Handpicked experience · Milan
Milan, Italy
Named after a demolished church, paid for by ninety families who owned their boxes, and judged from a top gallery that has ended performances.
Guided entry to the theatre and its museum
A view of the stage and auditorium from the stands
Museum displays of instruments and historic costumes
An hour inside La Scala with a guide and earphones, covering the museum collection and a look into the auditorium itself from one of the boxes. It is the working opera house of Milan, not a monument, and what you see depends on what the stage is doing that day.
You meet at the theatre and go through the museum rooms first — instruments, costumes, portraits and the personal effects of people who made their careers here. The auditorium is viewed from a box rather than the stalls. If a rehearsal is under way the doors stay closed or the view is limited, which is what comes of visiting a house that is still in use.
The site held Santa Maria alla Scala, a fourteenth-century church named for the woman who founded it, Beatrice della Scala. In 1776 the church was demolished to clear ground for a new theatre, and the theatre kept the name. It has nothing to do with stairs or scales, which is what most visitors assume.
Construction was paid for by around ninety wealthy families, who in exchange owned their boxes outright and furnished them as they pleased. A box was a private room with its own curtains, chairs and card table, and the auditorium stayed lit through the performance so that the audience could see one another. People ate, gambled and conducted business in them, watching the stage when something worth watching was happening.
Above the boxes sits the loggione, and its regulars are the most feared audience in opera. They pay the least, know the repertoire in detail and consider it their duty to respond honestly. Singers have been booed off this stage mid-performance. In one famous case a tenor walked off after the first act and his understudy went on in the clothes he had arrived in, sang the rest, and was cheered.
Allied bombing gutted the theatre in August 1943. It was rebuilt quickly and deliberately, and reopened on 11 May 1946 with a concert conducted by Toscanini, who had left Italy over fascism and came back for it. Milan treated the reopening as proof the city had survived, and the concert was broadcast nationally.
Instruments including a spinet and a set of historic keyboards, stage costumes, and a large collection of portraits, letters and personal objects belonging to composers and singers who worked in the building. The rooms are small and dense; the labels reward reading.
The visit is an hour and there is no flexibility on the auditorium if rehearsals overrun. Photography rules inside the auditorium are stricter than in the museum. Cancellation is not free on this booking.
Open it to pick a date and work out the price.
What the fare covers, and what to budget for separately.
The practical detail, and the answers people actually ask for.
The museum rooms — instruments, costumes, portraits and personal effects — and a view into the auditorium from one of the boxes, with a guide and earphones throughout.
From a box, when the stage allows it. This is a working opera house, so a rehearsal can close the doors or limit the view on any given day.
After Santa Maria alla Scala, the fourteenth-century church demolished in 1776 to clear the site. The church was named for its founder, Beatrice della Scala — nothing to do with stairs or musical scales.
Around ninety wealthy families, who in return owned their boxes outright and furnished them privately. Boxes had curtains, chairs and card tables, and the house stayed lit so the audience could see one another.
The top gallery, and the most feared audience in opera. Its regulars pay least, know the repertoire best and respond honestly — singers have been booed off this stage mid-performance.
Allied bombing gutted it in August 1943. It reopened on 11 May 1946 with a concert conducted by Toscanini, who had left Italy over fascism and returned for it.
The museum is more permissive than the auditorium, where the rules are stricter and enforced.