Opera Chic

Milan Supersizes Verdi: Would You Like Traviata With That?

(Image from the 'Verdi e Milano' app)

Better late than never. In the runup to Teatro alla Scala's Traviata 235th season opener on December 7th, Milan's in full rally to celebrate the bicentennial birth year of its opera superhero, Giuseppe Verdi. The new Dmitri Tcherniakov production stars Gatti on the podium, Damrau as La dame aux camélias and Beczala as the dude. ”

Notable exhibitions around Milan include 'Veni, Vidi, Verdi, La Donna e' Mobile' at Palazzo Morando, 'L’impresa opera – Verdi. Boito. Ricordi' at Palazzo Moriggia and the WOW Museum of Comics presents 'Sempre Verdi', a collection of vintage, Verdi-themed comics in titles such as Mickey Mouse, Dago and Donald Duck.

Giuseppe Verdi's Milan haunts have been tracked, thanks to an app, 'Verdi e Milano', like the Via San Marco church where his Requiem Mass premiered, the Hotel et de Milan where he died and the Casa di Risposo G. Verdi retirement home that he founded.

Violetta in città: Around the city, strains of Traviata are being pumped in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, some of the city's subway stations and at the Linate airport.

If you're not one of the lucky 3k in-house spectators on opening night, you can catch a live stream on Rai5 or in seven movie theaters and a handful of museum auditoriums (including the la Casa di riposo per musicisti Giuseppe Verdi).

Next door, the Trussardi alla Scala restaurant offers a special post-Scala menu at €180.00 per person, offering goose broth, cuttlefish, steamed lobster, duck and dessert, with an option for white truffles at an additional cost.

Tip a 33.8 Ounce (of S.Pellegrino) to Pavarotti's Legacy

Pavarotti's the latest Italian icon to be immortalized by S.Pellegrino in its Live in Italy campaign, so like 2Pac poured a 40 oz. to his dead homies, OC tips the 33.8 oz. special edition bottle of S.Pellegrino to Big Pav's memory.

To further celebrate Pavarotti as a hero of Italian culture and style, the Italian beverage empire backs a Verona-based exhibition, Amo Pavarotti, featuring the tenor's personal effects that runs through September. The bottle's only available in restaurants, worldwide -- and at OC's dinner parties, among good friends, between rounds of crudité and bagna càuda.

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 Metropolitan Opera's Titles Gets a Makeover, Thanks to Dolce & Gabbana

 

Italian fashion house Dolce & Gabbana has revamped [some of] The Metropolitan Opera's Met Titles. The Made in Italy duo, based in Milan, have backed a new initiative that brings Italian translations to [Italian] opera librettos that are wired through the Lincoln Center opera house.

Titles were previously available only in English, Spanish and German, but on September 24, with the opening of Donizetti's L'Elisir d' Amore, Italian language will be available for all 28 operas of the 2012-13 season. [UPDATE: The Metropolitan Opera clarifies that Italian titles will only be available for Italian-language operas in it's entire season. Met Titles will not be available in Italian for operas sung in other languages.]

Domenico & Dolce have straddled the opera and fashion world frequently -- a 2009 collection evoked Maria Callas and Italian opera houses; a 20th anniversary celebration in Milan in 2010 blasted Verdi on the sound system; and earlier this year, we were at the Milan MFW runway show to a soundtrack of Pavarotti's La Traviata.

As for an opening night gala sighting of the Italian duo? Milan Fashion Week kicks off on September 19 with Gucci and ends on September 24 with Roberto Cavalli, with Dolce & Gabbana's runway show at 2pm on September 23. OC usually heads to Principe's spa to ease into post-Milan Fashion Week burn out, but those two are inexhaustible!

 

Verdi & Pavarotti Catwalk Concerto for Dolce & Gabbana Men's Fashion Week

So it's Men's Fashion Week in Milan, apparent by the insane dinner parties (Alberta Ferretti's last night at Giacomo Bistrot) and the sulky, pale male models that crowd our cobblestone streets and don't eat in our delicious restaurants.

