Exhibitions at the Museum Theatre

The exhibiton of the Theatre Museum, a chameleonic museum

Luca Ronconi, the laboratory of ideas - 2016
A year after the death of Luca Ronconi, in 2015, Teatro alla Scala set this exhibition, curated by Margherita Palli with Valentina Dellavia, in two locations: the Museum and the Ansaldo Workshop.

The exhibition proposes to investigate the close relationship between Ronconi and the Scala theater machine, the work from which his 24 shows at Piermarini were born.
Margherita Palli explains: "I thought of an exhibition right inside the Ansaldo laboratories to remember the 24 productions by Luca Ronconi through his relationship with the singers, with the workers, with the stage and the workshops; trying to revive the atmosphere of hidden work, the months of design, construction, rehearsals in the hall and on stage, browsing behind the scenes to get to the evening of the premiere. The second part of exhibition, placed at the Museum, remembers collaborators, set designers and costume designers [...]"

Riccardo Muti at La Scala - 2016
On the occasion of his 75th birthday, the theater where he was Music Director for twenty years, from 1986 to 2005, celebrates M° Riccardo Muti with an exhibition at the Museum.

The exhibition, curated by Lorenzo Arruga, lets visitors discover the man and the musician, focusing on limited thematic areas: symphonic activity, Mozart, Verdi, Wagner and the path between Gluckian reform, neoclassicism and belcanto through a suggestive selection of audio and video contributions enriched by a photographic kit that traces the numerous collaborations with singers, set designers and directors.

Madama Butterfly, the East rediscovered - 2017
The exhibit showcased the scenography for the most important productions of Madama Butterfly that took place from 1904 to 1985.

Thanks to the documents - such as scores, letters, photographs, libretti, drawings, sketches and little figures - belonging to the Historical Ricordi Archive (Archivio Storico Ricordi), visitors can get to know the fonts of inspiration that matured Puccini’s his knowledge of Japan. The documents also allow a glimpse of the promotion of the opera generously supported by Giulio Ricordi and of the scenic realization of an Orient cautiously westernized.

Arturo Toscanini. The Maestro: a life in pictures - 2017
Before Toscanini, La Scala had often been held hostage by star singers and their caprices, but he gradually imposed a system in which solo voices, chorus, orchestra, stage movement, sets, costumes, and lighting were all given maximum attention in order to create what Wagner called Gesamtkunstwerk – the total work of art.

At La Scala Toscanini modernized and internationalized the repertoire, giving first performances in Milan (and, in many cases, in Italy) not only of operas by Puccini, Mascagni, Boito, Giordano, Franchetti, Cilea and other compatriots, but also of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde and Siegfried, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, Richard Strauss’s Salome and Debussy’s Pélleas et Mélisande.
He had a modern lighting system installed in 1901 and an orchestra pit in 1907, and he ordered a complete overhaul of the house in 1921. He also abolished the anti-dramatic practice of having arias encored during performances.

Victor de Sabata. A life for La Scala - 2017
On the 50th anniversary of his death, the Teatro alla Scala payed tribute to Victor de Sabata (1892-1967) with a photographic exhibition in order to remind the artist who was a very important conductor and, Artistic Superintendent at la Scala for a quarter of a century, since 1930.

In 1951, thanks to him, was decided that December 7th, the day of the celebrations for Sant’Ambrogio, patron of Milan, would have been adopted as the day of the “Prima della Scala". In the past years, the day of the opening show was on December 26th, Santo Stefano.

Maria Callas on stage: the years at La Scala - 2017
The exhibition for the fortieth anniversary of the death of Maria Callas intends to tell the singer’s artistic life at Scala. A theatre that, between 1950 and 1961, has been able to provide the cultural instruments that have turned the singer into a myth.

Callas made "the miracle of grafting a soprano register on the original contralto register", thus approaching myths of bel canto as Giuditta Pasta or Maria Malibran. These are voices at the service of the characters, voices that always imply a posture and a gesture on stage.

Leyla Gencer - 2018
Among the great belcanto divas that have linked their name to the Teatro alla Scala, we celebrated the turkish soprano Leyla Gencer after ten years from her death. She occupied a very special role for vocal character, scenic temperament, reverence of the repertoire and duration of a relationship that after the withdrawal from the scenes is pursued with the didactic commitment with young students of the Academy.

The photographic exhibition in Ridotto dei Palchi “Arturo Toscanini”, curated by Pier Luigi Pizzi and Franca Cella, recounted some of her most important interpretations at La Scala.
Pizzi remembers her with this words: “Leyla Gencer? A myth. An immense artist. Mine is a testimony of absolute admiration for an extraordinary career built entirely on commitment, dedication, rigor, self-criticism and an infinite gratitude for many years of a very special friendship. And her style, elegance, class, intelligence, culture, irony, humor, frankness, generosity. A great Woman.”

Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868) at Teatro alla Scala - 2018
On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the death of Gioachino Rossini, the Teatro alla Scala has prepared this exhibition, curated by Pier Luigi Pizzi, which involved for the first time the entire Museum. In the rooms on the first floor, the visitors could explore the personage and the music of Rossini, highlighting the numerous portraits and memorabilia present in the museum collections.

The second floor is the setting for a journey into La Scala’s productions of Rossini’s operas, from Sanquirico to Gabriele Salvatores’s La gazza ladra, through the historic productions of Benois and Ponnelle, with scaled reproduction of the set designs and the original costumes for L’italiana in Algeri and other productions by Ronconi and Pizzi.

György Kurtág. Signes, games, messagges - 2018
The exhibition, with the curatorship of Heidy Zimmermann, Cecilia Balestra and Franco Pulcini, consists of 18 panels on which the original manuscripts and mysterious abstract drawings are reproduced, together with the rare photographs of the great avant-garde master, often with his wife Marta, companion of a life dedicated to artistic research.

The path of the exhibition reconstructed the main stages of the artistic development and the human experience of the composer by narrating his predilections as an innovator closely connected to the great classical tradition.

La Magnifica Fabbrica. 240 years of Teatro alla Scala: from Piermarini to Botta - 2019
This exhibition, curated by Fulvio Irace and Pierluigi Panza, set up by Italo Lupi, Ico Migliore and Mara Servetto , traces 240 years of La Scala’s architectural history, from its foundation based on the designs of the architect, Giuseppe Piermarini, to Mario Botta’s extension planned for next year.

The “Magnifica Fabbrica” has been the scene of many changes: it has been the mirror that has reflected the city’s social development, its changes in tastes and it has been in the forefront in the introduction of stage technologies.

In La Scala's boxes. Milanese stories
The exhibition about La Scala' s boxes, by Pier Luigi Pizzi, explored the evolution of the Theatre's attendance, since its foundation until the post-war period, when "palchettisti" were replaced by subscribers. It documents a prestigious story which explains the Italian society's transformation in the last two centuries, demonstrating how La Scala, with its elegant furnishings and his illustrious inhabitants, has always been a benchmark, the centre of the culture and the costume of our country.

Visitors can retrace the history of the most important Milanese families, as Trivulzio, Litta, Belgiojoso, and Visconti, whose lives are interlaced to the patriots' ones, as Luigi Porro Lambertenghi, Federico Confalonieri and Silvio Pellico, remembering also great men of letters as Stendhal, Foscolo, Parini and Manzoni.