Opera Chic

DSquared2's Shout Out to La Scala

Those darling, pocket-sized Canadian twins behind the Milan-based DSquared2 fashion house have been showing their collections in Milan for almost as long as they've been splitting their time between the Northern Italian city and London, and finally, one of Milan's cultural icons has osmosis'd its way into their brand.

Flipping through the DSquared2 Men's Fall Winter 13-14 lookbook (1940s throwback set in a Parisian jazz club), we found a nicely-composed vanitas of men's accessories, which included a ticket to La Scala's January premiere of the new Roméo et Juliette ballet, James Conlon all over that dramatic, lush Berlioz score.

The Guardian's La Scala Lust

The Guardian's +1 to the glamorous December 7 Sant'Ambrogio La Scala season opener that bowed under Claus Guth's new Lohengrin was a camera crew. Watch the clip for a December throwback starring everyone's favorite Wagner protagonist, Jonas Kaufmann.

Falstaff and the Merry Wives of Windsor Club at Teatro alla Scala

Milan last greeted Verdi’s final opera Falstaff in 2004. Nine years ago, Teatro alla Scala was closed, pending restoration, so the Giorgio Strehler production curtained under Muti's baton at Teatro degli Arcimboldi on the city's outskirts, dedicated to Tito Gobbi's death-year 20th anniversary for his enduring, late 1950s whiskered Falstaff with Herbie von Karajan and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf.

It was also the year of OC's inaugural Milan visit, and over summer break, she visited La Scala's museum, its collections temporarily housed in a stunning palazzo on Corso Magenta that overlooked Santa Maria della Grazia. The Northern Italian city of understated, un-boastful elegance struck OC as one who never tried too hard -- the very definition of cool -- and instantly reverberated with New York-based OC. Aaaand you guys pretty much know the rest of the story.

Falstaff (tonight in its penultimate replication) is the only Robert Carsen- stamped production in Teatro alla Scala’s 2012-13 season (in coproduction with Royal Opera House and the Canadian Opera Company) and as Carsen Crusaders, we weren’t going to miss it. We find his b-side, hidden track of ripe sexuality -- never vulgar or desperate (unless it has to be) -- and his fashion title familiarity a winning match for Milan, and since we’re not convinced that Falstaff needs a traditional Shakespearian director to stage it, we loved it.

We've never supported a buffo Falstaff staging and feel that it needs a delicate balance between commedia lirica and opera seria -- a fat knight mocked in his twilight, a bittersweet glimpse of flawed man too arrogant to realize it until everything converges in absolute absurdity -- tutto nel mondo e' burla -- and that's where a lot of lazy directors get it wrong.

La Scala Intendant Stéphane Lissner Fires Back at Corriere della Sera on its Paolo Isotta Ban

La Scala intendant Stéphane Lissner defends his decision to ban long-serving Corriere della Sera music critic Paolo Isotta from Milan's opera house through a weak sauce letter to the editor published in today's paper.

Lissner dissected Corriere della Sera director Ferruccio De Bortoli's editorial published in yesterday's paper, which was written to defend its music critic Isotta from the baffling La Scala banishment. He adhered that La Scala has taken "a distance" (/lol/semantics/lol/) from Isotta not because he criticises the theater but because he's betrayed the "krinein greco" code (the Greek root for critic i.e. "to evaluate") in which critics weigh logic and ethics into their trade, "to think, to reflect and to mediate understanding between the work of art and the public."

Lissner continues that Isotta went against the ethics of music criticism by wielding personal campaigns and that he used his articles not as moments of reflection but as instruments and weapons of power  -- exactly why La Scala firmly will no loner support persona-non-grata Isotta. La Scala will keep its door open to the rest of Corriere della Sera's journalists, which may turn into a bulletpoint of contention, story definitely to be continued. Taps TomTom >> Point Of Interest >> POI in city >> Dramz = Navigate to Teatro alla Scala.

La Scala Bans Corriere della Sera's Longtime Music Critic, Paolo Isotta

"Teatro alla Scala's door is closed to Corriere's critic Paolo Isotta" heads the letter editorial published in today's Corriere della Sera, signed by the Milan daily newspaper's director, Ferruccio De Bortoli.

