MILAN, ITALY — As Milan Fashion Week draws to a close and the city regains its buzz across the artistic and cultural sectors, cultural moments such as last week’s opening ceremony at Palazzo Reale left a lasting impression and generated palpable excitement. Held with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and the Italian Trade Agency, and in collaboration with the Municipality of Milan, the event took place in the presence of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
“Fashion Week represents a key moment for the entire fashion system: an international platform capable of showcasing the creativity, craftsmanship and productive strength of Made in Italy, while generating significant benefits for Milan and for the country as a whole,” said Carlo Capasa, Chairman of Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana, in a statement. “At a time of profound economic and geopolitical transformation, dialogue and cooperation between institutions and industry are essential to continue enhancing and strengthening this extraordinary asset of our country.”
The event was also held on the occasion of the opening of the exhibition Dalí e la Moda, produced by Palazzo Reale, MondoMostre and Civita Mostre e Musei, in collaboration with the Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí.
Levi’s x AFRO Fashion Association
Levi’s x AFRO Fashion Association
A year of research, dialogue, experimentation and creative production also shaped Voices of Denim: A Living Cultural Language, the project curated by the AFRO Fashion Association and Levi’s. The initiative explores denim not merely as a material or item of clothing, but as a genuine cultural language capable of conveying memory, movement, labour, identity, resistance and transformation.
The project stems from the convergence of Levi’s expertise—which has always been intertwined with the history of denim and its cultural evolution—and the AFRO Fashion Association’s work to create tangible opportunities for BIPOC talent within the creative industries.
It brought together emerging BIPOC talents from the fields of fashion design, photography, visual arts, film and design, guiding them through a programme structured across several phases: from the initial announcement of the project and the recruitment of talents and mentors, through public positioning and media activities, to the monitoring and planning of production and the exhibition, culminating in its opening to the public.
Levi’s x AFRO Fashion Association
“After nearly a year of working with the creatives involved, we are proud to present, together with Levi’s, a project that demonstrates what culture can achieve when it is combined with access, trust and tangible opportunities. Voices of Denim celebrates the voices of these talents and, by offering free admission to the public, shares this experience with the whole city,” says Michelle Francine Ngonmo, Founder & Chief Executive Officer of the AFRO Fashion Association.
The space unfolds through layers, thresholds and revelations. Transparencies and opacities alternate; nets and veils obstruct the view; curtains and drapes create moments of anticipation and discovery. Not everything is immediately visible, and the audience is invited to move about, pass through, search and change their perspective. The exhibition experience thus becomes progressive and personal: each work emerges from the relationship between body, matter and space, and there is no single way of looking at it, just as there is no single voice.
In this landscape, the unfinished does not represent a deficiency, but a possibility. The building site becomes a metaphor for identities that do not demand to be defined once and for all, for cultural heritages capable of evolving, and for new generations who do not merely receive a legacy but choose how to transform it. Culture is thus presented not as a static object to be preserved, but as a living substance to be brought to life: it bears the traces of what has been, is transformed by those who engage with it, and acquires new meanings through those who choose to reinterpret it.
But there is more to the story. Daniele Rustioni’s return to Milan’s famed La Scala theatre took shape this month, first and foremost, through symphonic music. From 22 to 25 September, the Milanese conductor took to the podium to lead the theatre’s Orchestra and Chorus in three concerts as part of the Symphonic Season. The engagement marked the renewal of a long-standing artistic relationship and, just a few weeks before the premiere of the new production of Charles Gounod’s Faust, served as a prelude to his autumn engagements at La Scala.
Daniele Rustioni © Teatro alla Scala
Rustioni’s connection with the Milanese stage runs deep. A native of Milan who trained at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatoire, he made his debut at La Scala in 2010 and returned there in October 2012 with La bohème. After more than a decade, his return takes on a special significance: not merely as that of a conductor who has since made a name for himself on the world’s leading stages, but as an artist returning to a theatre deeply linked to his own training and history.
