historical instruments and the participation of the three countertenors Max Emanuel Cencic, Christophe Dumaux and Carlo Vistoli.

Milan, August 28th 2020