Di Bortoli elegantly-whiteknights Corriere della Sera's longtime music critic -- the Neapolitan scholar, author, journalist and notorious crankypants Paolo Isotta -- who has been banned by La Scala's out-bound intendant, Stéphane Lissner. 

Lissner dropped the banhammer following Isotta's enduring criticisms of Daniel Harding and (indirectly) of Claudio Abbado, outlined in a letter sent to Corriere in late October, 2011.

De Bortoli writes that the ban is a smokescreen of La Scala's true problems and defends and praises Isotta, calling the Italian critic extraordinary, intelligent and unpredictable, who understands music better than his Scala detractors. Here's an extract (in Opera Chic's own translation):

Isotta’s no stranger to excess -- editors are also in charge of getting writers to calm down -- but he's an extraordinary, intelligent and unpredictable critic who knows music better than his Scala detractors who think that all praise is due to them, all criticism is suspect and every artist’s whim is legitimate. Lissner wrote me in October 2011 -- something I doubt that he would have done with the press in his own country, but then he maybe considers us a colony -- asking for Isotta’s head.

Isotta's provocative, razor-sharp reviews, buttressed by Latin phrases, are hotly contested and equally coveted among Milan’s classical music fetishists. Corriere can still draw from its excellent cache of classical music reviewers, but Corriere without Isotta's backend knowledge and ruthless wit frankly sucks.

Since the beginning of the year, Isotta's called-out Harding's Verdi Falstaff as "heavy and pedantic" and said that his Wagner with Filarmonica della Scala was so soft that it made one think of a "Wagner omosessuale". Isotta's swag levels are *thunderclouds roll in, howling wind licks at his bespoke Marinella suit* officially too fabulous for La Scala.

Kicking it Old School, Elegantly

Forty-nine vintage photos of La Scala opening nights through the 50s and 60s, like the one of the great Guido Cantelli, above.

Lohengrin La Prima Recap Teaser: I'm Holding Out For a Hero

Last night under Milan's first snowfall, Teatro alla Scala opened its 2012-13 season with a new Wagner Lohengrin from German theatre director Claus Guth. Fat snow dampened Milan's elegant opera house season premiere, sober and bloodless, packed with more politicians (PM Mario Monti trailed by five ministers), bankers, managers and high-roller business dudes than the usual pseudo-celebrities.

Newspaper coverage was as lean as this year’s crop of protestors across Piazza della Scala, who rallied about deep unemployment and job cuts (overheard, "We won't pay for your crisis.") Luckily we had Milan's die-hard art ambassadors such as Marta Marzotto, Roberto Bolle and Carla Fracci for cultural backbone, and what the audience lacked in star power twinkled from onstage -- Jonas Kaufmann as the Swan Knight, Rene Pape as Heinrich and Scala's MD Barenboim guided its orchestra into sweet deliciousness. 

Nice surprise of the night? Since President Giorgio Napolitano wasn't in attendance (he was prompted a few days ago to pen a letter to Barenboim to explain his la prima della Scala absence was dictated by pre-election business -- not in protest of La Scala's decision to pass up Verdi for Wagner to open its current season in this year of Verdi/Wagner bicentennial), Barenboim relegated Inno del Regno d'Italia to post-opera with a costumed cast breaking into the national anthem at the final curtain call.

(Marta Marzotto)

Guth's haunted, symbolically-rich tale of the Swan Knight exhibited neurotic, anxious, traumatized protagonists -- emo kids who had forgotten to take their Adderall and Zoloft -- hopeless Generation X'ers fatalistically aware that they are doomed to failure and lonliness. Props to Elsa, sung by the courageous Annette Dasch, who flew into Milan literally the evening prior to replace principal Anja Harteros, who had cancelled the final dress on December 4 and was replaced by Ann Petersen who also caught whatever illness brewed backstage and equally bowed out of opening night. Jonas Kaufmann triumphed as the barefoot son of Parsifal for his sensitive, introspective performance, followed by Ortrud's effortless Evelyn Herlitzius and Telramund's Tomas Tomasson.

(Annette Dasch)

OC's official reviews for Opera Now and Grazia.it exit next week. To see photos of Bolle and Fracci (and other images from opening night) hit up OC's twitter.