The programme brought together two central figures of German Romanticism, Johannes Brahms and Robert Schumann, in a journey that led from the festive and public nature of the Akademische Fest-Ouvertüre, Op. 80, to the more intimate and visionary Schicksalslied, Op. 54, before arriving at Schumann’s Second Symphony – a work in which personal drama and the desire for self-affirmation are transformed into musical energy, tension and light.
From Brahms and Schumann to Gounod, the journey marks a dramatic change of scene: from Romantic Germany to late 19th-century France, and from symphonic form to the grand operatic stage. Yet the thread linking the two events runs deeper. It is the relationship between music and destiny, between individual aspiration and the force of reality, and between the intimate sphere and grand theatrical gesture.
The September programme also takes on particular significance when viewed within the context of the theatre’s Symphonic Season. Following programmes curated by Daniel Barenboim, Riccardo Chailly, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Michele Mariotti and Myung-Whun Chung, Rustioni’s engagement brings two major figures of the German Romantic tradition to the forefront of the programme.
Charles Gounod’s Faust, running at La Scala from 20 October to 8 November, marks Rustioni’s return to La Scala’s operatic repertoire and to the helm of the theatre’s Orchestra and Chorus in a new production directed by Johannes Erath. The opera, which has not been performed at the Piermarini since 2010, returns in a co-production with the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía in Valencia, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin and the Teatro Real in Madrid.
A grand programme of 20th-century European music opened the Milan Symphony Orchestra’s 2026/27 season, marking the start of Emmanuel Tjeknavorian’s third season as Music Director. The concert looks to Europe not only through its repertoire, but also through its leading figures. Marko Letonja, a Slovenian conductor with deep ties to the Orchestra’s history, took to the podium alongside German cellist Daniel Müller-Schott, a leading interpreter of Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto, Op. 85.
The programme was rounded off by Ottorino Respighi’s Fontane di Roma and Pini di Roma, performed to mark the 90th anniversary of the composer’s death. The choice of programme reflects the artistic vision that characterises the new season conceived by Emmanuel Tjeknavorian: a season centred on dialogue between the great European musical traditions, the promotion of the symphonic repertoire and an open-minded approach to contemporary music, with particular attention to young performers, new audiences and accessible ways of presenting music.
Giselle. Photo: Brescia e Amisano © Teatro alla Scala
Timeless classics such as Giselle also return to La Scala, with ten performances running from 1 – 23 October and relaunching the ballet season following the summer break. Set to the classic choreography by Coralli and Perrot, revived by Yvette Chauviré for the first time at La Scala in 1950, this production is an integral part of the theatre’s history. So too is the set design created specifically for the production by Aleksandr Benois, which has been preserved and updated over the years without altering its identity.
A treasure of La Scala and its artists—who have breathed new life and fresh emotion into every revival—the production is one of the company’s most frequently performed and iconic ballets. It has consequently been the centrepiece of countless international tours, travelling from Oman to Brazil, from China to France, from the United States to Australia and from Kuwait to China.
Its most recent international performance took place in 2024 at the Grand Theatre in Shanghai, where Chinese audiences were captivated by the production and by the La Scala Corps de Ballet’s interpretation of one of the cornerstones of its repertoire.
Nicoletta Manni and Timofej Andrijashenko. Photograph: Brescia e Amisano ©Teatro alla Scala
A story of love, betrayal and redemption, set against a backdrop of joyful peasant festivals and the white horde of the Wilis, Giselle continues to move audiences with its delicate narrative. It draws them in through the technical skill and sensitivity of the lead dancers’ performances, as well as through the contrast between a sun-drenched world and a dark, terrifying realm populated by spirits.
Giselle embodies all the elements of Romantic ballet, bringing them to life through a universal story and a structure that exemplifies the tradition. Giselle and Prince Albrecht are quintessential roles in the classical repertoire: throughout the choreography, the leads are called upon to vary their technical and expressive range from joy to despair, from carefree self-assurance to the realisation that life has no purpose without love.
by Chidozie Obasi