MILAN, ITALY — It’s a painful time to tell stories about the arts, but it’s easy to understand its temptations: staging productions in times of unrest is no mean feat, particularly when large parts of society are grappling with global downturns at an increasingly daunting pace. However, the most substantial and forward-looking operatic moments in history carry a weight that transcends time and space, having a lasting impact on today with an ability to reshape the future through wit and musical eloquence.
Brescia e Amisano © Teatro alla Scala
Such is the case with Carmen, one of the most beloved yet most complex works in the operatic repertoire, staged at La Scala in June. In this production, Michieletto was reunited with his creative team, comprising set designer Paolo Fantin, costume designer Carla Teti and lighting designer Alessandro Carletti: a team that has developed a rigorous visual language, shaped by images of great impact and a dramaturgy that delves into the characters’ tensions.
The result was a deliberate departure from the folklore and picturesque elements traditionally associated with Bizet’s opera, in favour of the sense of fatality that pervades the story. The exotic setting of Seville gave way to a more abstract and stark backdrop, where the protagonists seem to move within a predefined destiny.
The direction centred on the conflict between the desire for possession and individual freedom, transforming Carmen’s story into a reflection on control, violence and the inability to accept another’s autonomy. The protagonist emerged as a radically contemporary figure: a woman who asserts her right to choose, to love, to leave and to live by her own rules. In this interpretation, Carmen also becomes a reflection on femicide and violence against women, issues that continue to profoundly challenge contemporary society.
Duomo2020-Web© Hanninen Duomo
Last month, Milan’s famed concert in the Duomo square was back in action, featuring Filarmonica della Scala‘s orchestra players joining forces in a major open-air concert, organised under the patronage of the City of Milan. Once again, the orchestra left the Teatro alla Scala to perform in the city’s most iconic setting, amongst the historic buildings and the splendid Gothic façade of the Duomo, for the thirteenth edition of the concert that kicked off Milan’s cultural summer.
The Philharmonic thus returned to the general public, this year with a new feature: the square was transformed into a vast open-air auditorium under the stars, with thousands of seats available to the public free of charge. As per tradition, the concert was conducted by Principal Conductor Riccardo Chailly, while the Japanese pianist Hayato Sumino made his debut with the Philharmonic ensemble, a record-breaking pianist who, at just thirty years of age, has built an extraordinary global presence by combining interpretative rigour with a fresh approach capable of reaching diverse audiences.
Brescia e Amisano © Teatro alla Scala
Ahead of the summer break, La Scala concludes its opera season with a revival of Gaetano Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, three years on from the debut of this production, which was originally created to open the 2020/2021 season but was postponed due to the pandemic.
Speranza Scappucci will be on the podium, conducting the orchestra and chorus; the production is directed by Yannis Kokkos, who also designed the sets and costumes; lighting is by Vinicio Cheli, and video is by Eric Duranteu. The cast features Rosa Feola as Miss Lucia, Piero Pretti as Sir Edgardo di Ravenswood, Boris Pinkasovich as Lord Enrico Ashton, Michele Pertusi as Raimondo Bidebent, and Leonardo Cortellazzi as Lord Arturo Bucklaw. The chorus is prepared by Alberto Malazzi.
The libretto, written by Salvadore Cammarano, is based on Walter Scott’s novel. Compared to the original, set in seventeenth-century Scotland, Cammarano’s opera transposes the story to the late sixteenth century and simplifies the plot by omitting secondary characters and episodes. At the heart of the story remains the secret love between Lucia and Edgardo, thwarted by Enrico, and the long-standing rivalry between the Ashton and Ravenswood families. While featuring original elements, the opera retains the traditional forms of nineteenth-century melodrama and fits squarely within the bel canto tradition, particularly thanks to the extraordinary vocal challenges entrusted to the leading lady.
The orchestra, too, plays a vital role in conveying the characters’ emotions and in creating a romantic and dramatic atmosphere. The superb quality of the melodies, which capture both the passion of the conflicts and the melancholy of the emotions, contributed to the opera’s immediate success. The cast features Rosa Feola in the lead role; she is recognised as one of the most refined performers on the international opera scene, acclaimed for the brilliance of her tone, the elegance of her phrasing and the profound musical sensitivity that characterise her interpretations of the Mozart and bel canto repertoires, having graced the world’s leading opera houses.
al centro Caterina Bianchi Christian Fagetti. Photograph: Chongwei Wang
On the ballet front, Rudolf Nureyev’s Don Quixote returns to La Scala in July. A trademark production since 1980, when it was first added to the repertoire, Nureyev performed it alongside Carla Fracci. Since then, this ballet has become part of the heritage of La Scala and its dancers. In a joint celebration with the Ballet School, from which so many young dancers have had the opportunity to share the stage with their professional colleagues in countless ballets, including Don Quixote, Artistic Director Frédéric Olivieri and the entire Corps de Ballet wished to dedicate the opening performance on 2 July to Davis Aloschi, a young student at the Ballet School, whose untimely and tragic death deeply touched and moved the theatre and its company.