Lohengrin La Scala Preview Recap & Guth's Vision

Last night, OC was in Piermarini's elegant cream & gold-leaf den for its final dress anteprima of Lohengrin that officially opens the Teatro alla Scala 2012-13 season on December 7, the feast day of Milan's patron saint, Saint Ambrose. The past few years, Scala's been test driving its la prima for the Scala Under30 club with a 10$ cover charge, and last night the house was packed full of fresh-faced Wagner virgins.

OC was invited by la Scala to live-tweet Claus Guth's new production of Wagner's son of Parisfal, and her chipped Chanel Pêche Nacrée can attest to rapid-fire 140s fired-off for six hours straight. *cracks knuckles, racks-up hashtags and asperands* In case you missed it, you can relive its full glory on OC's stream, Teatro alla Scala's stream, along with in-house twitterers Massimo Bernardini and Matteo Bordone.

Guth's action unfolded in the Victorian era, with a barefoot Jonas Kaufmann as a short-tempered, confused, agitated youth scattering swan feathers around a puffy-chest Rene Pape gleaming with gold buttons against Barenboim's delicate cycle, gentle spin Wagner. And Kaufmann in frac. *Bond. Lohengrin Bond.*

In today's Corriere, Guth spoke to Giuseppina Manin about his new production, based on Wagner's inspiration of Grimms' Fairy Tales. He cast Elsa as a woman with wide-ranging emotional disorders, the payload from losing her parents and her little brother at a young age, which triggers a whole boatload of incestuous issues around her knight-in-shining-incest, Lohengrin. 
 
For Lohengrin, a "hero without identity", Guth drew on the 19th century case of a mysterious teenage boy, Kaspar Hauser, who appeared in the streets of Nurbenberg and claimed that he had been raised in total isolation during the years that Wagner wrote the opera. Hauser was fatally stabbed five years later and rumors arose that he was the hereditary prince of Baden, switched at birth.

Guth concluded: "They were turbulent years, in 1848, Europe ignited a thousand revolts, Marx and Engels wrote the Manifesto of the Communist Party and this was only a couple months after Wagner had deployed to Dresden at the side of the anarchist Bakunin. The industrialism and capitalism of today was born then. It's a crucial moment in history that gave rise, a reaction, the desire to return to the past, a legendary world and irrationality. Lohenrin's a romantic opera born in a time that lived many realists. But behind the curtains of the story comes the disturbed ghosts of a present threat."

December 7th's opening night Lohengrin will be streamed live on Rai5 and Radio3, starting at 4:50 (the opera starts at 5:00pm). On tv, it will be on Rai HD, chanel 501.

La Scala Welcomes Back Ceci (After 19 Years) to a Chorus of Boos, Barenboim Tells Everyone to Shut Up

When OC returned to Milan yesterday from a late-Fall USA vacation, the drama llama came to greet her with Cecilia Bartoli and Daniel Barenboim riding shotgun. 

Last night, as la Ceci and Barenboim opened the 2012/13 season of Filarmonica della Scala at Teatro alla Scala in a sold-out concert, the loggionisti rambunctiously booed them down.

Giuseppina Manin reports for Corriere della Sera that the concert's first half -- Baroquely-devoted to Haendel (assorted arias) and Mozart's Exultate, jubilate -- was roudly cheered.

All hell broke out after the intermission following a Rossini setlist (arias from Otello and La Cenerentola), greatly dividing Ceci's crankiest Milan critics and fans. Booing erupted from the loggione, the two upper-most decks of La Scala's elegant concert hall, followed by shouts -- "Go home", "Poor Rossini" and "Shame on you in a period of economic crisis", alluding to Ceci's exorbitant fees, one of the reasons why the Italian mezzo hadn't graced the Piermarini's stage over the past ninteen years since her last Milan appearance.  

Pro and Anti Ceci factions passionately-swapped insults until ambassador Barenboim turned to face the audience and said, "Siamo a un concerto — ricorda secco il maestro — Adesso state tutti zitti" -- "We're at a concert" - respects the maestro, dryly - "now everyone shut up."

Ceci emerged from the wings, unruffled, graciously thanked her fans and then gave a Cenerentola bis, followed by more applause and boos.

