Speaker 1: Happy Saturday. La Scala Opera House opened its doors on
Speaker 1: August third, seventeen seventy eight, or two hundred and forty
Speaker 1: six years ago today. If you're listening on drop Day,
Speaker 1: so our episode on the Opera House is Today's Saturday Classic.
Speaker 1: This originally came out on August eleventh, twenty fourteen. Enjoy
Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class a production
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly from and
Speaker 2: I'm Tracy Wilson. Tracy question, Yes, do you're like opera?
Speaker 2: I would like to like opera, right, Well, I love opera,
Speaker 2: but I'm always a little bit reticent to verbalize that
Speaker 2: to people that know a lot about opera, because what
Speaker 2: often happens is that they're then like excited and off again,
Speaker 2: wanting to talk about like different performances and you know,
Speaker 2: some very technical things, and I'm kind of like, no,
Speaker 2: I just like to listen to it. But I'm not
Speaker 2: really what you would call an opera scholar, even on
Speaker 2: the most mild degree. But I really enjoy it.
Speaker 1: And there are a lot of aspects of opera that
Speaker 1: are actually in our daily lives, and we don't even
Speaker 1: know about, and today we're going to talk about a
Speaker 1: very famous opera house that has a legacy that touches
Speaker 1: Probably anyone hearing this is life, whether they realize it
Speaker 1: or not. If you grew up watching Bugs Bunny, if
Speaker 1: you grew up watching television or film, you have heard
Speaker 1: some of the work that came out of this sort
Speaker 1: of hotbed of you know, really amazing cultural development. I
Speaker 1: will make a brief aside about how one of them
Speaker 1: got involved in my wedding, sort of when we get
Speaker 1: to that part and we're talking about the La Scala
Speaker 1: opera house, the tetro A La Scala, which is one
Speaker 1: of the most renowned opera houses in all the world.
Speaker 1: It is Italy's crown jewel of the arts. Really, But
Speaker 1: as I said, even if you only have a passing
Speaker 1: knowledge of opera, or really you don't think you have
Speaker 1: any knowledge of opera, odds, are you know a name
Speaker 1: or two connected to the history of this legendary place,
Speaker 1: Because it's one of those amazing icons that really actually
Speaker 1: touches and sort of ties together a lot of different
Speaker 1: pieces of history on the timeline. So there are things
Speaker 1: that you may not associate with opera that will kind
Speaker 1: of get connected here, so we will start with how
Speaker 1: it got built in the first place. On February twenty sixth,
Speaker 1: seventeen seventy six, the Royal Ducal Theater burned to the
Speaker 1: ground in a fire. Since the theater had really been
Speaker 1: the heart of opera in Milan, they needed to build
Speaker 1: a replacement, and at the time, the Royal House of
Speaker 1: Austria was actually ruling over Milan and Empress Maria Theresa
Speaker 1: spearheaded this plan to replace this lost cultural landmark. And
Speaker 1: again to place Maria Theresa in context, she was the
Speaker 1: mother of the famed Queen of France, Marie Antoinette, as
Speaker 1: well as the mother of the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold
Speaker 1: the Second. She had many many other children and really
Speaker 1: kind of populated the way a lot of royal houses
Speaker 1: throughout Europe. So that's the first person.