The runway shows kicked-off this morning with Corneliani, Zegna and Costume National, and after the lunch break, Dolce & Gabbana showed their Men's fall-winter 2012/12 collection at their Viale Piave labyrinth.

Dolce & Gabbana aren't shy about their love of opera, and they've paid homage to Italy's great opera composers in the past -- the 20th celebration of their men's collection last year at Palazzo Marino blasted Verdi hits and their Women's 2009 spring-summer lline incorporated Teatro la Fenice playbills and Maria Callas' face into its collection. (OC didn't miss the blow-out, either). Off the catwalk and away from backstage, we used to bump into them at Teatro alla Scala's Sant'Ambrogio opening night, too (but sadly we haven't seen them since 2008).

But earlier this afternoon, their fall-winter 2012/13 Men's collection catwalked to the sounds of an all-Verdi playist. As fashion editors, buyers, journalists and well-dressed guests took their seats, waiters in white tie lined the runway with trays of champagne flutes (seen above from the D&G twitter). The intermezzo from Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana played and the show began.

Male models took the catwalk to Pavarotti singing La donna è mobile and Di quella pira and finished with Libiamo from Verdi’s La Traviata. Here’s a short video clip thanks to a front row GQ-er.

 

Live from Milan

OC eased into a gray, rainy Monday after a long holiday so here are a few images from the past month to jump start the rest of the week.

La Scala's new interactive postcards for its Under30 club. The thought bubbles are detachable with a sticky tack that makes them re-usable.  A for effort.

Touring Club Milano on Corso Italia had a Renata Tebaldi collection in its windows last month.

Don Giovanni/Scala fever started heating up Milan in November.

Protesters outside of La Scala on the Sant'Ambrogio opening night.

Setting up the jumbotron in Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II for La Scala's opening night transmission.

Verdi chocolates at Pasticceria Ranieri on Corso Garibaldi! And chocolate violins.

Pianists And Pianistas

London footwear designer Charlotte Olympia presented her AW11 collection during London Fashion Week, which included an ebony and ivory platform heel, making a pianista out of a pianist. Sometimes, sloppy pedal work is a small price to pay for towering stilettos. [via] 

Carla Fracci's Rent Woes

 

Retired Milanese ballerina Carla Fracci spoke to Corriere this weekend about her rent stresses: "Nessun favore, pago 4.300 euro al mese". We've all been there.

She continues: "Rent is our ruin, a huge weight for our family. We pay 4300 euro a month [about $$6,000.00 USD], and it really isn't a privilege."

If you think it's a lot of benjamins, check out the address: La Fracci lives on Via della Spiga, one of Milan's most exclusive streets, closed-off to traffic, where the city's super-lux boutiques are found. If Fracci needs to borrow a cup of sugar (or a lemon) she counts neighbors as Dolce & Gabbana, Tod's, Roberto Cavalli, Armani, Prada, and Miu Miu.

She's been there for 16 years with husband Beppe Menegatti in a roughly-2000 square foot apartment (187 meters). La Fracci says she also pays an additional 5300 euro a year ($7,200 USD) for building maintenance.

La Fracci's speaking out on her rent situation because she lives on a street where most apartments are rented out by fashion houses and as an ordinary citizen, it's too easy to forget about renters like her. Also, her apartment is listed on the client roster of Pio Albergo Trivulzio's agency, whose organization is in the middle of a messy inquiry after it was discovered that they created massive rent scandals -- apartments being sold and rented at "special" fixed prices.

Fracci continues that she doesn't think her rent is low but it's becoming a burden. She doesn't want to leave because she's loyal and there are many happy memories in her apartment, both anecdotal and physical. Like, she has the original sketches from the very first La Traviata.

"When it went on stage at La Fenice, Giuseppe Verdi decided to use costumes of the time [contemporary to 1853 when it premiered]. For that reason it was a flop. The next year he decided to dress everyone in clothes from the previous century. We found the sketches and they're hanging in our Milan apartment -- exactly where they should be."