After the tussle, the opening night concert concluded with Mozart's 40th Symphony. At the final applause, stone-faced Barenboim did not look pleased.

La Scala Risks Red (to the Tune of 4.2 Million Euros)

La Scala needs to cough up 4.2 million euros ($5.43 USD) to balance its books before the end of the year. Over the summer, Milan's mayor Pisapia had warned the opera house of its creeping debt after it was awarded a 1.9 million euro contribution by the Italian state.

If Scala breaks even, its workers will be awarded (coincidentally) four million euro in bonuses. If not, a much smaller bonus will be extended. Budget woes come on the heels of [denied] rumors that Scala GM Lissner will soon jump ship to the Paris Opera before his contract expires in 2017.

Scala GM Lissner Denies Paris Move; Early Departure From Milan Remains Likely

Those persistent rumors (see today's Dagospia) about Scala GM Stephane Lissner being on his way to Paris Opera to replace Nicolas Joel in 2015?

Lissner said earlier today in Milan that it's not going to happen.

Lissner's Scala very comfortable contract expires in 2017.

Still, despite today's remarks, the smart money seems to remain on Lissner leaving; by January 2013 the French government will have to announce the name of the new Opéra GM. If it's Lissner, as it seems to be increasingly likely, expect all hell to break loose in Milan.

Lissner, Barenboim, Top Scala Administrator To Take Voluntary 10% Pay Cut; Lissner's GM Contract Extended To 2017

In order to help the opera house's finances (Scala is 4.5 million euro in the red) Scala GM Stéphane Lissner, Music Director Daniel Barenboim, the Chorus Director, the Ballet Director and the head of PR and other top administrators (a total of 11 people) have decided to voluntarily cut their pay by 10% to help Scala in this complicated year.

Also, the board extended Lissner's contract yesterday -- he will stay on until 2017.

Breaking: Netrebko Pulls Out Of Scala's "Manon"

Teatro alla Scala official statement:

Due to health reasons, Anna Netrebko has withdrawn from the performances of Massenet's Manon.

The role of Manon Lescaut will be sung by Ermonela Jaho in all the performances.

 

 

 

 

Opera Chic & Grazia.it: Peter Grimes at Teatro alla Scala

Were you lucky enough to be there last Saturday night? OC was. Between Robin Ticciati's shimmery spider webs, John Graham-Hall's grounded lyricism and Richard Jones' dynamic panoramas, La Scala cranked out a Peter Grimes hit. Read all about it here, in Italian, on Grazia.it. (Photos Teatro alla Scala & Brescia and Amisano)

La Scala's 2012-13 First Look: Verdi Wagner Love

Ready the antacids for opera's heavy hitters. In commemoration of the Verdi/Wagner bicentennials in 2013, La Scala dedicates next season almost exclusively to the Italian and German composing duo.

Wagner hits with productions of Lohengrin (which will open the season this December 7 with Barenboim in Guth's production with Kaufmann/Harteros/Pape), Der fliegende Holländer, Götterdämmerung, Das Rheingold, Die Walküre and Siegfried.

Verdi takes stage with Falstaff, Nabucco, Macbeth, Oberto, Un ballo, Don Carlo and Aida.

The exceptions are Alexander Raskatov's A Dog's Heart and Rossini's La Scala di Seta.

Next year's season opener will be Verdi's Travaita with Gatti on the podium.

Full name dropping season here, many casting details still TBA in this teaser, of sorts.

Scala Strike March 31st: L’altra metà del cielo

(Above: Beatrice Carbone and Antonino Sutera, credit Marco Brescia and Teatro alla Scala)

Organized by Segreteria Territoriale and trade union RSA SLC-CGIL, La Scala's opening night of ballet L’altra metà del cielo has been cancelled. The Martha Clarke-choreographed work is set to the music of Vasco Rossi.

Opera Chic & Grazia.it: Die Frau Ohne Schatten

(Credit: Monika Rittenshaus)

Opera Chic took in the opening night of Claus Guth's Teatro alla Scala premiere of Strauss' Die Frau Ohne Schatten and was blown away by its powerful ensemble (starring Emily Magee, Michaela Schuster and Falk Struckmann), nuanced conducting (Marc Albrecht) and Guth's symbol-heavy (but at times too heavy) production. Read the review here, in Italian.

