The theatre and its audience: from founding to the post-war period

Following a raucous carnival gala in 1776, the Teatro Regio Ducal, formerly Milan’s primary opera venue, burned down for the third time. In its place, Empress Maria Theresa aimed to create “the greatest theatre in the world”.

The nobles’ theatre

The new theatre’s construction was funded by the patrons of the Regio Ducal, who were each awarded ownership of a box at La Scala. Built in 1778, La Scala was fitted with the latest stage and heating technology, a tavern, a wine shop and a frontal portico that allowed guests to arrive directly at the main entrance by horse-drawn carriage.

"The universal drawing-room of Milan"

More than a music venue, the theatre was a “second home" for the city’s elite, whose family crests were plastered around the auditorium. Some shows began at midnight, but guests arrived from 6pm, meeting in the stalls to socialise and dance in balls, before retiring to their boxes and leaving the floor to their servants.

Historian Pietro Verri wrote in 1778 that “good or bad, the theatre is necessary to have a way of passing the evening hours”. According to Mary Shelley in 1840, “La Scala serves not only as the universal drawing-room for all the society of Milan, but every sort of trading transaction, from horse-dealing to stock-jobbing, is carried on in the pit”.

Operatic feasts

One early 19th-century visitor spoke of the all-pervasive “stench of eating”. In the three grand ridotti the most illustrious visitors dined and gambled till dawn; others took cooked meats sold in the foyer to their boxes. These private areas were personalised with furnishings, kitchens and coloured upholstery of varying degrees of luxury according to their owners’ means.

Gossip, spying and sex

Attending a show at La Scala was considered as much about being seen as watching the opera. The auditorium therefore remained illuminated during performances.

Curtains, however, offered a degree of privacy: visitors dosed in their boxes, gossiped, conspired and made love. The walls of one box were entirely fitted with mirrors, allowing its occupants to spy on unassuming theatre goers.

Revolutionary La Scala

In the wake of the French Revolution, Napoleon defeated Milan's Austrian occupiers at the Battle of Lodi in 1796 and established the Cisalpine Republic (1797 to 1802). 24 hours after entering the Lombard capital, Napoleon was presented to a rendition of the Marseillaise at La Scala, in a free performance open to all. Many of those present had never entered the theatre before.

The nobility's grip on La Scala was loosened, with family crests removed from walls, aristocrats required to indicate their attendance in advance, so that free boxes could be made available to paying members of the public, and the stalls opened up to children, workmen and women, who were free to attend in everyday clothes. In efforts to limit formerly unchecked hedonism, the Central Dicastery outlawed aria encores, with the threat of a fine.

There had been plans to transform the large Royal Box into six normal-sized compartments. It was saved, however, when the Austrians returned to power in 1799.

Lighting the theatre

Introduced in 1823, the auditorium's chandelier was originally powered by petrol. Gas power followed in 1860, being replaced with electric lighting in 1883 (2,450 bulbs were switched on for a performance of Ponchielli’s La Gioconda on Boxing Day that year). La Scala was the world’s first opera house to be illuminated with electricity, and the first public building whose lighting system was powered by the Edison company.

Seats for the public

In 1891, numbered seats were introduced in the stalls, the fifth row of boxes was knocked through to create a second gallery (it contained seating on two rows intended for the petite bourgeoisie) and La Scala pledged to present a number of performances every season at reduced prices.
Writing to Verdi in 1891, the composer Arrigo Boito concluded “One liberates the theatre from members of the public that are traditionally distracted, bored and temperamental, and replaces them with a large gallery of middle class spectators that pay little and, as soon as they are given the chance, will enjoy themselves a great deal.”

Musicians on the front line

During the war, the theatre suffered badly. With its youngest musicians sent to the front line, shows could be presented only sporadically. La Scala was closed entirely for 18 months between 1917 and 1918. During the period, German music was banned.

Before a performance of Italo Montemezzi’s La nave on 3rd November 1918, the end of Italy’s participation in the war was announced from La Scala’s stage. Tullio Serafin ascended the podium, the curtain was raised, and Tito Ricordi, the opera’s librettist, who stood behind, read out a notice: “At 7.30 today our victorious troops entered Trieste”. His voice was drowned out by exultant roars.

A theatre of the people

Emilio Caldara, mayor of Milan, invited Arturo Toscanini to become music director. The maestro accepted on the condition La Scala would become a self-governing organisation free from the influence of box owners and patrons.

The theatre became autonomous in 1920, the new foundation acquiring extra funds from the City Council and securing the right to rent out owners’ boxes. 24 performances in the 1921/22 season were offered at “accessible prices” (even if, in practice, prices remained prohibitive). La Scala pledged to deliver concerts at the Teatro del Popolo, an ex-warehouse seating 2,000, at prices that were anything but prohibitive.

Mussolini’s Scala

Following Mussolini’s rise after 1922, the Fascists assumed direct responsibility for appointing La Scala’s President. Italy’s antisemitic racial laws came into force sixteen years later. The Jewish chorus master Vittore Veneziani was forced to resign, and music director Victor de Sabata was required to present documentation proving his name was not of Jewish origin. Jews were banned from attending shows, and those that had already bought season tickets were invited to collect reimbursements. Meanwhile, Nicola Benois, the new chief stage designer, was denounced in a letter by a colleague as a Russian spy. Music director Arturo Toscanini, a critic of the regime, fled Italy at the outbreak of World War II.

Destruction during WW2

From 1943, allied forces initiated a devastating bombing campaign on Milan that destroyed 14,000 buildings in a week. La Scala was directly hit, the roof caving in and many boxes shredded. Remarkably, the original Neoclassical facade was saved.

The theatre’s management defiantly pressed ahead, organising what would be one of the longest seasons in its history. Opera, ballet and concert performances were transferred to alternative theatres in Milan and Lombardy, and conductor Gianandrea Gavazzeni launched a music series entitled “Music among the rubble”. Bruckner’s Symphony no.5 was performed on La Scala's stage in 1944, as a symbol of music’s triumph over destruction. In a production of La bohème, performed in the town of Como, tenor Mario Del Monaco launched his La Scala career.

La Scala rises from the ashes

In 1945, the war had ended but funds were scarce. Socialist mayor Antonio Greppi was determined to rebuild La Scala immediately, in a bid to boost morale.

Architect and engineer Luigi Lorenzo Secchi oversaw the reconstruction between 1945 and 1946, La Scala becoming the first European theatre to be reopened following the war. The 78-year old Arturo Toscanini, returning from self-imposed exile, agreed to conduct the inauguration. “The acoustic is as before; better than before,” he commented.

La Scala officially reopened on 11th May 1946. 5,000 people congregated in the theatre in addition to 40,000 in the Piazza della Scala and surrounding side streets. Millions listened on the radio. The “Overture” to Rossini's La gazza ladra, with its distinctive call to arms on twin snare drums, made for an exhilarating start.