TEATRO ALLA SCALA HISTORY

Founded at the behest of the Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, Teatro alla Scala was built to replace Teatro Ducale, destroyed by fire on February 26, 1776. The new theatre was built on the former location of the church of Santa Maria alla Scala, from which the theatre gets its name.
Designed by the great neoclassical architect Giuseppe Piermarini, the theatre had a total over 3,000 seats organized into 678 pit-stalls, arranged in six tiers of boxes above which is the "loggione" or two galleries. The stage is one of the largest in Italy; the proscenium is 26m wide and 27m high, and the stage was originally 20m deep. The left wing of the first gallery is purported to have the best acoustics. The fabulous chandelier hanging from the vaulted ceiling was designed by Alessandro Sanquirico in 1830.
Boasting an exceptional acoustics, La Scala opened its doors on August 3, 1778, with Antonio Salieri's Europa riconosciuta.
In its early days, the theatre was linked to the opera buffa tradition, but with the first La Scala production of a Rossini opera in 1812 (La Pietra del Paragone), the house became the home of Italian opera seria. As for its foreign repertoire, in 1816 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Die Zauberflöte was performed here.
In 1839, Oberto Conte di San Bonifacio opened the cycle of operas by Giuseppe Verdi. The first great success in Verdi's career occurred with 1842 Nabucco, a strong patriotic opera.
In 1898, the theatre's financial troubles led to the first experiment in modern management techniques. In that period, Arturo Toscanini became the artistic director. He took up Verdi's musical heritage and launched a tradition of interpretation, renewed over the twentieth century.
In 1884, Giacomo Puccini Le Villi was performed. This was followed by Manon Lescaut, Madame Butterfly, La fanciulla del west. In 1926, Toscanini conducted the premiere of Turandot, a work regarded as conclusive to the history of Italian opera seria.
In 1921 ownership of the boxes was transferred from private subscribers to the Milan City Council
The period between the two wars witnessed a succession of appearances at the Scala by the greatest artists of the time, among whom were Feodor Scialiapin, Magda Olivero, Giacomo Lauri-Volpi, Titta Ruffo, Gino Bechi, Beniamino Gigli, Mafalda Favero, Toti dal Monte, Gilda dalla Rizza and Aurelio Pertile.
Severely damaged by bombing in 1943, the theatre reopened on May 11, 1946, with a great concert conducted by Toscanini.
In 1948 Guido Cantelli made his debut and established himself as one of the leading post-war conductors. In 1955 Carla Fracci made her first appearance at La Scala. As far as the contemporary repertoire is concerned, between 1947 and the '60s, operas and concerts were performed by, among others, Sergei Prokofiev, Benjamin Britten, Alban Berg, George Gershwin, Francis Poulenc, Ferruccio Busoni. The following decade included works by Arnold Schoenberg, Dmitry Shostakovich, Luigi Dallapiccola, Kurt Weill and Paul Hindemith. In 1970 Riccardo Muti made his debut at La Scala as a symphony conductor.
And in 1972 Claudio Abbado was named conductor of the Scala Orchestra. In 1981 Riccardo Muti debuted at La Scala as an opera conductor, with Giulio Bertola to direct the chorus. In 1982 the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala was established.
In 1997 La Scala became a Foundation under private ownership, thus opening a decisive phase of modernisation. On November 16, Giuseppe Verdi's Centenary Celebrations (1901-2001) were opened with a great concert conducted by Riccardo Muti.
From 19 January 2002 to November 2004, the theatre was closed for renovation on a project by the Ticinese architect Mario Botta. During the closure, the opera company was transferred to the new Teatro degli Arcimboldi, located in the abandoned Pirelli-Bicocca industrial plant.
On December 7, 2004, La scala reopened its doors with the same opera performed 266 years before, which inaugurated the theatre: Europa Riconosciuta by Antonio Salieri. The most evident aspect of the renovated Teatro alla Scala is the majestic ellipsis and the new stage tower, both designed by architect Mario Botta.

TEATRO DEGLI ARCIMBOLDI HISTORY

The history of Teatro degli Arcimboldi (known as Arcimboldi) had its beginnings in 1996. Included in the Bicocca Project (with Bicocca being the newly re-qualified area in the Northern part of Milan), the theatre was designed as an alternate concert hall during the years of renovation work of Teatro alla Scala.

An area was located and sold to Milan City Council by the Pirelli & C. Group, which incurred costs of €28 million, (€18 million for the necessary urban development works and €10 million as sponsors) as part of a total €44 millions. Milan City Council built the theatre in collaboration with Pirelli & C. Real Estate. The seat cost (cost of production/number of seats) is one of the lowest in the world, ranging at barely over €18,000.

Giorgio Strehler, il maestro Claudio Abbado, Maurizio Pollini e Riccardo Muti, che nel 1986 diviene direttore dell'Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala.
The Arcimboldi theatre is the only theatre among its modern peers to feature a proscenium measuring 12 x 16 metres - fully compatible with the stage-designs of Piermarini's La Scala and so sets/fittings can be transferred from the one theatre to the other - and a total surface area for performances of a hefty 11,000 m². The project, designed by "Gregotti Associati International" of Milan, comprises a main, fan-shaped auditorium, which is 35 metres long, 49 metres wide and 22 metres high on average. It is a modern, comfortable venue with cutting-edge technology and excellent reception facilities. Made of precious wood, metal and glass, it seats 2,400 people. It has movable glass panels that flank the auditorium's walls, which are designed to provide top quality acoustics. The gantry, above the stage, is 32 by 27 metres, the inner trellis is 30 metres, and is 40 metres high overall. On the top there are some equipment for the air ventilation system and a rehearsal room for ballet.

The Arcimboldi theatre was built in a record 27 months and was officially inaugurated in January 2002. Over the years, it has continued to be an important Italian venue hosting operas, ballets, and concerts. Popular pieces like Wagner's Tannhäuser and Balletto Europa's La Stavaganza have been featured here.