On July 15, 2007, la Scala will commemorate the tenth anniversary of the death of fashion designer, opera and ballet costume designer and music lover Gianni Versace.
The program of the night has yet to be defined precisely, but La Maison Versace and the Versace family and the City government of Milan have joined forces in an effort to organize with la Scala a night of ballet: coreographer Maurice Béjart has written a new ballet in memory of Versace. The second half of the show, also directed by Béjart, will introduce a selection of scenes from the ballets Versace had worked on for la Scala as costume designer.
The same day will see a street of downtown Milan exceptionally named after the designer. A Mass in the Duomo, the city's gothic cathedral a short walk through the Galleria from la Scala, will end the commemoration of Versace's death.