La Scala: La Prima
La Scala, Milan’s opera house, traditionally opens its season annually on December 7, Saint Ambrose’s feast day. This event is a highlight for Milan’s high society.
The opening of the 2016/2017 Season with the first version of Madame Butterfly will follow the path dedicated to Giacomo Puccini strongly wanted by the music director of the Teatro alla Scala, Riccardo Chailly , started with the Turandot proposal the opening of Expo 2015 and continued with the recent revival of La Fanciulla del West.
This is the first return of the famous opera of Puccini to Piermarini after its debut in 1904. Madama Butterfly will be repeated until 8 January 2017.
Madame Butterfly first saw the light of day in La Scala in February 1904, and was hotly contested: it was certainly the victim of an ambush organized by enemies of the composer and his editor, but perhaps also of the surprise of the audience faced with a crude and innovative opera, watching as equals the latest developments in European musical theatre. Puccini backed down and began cutting and amending, and three months later at the Grande Theatre in Brescia the opera enjoyed the success that would subsequently accompany it forever, all over the world. After Turandot and La fanciulla del West, Riccardo Chailly continues his critical reinterpretation of the works of Puccini by proposing the first La Scala version for his second 7 December as Principal Conductor: an act of contrition towards Puccini but above all, alongside the subsequent variations, an opportunity to rediscover a Butterfly that is even more audacious in its dramaturgical design. It is directed by Alvis Hermanis, who has already been hailed at La Scala for his new productions of Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten and Verdi’s I due Foscari, and the cast orbits around Cio-Cio San played by Maria José Siri, an emerging soprano on the greatest international stages.
The opera repertoire of this year includes fifteen works, including nine Italian, and many reworkings of great works performed for the first time at the Teatro alla Scala.
Noteworthy, the La Scala debut for the Oscar-winning Gabriele Salvatores that will sign the staging of La Gazza Ladra Gioacchino Rossini (from 12 April to 7 May 2017)
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