Don Quixote is therefore part of La Scala’s heritage, and as such, it has also taken centre stage on international stages where it has been performed over the years. The most recent production, in January 2026, took place in China at the NCPA in Beijing, where it had never been staged before; the last series of performances on the Piermarini stage dates back to July 2018.
Eight years on, La Scala’s Corps de Ballet bids farewell to its audience before the summer break by bringing this production back home. With its sparkling energy and the warm colours of Raffaele Del Savio and Anna Anni’s set design, it will transport the audience with freshness, joy and choreographic richness, featuring entertaining supporting roles and virtuosic solo parts.
The Milanese institution has also unveiled its programme for the new season, which sees Verdi’s Otello opening the repertoire on 7 December. Among the leading titles of the new season are Don Giovanni, Dido and Aeneas, Nutcracker, and Giselle, among others.
“This new season opens with Verdi’s Otello, with a new musical director who starts the season with a historic title,” says Fortunato Ortombina, La Scala’s Senior Supervisor. “It’s a title that evokes great challenges from the past, and it’s a bit of a new bet for the season. You can’t go for decades without staging a title, because then you become afraid of not having the right interpreter. The right interpreter must be sought all over the world, wherever he or she is, prepared to come here and to be able to perform theatre and sing. The biggest challenge is the work of a director. And from the work of a director, you bring out the results that make everyone grow around a shared musical idea.”
It’s a season of great repertoire, which brings its own challenges with the characters themselves. “For what’s to come, it will be the first time that Otello is not performed in blackface,” says Ortombina. “The fact that it will not be is, if we read Boito and Verdi carefully, in keeping with the idea that the drama transcends skin colour.”
For Ortombina, it’s no longer the time to make confrontational choices. “This means going back to everyday work: the everyday work of everyone, of the choir, of the orchestra, of the technicians, of all the workers, and of course of those of us who have the responsibility to make the choices and to lead. When I had Plácido Domingo sing the role, he was a young man who had sung Otello only once before. But once he went on stage, his performance became a reference point for the role. So we know perfectly well that any singer taking this on faces a real challenge, but we must not be afraid to take risks.”
This is true for many young people in this season, and for other kinds of newcomers as well: there are also authors whose work has never before reached the stage. La Scala has always occupied a privileged relationship with the stage, and in the world of opera programming, it has always been considered among the foremost houses. “It has always been one of the most sought-after places in this city,” says Ortombina. “And when we say this city, we mean the world, because we know what La Scala represents for us, for Milan and for Italy as a nation. So we have to keep shaping the work we do, cultivating a new generation of artists.”
Brian Jagde and Arsen Soghomonyan will be interpreting Othello in December. “We have two casts for this production too. Even this practice of having two casts for many productions is what helps consolidate the personalities of young performers,” Ortombina says. “La Scala has a great heritage, but we must look back to the foundations that Toscanini laid, to how he worked with the music and with musicians. This is a heritage that must not be left to comfortable choices alone. We have to take risks and give young people the opportunity to test themselves in this environment, because what we’re looking for are artists who can turn a great show into a great performance.”
As Myung-whun Chung steps into the role of La Scala’s newly appointed music director, one cannot help but wonder about the joys and pressures of his first season. “It’s not the first season yet,” Chung says. “I’m still a free man. I’m a musician.”
Chung will begin rehearsing for Otello in October. Until then, he still feels free. “In October, I’ll come in as a servant of the orchestra, a servant of the theatre, but voluntarily,” he says warmly.
On expectations, he speaks candidly. “The only thing I can say is that Verdi wrote this opera at seventy-three, exactly my age now, so perhaps that will make me feel qualified, at least on a human level, to take up the baton once again.”
Chung seems to love Italy as much as any Italian. “Love for something is the most precious thing,” he concludes. “I’ve always thought this from the beginning, especially about the musicians of the orchestra, whom I’ve known for thirty-seven years. Thirty-seven years is not such a long time, but from the very first rehearsal I had the impression that they understood me, which is a wonderful thing.”
by Chidozie Obasi