Fracci said when she's in Milan (she splits her time in Rome), she goes often to the cemetery to visit the graves of her parents. Her son has a part time, unpaid teaching position at Milan's Politecnico. She wants to keep the apartment so she's going back to work in Milan.

Best of Milan Menswear Fashion Week: What Rocked, What Sucked, What F#ç|ed Our S#^t Up

MIlan Menswear Fashion Week is over, and FW11 gave us some serious moments of cool. Among them, off the top of OC's head:

Carbon coal shearling, wool denim, gray flannel, beat-up boots  and rumpled white linen shirts at Dsquared2

Rugby players on Moschino's catwalk inside the city's Arena:

Italian Design Shout Out to Opera

Opera Chic loves Milan's Bulgari Hotel, especially for the countless times she's refreshed at the bar -- either warming up with an infusion or chilling with a cocktail. Tucked away on a private road not far from her house, she passes the Italian design store Skitsch on the way in or out (depending how badly she needs that drink!) where innovative, playful design (and the store's immense glass window displays) always lure us in.

O.C. picked up a special, auxiliary catalog on a recent visit where she saw a page for French designer/Skitsch collaborator Jean Marie Massaud and design maven Cristina Morozzi, referencing the Duke's famous aria La donna è mobile from Verdi's Rigoletto. Design meets opera -- how sweet is that?

Opera Scribe in Principe Di Savoia's Display

Milan's elegant Principe Di Savoia hotel currently has on display Montegrappa 1912's opera pen sets from the past few years in the lobby, although it only makes us miss even more the old Giardino d'Inverno bar that was remodeled last year -- where the display cabinets now stand was once immense fish tanks. We'll still gladly drink, but in less fishy company.

Patrizia Pepe's [French] Horn-y Campaign

Florence-based Italian fashion label Patrizia Pepe's Fall Winter 2010 campaign "Who is Patrizia" fills their shots with models in unconventional poses: hiding their faces for maximum concentration on the clothes. It's like brown bagging it for the fashion world. It's a bit wacky, especially the French Horn/Alien Facehugger pose which kind of makes us squirm when we think of all the condensation (i.e. spit) that would collect on the horn IRL!

Here are some images from their Via Manzoni Milan store featuring the French Horn (and various other objects after the cut).

Click the link below for a couple more shots from the campaign!

Tod's and La Scala for a "Made in Italy" Marriage

 

For Milan Fashion Week, women's collections are currently rolling out to buyers, stylists, fashion editors, et al. in the city's coolest, oldest palazzi as part of Spring 2011's ready-to-wear shows, and we're psyched to see the city ebb again with teeming scores of fashion scensters.  

One of OC's events -- slipped from her towering pile of slick invites for cocktails, shows, openings, and viewings -- was a cocktail co-hosted by Italian footwear giant Tod's and Milan's Teatro alla Scala, who used the ensuing Milan Fashion Week to celebrate their recent collaboration of joint initiatives (sponsorship coupled with a limited edition product). OC was there on Thursday night (not a guest of La Scala) for the cocktail reception, buzzing off the cheesy club-lite soundtrack, very awesomely chilled champagne, and creative canapes.  

 

The key of the campaign is a five minute commercial, shot inside Teatro alla Scala with the corpo di ballo called “An Italian Dream" (hmmm...we had an Italian dream once and it looked nothing like this!) President of Tod's Diego Della Valle and Scala's Stéphane Lissner devoted a small room to continuous loops -- in (real?) Le Corbusier 1920s club chairs -- of their new commercial. Directed by Matthias Zentner and (very heavily) choreographed by Gianluca Schiavoni, the clip followed Scala's ballerini wrapped in gauzey bandages on Scala's stage (OC's photos of the commercial are above). Interspersed was the old-timey fingers of a Tod's shoemaker, weaving laces across a suede shoe. A sweeping classical music soundtrack was mixed with a beat for an effect that was more aggressive than necessary.