Speaker 2: Who's kind of connected to this that you might not
Speaker 2: have known about. The architect chosen for the task of
Speaker 2: designing the new opera house was Giuseppe Pimerini. Pimerini is
Speaker 2: now considered one of the great Neoclassical architects, and he
Speaker 2: was no stranger to high profile gigs. He had also
Speaker 2: worked on the Royal Palace of Milan, as well as
Speaker 2: the Maria Teresa Hall of the Brudenci National Library, also
Speaker 2: in Milan, and the cost of construction for this new
Speaker 2: theater was funded by the people who had actually already
Speaker 2: owned private boxes in the destroyed Dukyle Theater, and in
Speaker 2: return these donors got renewed ownership of their boxes, so
Speaker 2: in the new theater they would once again have a box,
Speaker 2: as well as partial ownership of the land where the
Speaker 2: theater was built. And prior to the theater going up,
Speaker 2: the Church of Santa Maria Alascala had been standing on
Speaker 2: that land and had to be demolished to make way
Speaker 2: for the new facility, and the name Lascala was retained
Speaker 2: as a way to kind of honor that church. It
Speaker 2: took a little more than two years to build the
Speaker 2: new building, and on August third, seventeen seventy eight, Milan's
Speaker 2: new opera house, Teatro ela Scala, which translates to the
Speaker 2: Theater at the Stairway, opened its doors. The first opera
Speaker 2: performed there was Antonio Salieri's Europa Revealed. Mattia Varazzi wrote
Speaker 2: the libretto, which centers on the story of Zeus's former
Speaker 2: lover Europa. The plot begins with Europa being kidnapped but
Speaker 2: just before her wedding and forced into marriage with the
Speaker 2: King of Crete. After lots of dramatic twists and turns,
Speaker 2: Europa is placed on the throne of Tire, although she
Speaker 2: quickly turns over the seat of power to Esao and
Speaker 2: his new love Semila after she performs their marriage and
Speaker 2: so Lescala continued to offer operatic performances to great success
Speaker 2: for many years. So again that was late seventeen hundreds
Speaker 2: when it reopened its doors, when it opened its doors
Speaker 2: to replace the previous theater. But then in the early
Speaker 2: eighteen hundreds there were several developments that happened that really
Speaker 2: sort of changed the complexion of La Scala's artistic offerings
Speaker 2: and their focus. First, in eighteen twelve, an opera by
Speaker 2: Joachino Rossini debuted and it was called The Touchstone. It
Speaker 2: was the story of love tested by multiple suitors, with
Speaker 2: a libretto that was written by Luigi Romanelli. This sparked
Speaker 2: a move to what's called opera syria or serious opera,
Speaker 2: and the style focuses more on the solo voice and
Speaker 2: belcanto or beautiful singing, although that's not what it was
Speaker 2: called until a whole lot later. To explain volcanto, will
Speaker 2: quote New York Times music writer Anthony Thomassini, who wrote
Speaker 2: the following in two thousand and eight. In its narrowest sense,
Speaker 2: belcanto opera refers to the early decades of nineteenth century
Speaker 2: Italian opera, when Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti dominated the field,
Speaker 2: but the overall concept of valcanto started much earlier, with
Speaker 2: a consensus among opera enthusiasts that there was nothing more
Speaker 2: ravishing than a beautiful voice singing a beautiful melodic line beautifully,
Speaker 2: especially a melodic line driven by sensitive musical setting of
Speaker 2: a poetic and singable text.
Speaker 1: So whereas prior.
Speaker 2: Operas had really included more chorus and orchestra elements, this
Speaker 2: style kind of put those in the background. It favored
Speaker 2: a single exquisite voice for pieces of performance, and Rossini's
Speaker 2: opera was instantly successful, and it was performed dozens of
Speaker 2: times over the course of its run. With Opera Siria
Speaker 2: now at the forefront of Milan's apera culture, Rossini had
Speaker 2: lots of additional works performed at La Scala over the
Speaker 2: next thirteen years. These included Il Turco and Italia or
Speaker 2: The Turk in Italy, his version of Cinderella Il Barbieri
Speaker 2: de Sevilia or The Barber of Seville, which you're familiar
Speaker 2: with if you've watched lots of books, Bunny and Otello,
Speaker 2: among others. So as a brief aside, I will tell
Speaker 2: you that The Rabbit of Seville is my absolute favorite
Speaker 2: Bugs Bunny cartoon of all time. I also love What's
Speaker 2: Opera Doc, But in the opera arena, the Rabbit of
Speaker 2: Seville just works for me, largely because of all of
Speaker 2: the great Charlie Chaplin callbacks they do so much. So
Speaker 2: that is still from that cartoon is what was on
Speaker 2: my wedding invitations. That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So I owe a little bit to Rossini there. The
Speaker 1: other significant development for La Scala during this time was
Speaker 1: the staging of several ballets by Salvadore Vegano and Carlo Blasi.
Speaker 1: And Vigano shifted the focus of ballet to a narrative
Speaker 1: style with his choreography. In this case, the dance told
Speaker 1: a story in one arc, rather than just being a
Speaker 1: series of sort of well staged movements. His choreo drama
Speaker 1: as it came to be called, had been developed in
Speaker 1: Vienna before he debuted it to Italian audiences, and once
Speaker 1: he started having showings at Las Scala, it became very,
Speaker 1: very popular and he ended up working at the famous
Speaker 1: opera house for more than fifteen years, and during this
Speaker 1: time while he was there, he staged, among others, Otello
Speaker 1: de dalo la Vestal which is the Vestal Virgin and
Speaker 1: e Titani which is the Titans.
