Tour
La Scala and the Fair
A lifelong friendship
The symbiotic relationship between the Milan Fair and the Teatro alla Scala goes a long way back, all the way to 1928, when La Scala first dedicated some of its shows to the fair over the period of the event. That union of intent would become a shared strength in 1946, when the fairgrounds and the opera house both opened just one year after Liberation, despite the devastation suffered under the bombings of the war. On May 11th, 1946, after a seventeen-year absence, Arturo Toscanini stepped up to the conductor’s stand to open the opera season with a legendary concert. Not long after, despite innumerable difficulties—over 70 per cent of its pavilions had been destroyed—the fairgrounds reopened in September.
The symbiotic relationship between the Milan Fair and the Teatro alla Scala goes a long way back, all the way to 1928, when La Scala first dedicated some of its shows to the fair over the period of the event. That union of intent would become a shared strength in 1946, when the fairgrounds and the opera house both opened just one year after Liberation, despite the devastation suffered under the bombings of the war. On May 11th, 1946, after a seventeen-year absence, Arturo Toscanini stepped up to the conductor’s stand to open the opera season with a legendary concert. Not long after, despite innumerable difficulties—over 70 per cent of its pavilions had been destroyed—the fairgrounds reopened in September.
A grand comeback
The impracticability of the premises of Milan’s opera house led to the joint decision to use the Sports Pavilion, the first of the fairgrounds’ pavilions to be rebuilt, to host the new opera season. And so, after the formal approval of conductor Arturo Toscanini, who apparently tested the acoustics first, on July 20th, 1946 the “world’s largest concert hall,” seating up to six thousand people, opened its doors for the premiere of Arrigo Boito’s Mefistofele, conducted by Franco Ghione.
The impracticability of the premises of Milan’s opera house led to the joint decision to use the Sports Pavilion, the first of the fairgrounds’ pavilions to be rebuilt, to host the new opera season. And so, after the formal approval of conductor Arturo Toscanini, who apparently tested the acoustics first, on July 20th, 1946 the “world’s largest concert hall,” seating up to six thousand people, opened its doors for the premiere of Arrigo Boito’s Mefistofele, conducted by Franco Ghione.
Performances continued through to September with another fifty shows staged (the operas Rigoletto, Aida, Tosca, Lohengrin, Carmen, and Cavalleria rusticana and ballets). Another curiosity: on August 14th, 1946, with the premiere of Léo Delibes’s Coppélia, paired with a repeat of The Three-Cornered Hat by Manuel De Falla, the choreographer Aurelio Milloss staged the first night ever to be dedicated entirely to ballet in the history of the Teatro alla Scala.
Performances continued through to September with another fifty shows staged (the operas Rigoletto, Aida, Tosca, Lohengrin, Carmen, and Cavalleria rusticana and ballets). Another curiosity: on August 14th, 1946, with the premiere of Léo Delibes’s Coppélia, paired with a repeat of The Three-Cornered Hat by Manuel De Falla, the choreographer Aurelio Milloss staged the first night ever to be dedicated entirely to ballet in the history of the Teatro alla Scala.