 

Someone Didn't Like La Scala's Aida! (Production Team Aside)

Italy's fiercely-feared opera critic, Paolo Isotta of Corriere della Sera, trashed the Barenboim-anointed young conductor, Omer Wellber, and most of the singers of La Scala's "new" Aida in the culture pages today.

He waxed poetic about the sets/costumes of the late Lila De Nobili, whose last work he saw in 1973 in Visconti's direction for Manon Lescaut at the Spoleto Festival, and then about Zeffirelli's 1963 production that La Scala rolled-out of its archives for last week's premiere.

In the review, he spells Omer Wellber's last name as "Wellberg" (Isotta literally gives no f**k!) and says that if he was a musician in the orchestra, he'd refuse to play for "Wellberg", too (opening night brought an orchestra member into the lobby during the second intermission on defense). Isotta found Wellberg's Verdi "confused" and said that the singers, aside from Marianne Cornetti as Amernis, were tragic.

La Scala Super News for 2013, Starring Verdi

It's a Verdi blockbuster for 2013 that will unveil new productions of Traviata, Falstaff, Nabucco, Oberto, Macbeth, and Un ballo in maschera at Teatro alla Scala.

The sexxxtet of new Verdi productions will usher-in the Italian composer's 200th birth year anniversary, chased by two reprisals -- Don Carlos and Aida -- which was announced today by Scala GM Lissner.

Traviata will open the season on December 7, 2013 and will be conducted by Daniele Gatti (directed by Dmitri Tcherniakov). For the record, this year we have Wagner's Lohengrin conducted by Barenboim, directed by Claus Guth with Kaufmann and Pape. December 7, 2014 will open with Beethoven's Fidelio, conducted by Barenboim.

Falstaff is Carsen's production wtih Covent Garden to be conducted by Harding.

Nabucco will be conducted by Luisotti in Daniele Abbado's production.

Oberto is from the direction of Mario Martone (who did our Cav/Pag). Martone will also do a production of Trovatore in 2014 and a Traviata in 2015.

Macbeth is under the direction of Giorgio Barberio Corsetti and will be conducted by Gergiev.

Ballo will be directed by Damiano Michieletto (who we just interviewed for Stasera Esco) and conducted by Daniele Rustioni.

 

La Scala Axes Ballerina who Spoke out on Eating Disorders

(Photograph: Marco Brescia/La Scala)

She shared her story with The Observer in December 2011 and stated that anorexia and bulima runs rampant among the ballerinas at Teatro alla Scala's ballet corps.

Now she's been axed from the company who states that she damages their image.

Thirty-three year old Italian ballerina, Mariafrancesca Garritano, told the Observer that one in five ballerinas was anorexic and unable to conceive. She also said:

"The chance of getting fired has crossed my mind, but I love La Scala, I care about it, and that's why I really hope things can change."

Tough Year Ahead for Teatro alla Scala

Colleen Barry at the AP reports from the press conference that Lissner MC'd at Teatro alla Scala yesterday morning, where he stated that 2012 will be a tough year. Despite an increase in attendance, La Scala expects a dip in public and private funding this year while running on a budget of 110 million euro. Milan's opera house has been finishing mainly in the black since Lissner's been GM since 2005.

Nice to see the stats on Ed Gardner's insanely-excellent Death in Venice from last March:

The Milan opera house hit its all-time record box office for a single performance: euro281,154 ($365,584) for "Death in Venice" on March 19, [2011]. The nightly box office usually runs around euro250,000, depending on the performance.

Maybe it's Gardner's ~RPattz Effect~ that brought the Twilight fans to La Scala. 

Opera Chic for Opera Now: Don Giovanni Recap

(Don Giovanni at Teatro alla Scala, credit Brescia e Amisano)

Opera Chic reviewed La Scala's Mozart season opener Don Giovanni in Robert Carsen's new production for Opera Now. A pared-down online abstract of a forthcoming print review can be found on Opera Now's website. You'll have to shell-out some LSD //librae, solidi, denarii// to read the longer, juicier, girth-ier print review when the January 2012 edition of Opera Now hits the newsstands!