Speaker 2: Carlo Blasi was a dancer and a student of Vigano,
Speaker 2: and in addition to continuing this narrative tradition of his
Speaker 2: mentor's choreography, he was also rigorous in systematizing the technique
Speaker 2: of ballet. He performed all over the world as a dancer,
Speaker 2: and he wrote his first treatise on dance while working
Speaker 2: in Milan with Le Scala in eighteen twenty. His most
Speaker 2: famous writing on the art was the Code of Terpsickory.
Speaker 2: And in addition to advancing ballet technically, Blasi also promoted
Speaker 2: the idea that artists could be cultured and familiar with
Speaker 2: all of the arts, not just their own. Yeah, he
Speaker 2: really kind of fostered this idea that any dancers were
Speaker 2: working with him needed to also be reading literature, they
Speaker 2: needed to be studying music, They needed to be really
Speaker 2: well rounded kind of Renaissance people in that regard. The
Speaker 2: work of both Vegano and Blasi established Le Scala in
Speaker 2: the world of ballet as well as the world of opera,
Speaker 2: where it had already been succeeding, and it sort of
Speaker 2: built its reputation as a theater where which just excellence
Speaker 2: prevailed amongst all manner of the arts. So during that
Speaker 2: time two particular composers became just prolific at Lascala. The
Speaker 2: first was Gaetano Donizetti, and he premiered his opera Schiara
Speaker 2: a Serafina in October of eighteen twenty two. The libretto
Speaker 2: was by Felice Romani. Because the work had just been
Speaker 2: rushed due to all kinds of problems and illnesses among
Speaker 2: the production members, the reception was mediocre. In spite of that,
Speaker 2: he continued to produce work for Lascala as well as
Speaker 2: for many other opera houses for years afterward, including an
Speaker 2: opera entitled Lucregia Borgia. He continued to serve the popularity
Speaker 2: of the belcanto style Yeah since I know we have
Speaker 2: a lot of Borgia fans in the listening audience on
Speaker 2: to make sure they knew that there's an opera about Lucrezia.
Speaker 2: The other important composer from this time is Vincenzo Bellini,
Speaker 2: and he debuted his opera Il Perata or The Pirate
Speaker 2: in eighteen twenty seven at La Scala. And Bellini's signature
Speaker 2: was really his amazing talent for writing vocal melody that's
Speaker 2: been characterized as both pure and sensuous, and his influence
Speaker 2: as apparent throughout the world of opera, following him in
Speaker 2: the works of many other famous composers, including Wagner, Chopin,
Speaker 2: and liszt So. While the entirety of La Scala is
Speaker 2: very influential, he in particular influenced several composers that came
Speaker 2: after him, Like Donizetti. Bellini was another artist who was
Speaker 2: linked to the belcanto style, although Bellini is generally believed
Speaker 2: to be the more gifted of the two in the
Speaker 2: area of vocal harmonies. Yeah, some of his work is
Speaker 2: just really beautiful to listen to you, And like I said,
Speaker 2: I you know, my knowledge of music theory and opera
Speaker 2: is very limited. But I still just am always struck
Speaker 2: by how absolutely beautiful some of these pieces are.
Speaker 1: And then there isn't we get to a time when
Speaker 1: another really huge name that everyone will probably recognize that's
Speaker 1: attached to Lascala kind of emerges, and that is in
Speaker 1: eighteen thirty nine, Oberto Conte di San Bonifacio, the Count
Speaker 1: of San Benifescio, debuted at Lascala, and this was the
Speaker 1: first work of Giuseppe Verdi to do so, and it
Speaker 1: kicked off a very long career for him and many
Speaker 1: years of debuts by the composer at the famed Milan
Speaker 1: opera house, And in fact, Verdi is usually the most
Speaker 1: famous composer associated with Lascala. Everyone sort of recognizes his name,
Speaker 1: even if they couldn't maybe pull one of his tunes
Speaker 1: out of their memory. Verdi and Lascala became deeply linked,
Speaker 1: to a degree beyond that of any other composer. While
Speaker 1: working on his first opera, he lost his infant daughter,
Speaker 1: and the second baby that he had with his wife,
Speaker 1: a son, died roughly a year after the debut of Oberto.