OC's always championed the links between classical music and high fashion, taking opera back to its dreamily glamorous era when Maria Callas floated through cocktails in vintage Biki and Yves Saint Laurent bespoke gowns. Although many problems currently plague Italian opera's enti lirici (and fairly, all opera houses), we love being at the center of this phenomenon, as we've recorded it again and again and again and again and again and again and again. (^takes the needle off the record^)

And if at the end of the collaboration, nothing significant comes from it, we're deliriously happy that style.com had a legitimate occasion to assign Stephan Lissner and Teatro alla Scala their own tags!

And the new Scala/Tod's product? Style.com has a photo (below) of the suede ballet shoes, available in November in Tod's boutiques for $575. 

 

Henry Cotton's: Steampunk Without the Punk

 

It's called brass, which existed centuries before geeks got their hands on steampunk. Here's an update to last month's Corso Venezia Henry Cotton's windows. As much as we love the shout-out to brass, it's not working for us.   

 

 

Keep reading for real steampunk

Hotel MilanoScala: Milan's First Eco (and Opera) Friendly Hotel

 

Milan has its share of boutique hotels -- from Corso Como's Maison Moschino to Corso Matteotti's Boscolo -- but as OC was hanging out in deserted Milan the past week, she walked past the latest contender in the city's stake for tourist dollars (pounds/yen/rubles) on via dell'Orso: Hotel MilanoScala [warning: embedded music filez], an opera-themed hotel that opens on August 30.

The 4-star hotel has sixty-two rooms throughout seven floors, with amenities capitalizing on Milan's rich legacy of classical music: a "Prima Donna" bar and a restaurant called "La Traviata" (although there's a neutrally-named "Sky Terrace Bar", too). Suites have been named after Italy's opera theaters and operas (Carmen, Aida, La Fenice, San Carlo, etc.) Starting at 200 euro-a-night and running through 500, frankly we expected worse for this restored 19th century mansion just a block away from La Scala. Props to them (regardless of how they change OC's neighborhood) for being Milan's first zero-emission hotel.

 

   

Misc. Music from OC's Inbox

(Above: Henry Cotton's' Corso Venezia brass-heavy window)

(Above: an ad for L'espresso with violin-inspired haute couture)

(Above: Swarovsky's "Nabucco", "Tosca" and "Idomeneo" binoculars)

(Above: The head chef of Paris' Hotel Le Meurice talks about the honey that's cultivated on the roof of Paris Opéra: "We even source honey from hives kept on the roof of the Opéra and the Grand Palais -- it is the purest honey you can find because pesticides are completely banned in teh city of Paris." )  

Arena di Verona's Ballerinas Come to Milan to Show off their Flash Mob Styles

Fifty of Arena di Verona's ballet dancers descended onto two of Milan's landmarks in flash mob style earlier today, deadpan shaking it to Carmen's Habanera and Il Trovatore's Anvil Chorus with a funky beat (sounds like a Tone Loc "Funky Cold Medina") under the glass dome of Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II and at Milan's main train station, Stazione Centrale.

Well done, but the Britney Spears flash mob in Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II is still our favorite! ~1 2 3 not only you & me got 180 degrees & I'm caught in between~

Paul Smith for The Royal Ballet: Tokyo Exhibition

 

Quirky British designer Paul Smith, known for his stripey and colorful patterns, just blessed the Milanese with a private talk held during Men's Fashion Week in his Viale Umbria showroom (more on that soon). Swag was a limited edition (of 5000), postcard-sized booklet of photographs, black and white, taken by both Paul Smith and his late father, Harold. Always searching for design inspiration, Sir Paul travels the world with his camera, and his keen eye for line and form has developed into just one more skill of the man who never stops creating.

So after meeting one of his fans, a principal dancer of the Royal Ballet, a collaboration grew and Sir Paul asked to photograph the dancers (like the portrait snapped above). The prints are now on display at his Space store in Tokyo's Aoyama district. “The Royal Ballet Portraits” are on view until July 6. This guy was there for the opening and has the scoop.  

 

Paoloni for La Scala

Italian menswear label Paoloni's new campaign was shot in Piazza della Scala. Via Manzoni is in the background with Teatro alla Scala on the left.