Barenboim and Carsen Address the Don Giovanni H8rs

 

After a mixed reception of Robert Carsen's new La Scala season-opening production of Don Giovanni, conducted by an unsteady Daniel Barenboim, the two collaborators are defending their art against Milanese detractors.

CarsenBoim took aim at the smattering of boos heard during the 10-minute final curtain call that followed Carsen's rewritten coup de théâtre Don Giovanni finale -- the remainder of the cast including Bryn Terfel, Peter Mattei and Anna Netrebko were roundly applauded.

Rome's daily La Repubblica went backstage on Sant'Ambrogio to gauge Barenboim's reaction, particularly regarding a brazen loggionisti who shouted "troppo lento" (too slow) when the new Music Director took the podium at the beginning of the second act. Barenboim said:

"These protests happen in Italy but also in Germany. I'm liberal and think that everyone has the right to express their own opinions. But don't come into the theater and scream. If you eat a bad meal at a restaurant, you don't go into the kitchen and scream at the chef because the food was bad: maybe just give a smaller tip and don't go back to that restaurant."

These sorts of provocations aren't worthy of acknowledging, said Barenboim, who hasn't been shy in he past when confronting his audiences. OC was at a concert in 2007 at La Scala where the pugnacious Barenboim had a Sergio Leone spaghetti western staredown with a camera-wielding ticket holder. He won, of course. Fastest gun in the West(ern Europe).

We were also at La Scala in February 2009 when Barenboim garnered his very first Il Piermarini booing, so his skin is thicker at this point. The gun-slinging conductor then spoke to La Repubblica ironically about the "troppo lento" heckler:

"If I had really wanted to, I would have told that gentlemen [in the loggione]: 'Well now you can get the heck outta here because the second act won't be any quicker.'"

Robert Carsen, the Canadian director who gave us the OJ verdict version of Don Giovanni, said that he didn't hear any booing for him at opening night. Haaaaa nice. He defended his Don, too:

"I wanted to reveal the personality of the libertine and show him like a mirror of what the other characters had within themselves, his pure energy of the good and the bad as being pulled by others."

Regardless of the booing, wieners for the h8rs. For La Scala, it's a success: opening night pulled in an 8% increase in profit (2,390,000 euro) from last year's frankly unmemorable Die Walkure (reports here and here and here). Next year opens with Wagner's Lohengrin stamped by Claus Guth with Anja Harteros, Rene Pape and Jonas Kaufmann.

Don Giovanni News Round Up From Italy

We've got you covered with Italy's big three newspapers -- Il Corriere della Sera, La Repubblica, and La Stampa -- for La Scala's season opening Sant'Ambrogio Don Giovanni.

Headlines mostly addressed Milan's latest turn for opening night sobriety/austerity, the fact that Monti and Napolitano were there to support the arts, an overall victory for Barenboim/Carsen and the verb "seduce".

Milan's Corriere della Sera ran front-page coverage of a Don Giovanna that "conquered la Scala". 

"Twelve minutes of applause for a successful Don Giovanni" continued Corriere's coverage. Articles covered everything from Carsen's re-write of the Don Giovanni parable to a new austerity, equally evident in guest wardrobes.

HBIC (head byotch in charge) Marta Marzotto chatted with Roberto Bolle in the foyer.

Milan seduced by Don Giovanni. Since an opera-hating Berlusconi no longer rules, it's the first time since 2004 that the President of the Italian Republic Giorgio Napolitano and Milan's Prime Minister (now Mario Monti) were at the theater together. (Berlusca's one and only appearance at La Scala's opening night during 17-years for the re-opening of the theater after renovations).

Don Giovanni conquers la Scala "Stupendous Opera, Like Always: Applause and some Booing from the Loggione"

Close-up of bottom panel.

A round-up of all the other places that Don Giovanni had been transmitted during la prima, including a huge screen in Galleria Emanuele Vittorio II. 

And now for Corriere della Sera's special La Scala insert:

Now to Rome's La Repubblica:

"Don Giovanni Seduces La Scala but the Real Star is Napolitano: ten minutes of applause, outside there were protests: an egg thrown at Monti's car."

And finally, here's Torino's La Stampa:

 

 

Don Giovanni Scala Teaser

While we're waiting for some intrepid internaut to upload last night's RAI5 transmission, here's a few clips of Annuschka and cast.