Speaker 1: It said that when Verdi's wife died while he was
Speaker 1: working on his second opera and the work in Giorno
Speaker 1: di regno or King for a Day was not well received.
Speaker 1: It was the manager of Loscala at the time who
Speaker 1: urged him to continue composing and to find solace in
Speaker 1: his work instead of quitting, which he had threatened to do.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so in that regard, Bartolomeo Merelli, who was the
Speaker 2: manager of the theater at the time, really kind of
Speaker 2: saved the creative life of Verity and impacted him in
Speaker 2: a sort of reciprocal way to the way that many
Speaker 2: of these composers were impacting the opera house. Because if
Speaker 2: he had quit, oh, we would have been robbed of
Speaker 2: some beautiful stuff. And while that second opera, Gianna d'r
Speaker 2: reno or King for a Day didn't go so well,
Speaker 2: his third work that he did after that, Nabuco, debuted
Speaker 2: in eighteen forty two, and this was really like the
Speaker 2: moment where he sort of rocketed to stardom. And that
Speaker 2: may sound like a weird phrase, but I mean, at
Speaker 2: this point, particularly in Illa, in Europe in general, but
Speaker 2: Italy especially, composers were kind of like rock stars. I mean,
Speaker 2: they were basically the celebrities of the day. And so
Speaker 2: his career really just kind of shot on an almost
Speaker 2: vertical trajectory at this point, and as a consequence, his
Speaker 2: career with Lascala lasted more than fifty years. He did
Speaker 2: retire for a little bit in the towards the end
Speaker 2: of it, and then he ended up working on his
Speaker 2: last couple of pieces as collaborations with another composer. But
Speaker 2: he sort of became famous and then stayed famous for
Speaker 2: decades working with Lascala. Perhaps his most famous opera, which
Speaker 2: was the Tale of enslaved Ethiopian Princess Aida, was rare
Speaker 2: in that it didn't premiere at Lascala. It was first
Speaker 2: presented at the Cairo Opera House in eighteen seventy one,
Speaker 2: and then it premiered at La Scala shortly afterward.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a story that he did not attend the
Speaker 1: Cairo Opera House premiere, but what he heard about how
Speaker 1: it had gone did not really delight him.
Speaker 2: It was mostly dignitaries and invite only and kind of
Speaker 2: higher echelonza society. And he really appreciated that opera was
Speaker 2: one of those things that could be appreciated by anyone,
Speaker 2: and so he really sort of considered the La Scala
Speaker 2: premiere the premier because there were people from all layers
Speaker 2: of society, not only the sort of wealthy and famous
Speaker 2: and privileged. And among the famous pieces that Verdi did
Speaker 2: debut at La Scala during his fifty year run there
Speaker 2: were Giovanna Darco, Otello and Falstaff, which was the last one.
Speaker 2: And he wrote more than two dozen operas during his career.
Speaker 2: So when you think about a fifty year career, that's
Speaker 2: an opera every couple of years, which is really quite.
Speaker 1: Busy. I can't I certainly can't imagine doing it. But
Speaker 1: that would be like an author writing a book every
Speaker 1: two years, which some do, but very few keep up
Speaker 1: that pace. Often mentioned a second only to Verdi among
Speaker 1: Italian composers, Puccini emerged as the composer celeb of La
Speaker 1: Scala as the eighteen hundreds were ending, but he is
Speaker 1: responsible for one of the most famous, if not the
Speaker 1: most proud, incidents at the theater. In December of nineteen
Speaker 1: oh four, Jacomo Puccini debuted Madama Butterfly. Although the opening
Speaker 1: night was really something of a fiasco, and the word
Speaker 1: fiasco gets used almost every time someone writes about this
Speaker 1: particular event, it's a rather famous tale among opera enthusiasts
Speaker 1: and opera fans because it's just so crazy. And while
Speaker 1: Puccini was brimming with confidence regarding the quality of this
Speaker 1: particular work, the production itself was played with problems. As
Speaker 1: the opera was only recently completed when Puccini arrived in
Speaker 1: Milan for rehearsals, the singers got their parts only a
Speaker 1: few pages at a time. On top of that, music
Speaker 1: was not allowed.
