TEATRO ALLA SCALA LABORATORIES

First based in the sites of Bovisa, Pero, Abanella as well as in the Piermarini headquarters, the Teatro alla Scala laboratories are located since February 20, 2001 in the former industrial settlement of the Ansaldo steel plants in Milan.

A huge 20,000 square metre facility, divided in three pavilions dedicated to director Luchino Visconti, scenographer Nicola Benois, and costume designer Luigi Sapelli (aka Caramba), where most of the handmade works for scene productions are carried out - scenography, sculpture, thermoforming, carpentry works, mechanics workshop, scene assembly, costume laboratory, costume design, laundry. The facility holds over 60,000 stage costumes, as well as the rehearsal rooms of the chorus and a stage area for direction rehearsals, which perfectly matches Piermarini's stage.

This heritage exists thanks to the daily work of more than 150 people including joiners, blacksmiths, carpenters, scenographers, scenography technicians, sculptors, dressmakers and costume designers, who create the whole staging starting from a simple sketch.

Wishing to share this world of values, La Scala decided to open the Laboratori Scala Ansaldo to the public: the project that includes guided tours, on which it is possible to visit the backstage of the theatre and experience the birth of a show at first hand.

MUSEO TEATRALE ALLA SCALA

The Museo Teatrale alla Scala, in the theater annex, is a rich assemblage of precious relics, paintings, sculpture and backdrops--all souvenirs of the prominent composers, and singers who made their careers at La Scala. The museum preserves a history of opera, from antiquity to the present.

Its history dates back to 1911, as Duke Uberto Visconti di Modrone, Professor Lodovico Pagliaghi, composer and librettist Arrigo Boito, correspondent for newspaper "Il Secolo" Mr Borsa, Senator Mangili, Count Leopoldo Pullè and Doctor Gino (Ettore) Modigliani, director of the Pinacoteca di Brera, gathered around a table of Teatro alla Scala. These men were the most popular people in Milan in those years, most of them coming from the town's rich cultured class, and connected to La Scala theatre by their love and passion. The decision to be taken around that table concerned the purchase of the theatre collection belonging to the antique dealer Giulio Sambon, which was going to be put up for auction in Paris on the very first days of May of the same year. Those antiques could have been the starting point of a huge theatre collection, whose foundation had been sought for by Milan intellectual community of Teatro alla Scala for a very long time, since the very first years of the century. But the forthcoming term of the auction left them only one week to find the necessary funds. With the help of the government and 50 citizens, after a series of incredible adventures to wring the collection out of the American multimillionaire JP Morgan, the dream came true, and the collection was then given to the city of Milan. The Museum was officially opened on March 8, 1913 with a solemn ceremony in the former Casino Ricordi connected to Teatro alla Scala. Over the years several donations and purchases added to the Sambon collection, which is today one of the richest and most envied collections of the world. The most important deposits are in the "Casa di riposo per musicisti" (Retirement-home for musicians), founded by Giuseppe Verdi, as well as in public places. The Museum also includes the library, founded with its present structure, with the 40,000 volumes given in 1952 by Renato Simoni, journalist for "Corriere della Sera" and which is constantly enriched and updated.