20 Years of Dolce&Gabbana Menswear: Verdi, Bolle & Hard Liquor -- What More Could You Want?

Last night in a miraculously dry patch of Milan's timid rain, Domenico Dolce & Stefano Gabbana took over Piazza della Scala and Palazzo Marino (Milan's City Hall, adjacent to Teatro alla Scala) to show the city what's what of men's fashion (teaser post here). Twenty years of success in such a fickle market is cause to celebrate, and Dolce & Gabbana's guest list ran deep: American celebs, foreign celebs, and everyone in between threw back hard liquor (Dolce & Gabbana's new "Martini Gold", poured from shiny golden bottles) and greeted Stefano & Domenico at the front entrance with Milan's mayor, Letizia Moratti.

Roberto Bolle was in attendance (and sat front row at the D&G show earlier that day), which makes us think that he'll soon join past & present D&G campaign-friendly faces like Madonna and Matthew McConaughey, no longer with Ferragamo, indoctrinated by fellow Italian ballerina, Eleonora Abbagnato, who was also in attendance last night. Later that evening, the VIPs of the VIPs joined D&G at their Gold restaurant in Piazza Risorgimento (that OC stops in frequently when she's in the area for delicious brioche and cappuccini)

Dolce & Gabbana, who are usually present at La Scala's prestigious opening nights on Sant'Ambrogio, blasted Verdi instead of the usual techno/house in a special tribute to the Italian composer.  

 
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Click for more photos of Bolle, Abbagnato, and the special Verdi program. You can also check out Milan babe Tamu of All The Pretty Birds, who was on site to capture an eloquent, stylish, and less cleavage-crass darling of the night. 

Human Chameleon Liu Bolin Paints Milan For Corriere's Sette Magazine

 

Liu Bolin is a young Chinese artist who meticulously paints himself into his own artwork -- literally, morphing into famous monuments. 

The artist came to Milan and transformed himself into some of the city's most gorgeous [living] monuments, all in the name of art. OC's not even going to tell you what she's personally done in the name of art! Hint: It looked nothing like this.

For Italy, he posed on the roof of the Duomo, in La Scala's Palco Reale, the Rialto Bridge in Venice, and the sky terrace of Milan's record-breaking (for height, cost, and absurdity) skyscraper that went up in February for Regione Lombardia's President, Roberto Formigoni.

All of his work is done without the aid of Photoshop or digital manipulation, and takes up to 7 hours. He's helped by a team of two artists and his camera. It's like those Magic Eye puzzles for the aughts!

 

 

Scala Embraces Brand Marketing in Milan: Piermarini Pop-up Shops

La Scala's stepped-up their game and have put in strategically located pop-up shops around Milan. We found the Scala merchandise in a few locations around the city, hoping to corner some of Milan's Spring (and Salone del Mobile's) tourists: In the gift shop of La Triennale, Milan's huge museum space that hosts traveling art and design exhibitions (photos below) and at Rinascente's basement Design Supermarket. Welcome to the 21st century. Now buy a Medea candle.

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(Medea candle!)

Click the link below to see the display (with Callas) from Rinascente...

Nessun Lavazza

This is the first materialization we've seen from Lavazza's Fall 2009 campaign (O.C. wrote about it here) on Milan's Corso Venezia by Giardini Pubblici. Lavazz'a ads were shot in Rome, models posed in homage to opera arias and old Italian pop songs.

Piano Glam!

Opera Chic confesses to wearing couture when she's playing the piano -- the vintage Chanel cuffs and Dior rings get temporarily shelved, although we've found strangely enough there's better control of the pedal in Fendi heels (perfect for some stormy, kick-a$$ Rachmaninoff). So we're flattered that Vogue Italia's March couture supplement featured a photo spread by Miles Aldridge, "High Glam", with a white piano (from these guys) as the protagonist.

 

Many more photos under the cut!

Fazioli's Piano Cruiser

What the heck is a piano cruiser? Don't even both asking Captain Stubing for permission to come aboard because no one is cool enough to come aboard the piano cruiser. Look at that thing! It's part of Fazioli's collection in their Milan via Conservatorio showroom, where Fazioli's pianos (from his Venice-area factory) wait to be boarded.