Speaker 2: To leave the theater, and the press was not allowed
Speaker 2: to sit in on rehearsals, which was a privilege they
Speaker 2: had enjoyed for a long time. This only served to
Speaker 2: make critics angry and predisposed to dislike the piece. And
Speaker 2: while the crowd on opening night, according to at least
Speaker 2: some witnesses, was hostile from the get go, the entrance
Speaker 2: of Butterfly is really when things started to just go
Speaker 2: south in a hurry. And remember that opera huge in
Speaker 2: Italy at the time. Crowds very familiar with the work
Speaker 2: of famous composers, and so a portion of the melody
Speaker 2: that she sang sounded to some people similar to an
Speaker 2: element from Puccini's previous work. La Boem and some members
Speaker 2: of the crowd started to call out what they felt
Speaker 2: was lazy composing, and they started yelling during the performance
Speaker 2: Boem Boem because they were trying to point out that
Speaker 2: he was sort of plagiarizing himself. At this point, the
Speaker 2: crowd became polarized between supporters and detractors, and attendees started
Speaker 2: yelling at each other in the stage so much that
Speaker 2: no one could hear the singing and during the intermetso
Speaker 2: when performers had been placed around the theater bird whistles
Speaker 2: to create this realistic soundscape of dawn breaking, Heckler's in
Speaker 2: the audience saw this bird song as their cue to
Speaker 2: make other animal noises, so they you know, started doing
Speaker 2: all kinds of other bizarre and rude noises and just
Speaker 2: basically kind of having their own little heyday with things.
Speaker 2: And the entire opera went on this way with an
Speaker 2: unruly crowd basically bent on ruining the debut. And there's
Speaker 2: some debate over sort of what really caused the sort
Speaker 2: of rabble rousing. There are some stories that say that
Speaker 2: Puccini's rivals sort of were working prior to this debut
Speaker 2: really trying to like jab at the critics and point
Speaker 2: out how poorly they had been treated in not being
Speaker 2: allowed into rehearsals and kind of stirring the pot. But
Speaker 2: others just say like there was just this general sense
Speaker 2: of distrust of the whole thing, in part because of
Speaker 2: that and because nobody had heard the music. This was
Speaker 2: again a time when it was so popular that sheet
Speaker 2: music would be sold kind of to the general public
Speaker 2: to consume, much the same way you would buy an
Speaker 2: album of a band that you were going to see
Speaker 2: before the concert happened, and none of that was allowed
Speaker 2: since the music had been held so tightly. So it
Speaker 2: was kind of just this perfect storm of people being
Speaker 2: grumpy about the premiere of Madama Butterfly. I feel like
Speaker 2: it's like Spider Man Unlock the Dark, except to the
Speaker 2: best of my knowledge, no one died in terrible stunts. No,
Speaker 2: I don't think anybody died in Spider Man. But there
Speaker 2: were some injuries, right, So the reviews were terrible. But
Speaker 2: Puccini always thought that Butterfly was his best work, and
Speaker 2: when he staged it the following year in the northern
Speaker 2: Italian city of Brescia, people created it much more warmly.
Speaker 2: It's really come to be recognized as the amazing work
Speaker 2: that it is. Sort of transcended that horrible opening, and
Speaker 2: even despite the butterfly incident, Puccini was really much loved
Speaker 2: by Italy, and when he died sometime later in nineteen
Speaker 2: twenty four, while he was working on his final opera, Torondeau,
Speaker 2: the entire country really mourned. Some will even described this
Speaker 2: as a morning that went on for a couple of years.
Speaker 2: They really felt the loss of this artist. So we've
Speaker 2: talked a lot about composers up to this point, but
Speaker 2: there have been other figures who had a significant impact
Speaker 2: on the development and direction of La Scala through the years.
Speaker 1: Arturo Toscanini was appointed artistic director of La Scala in
Speaker 1: eighteen ninety eight, so, as you know, Verdi's stuff was
Speaker 1: wrapping up and Puccini was coming in. Toscanini was renowned
Speaker 1: as a conductor. He said to have stepped in to
Speaker 1: conduct a performance of Aida at the Rio de Genio
Speaker 1: opera House as a last minute fill in when he
Speaker 1: was only nineteen, and he performed the entire opera from memory.
Speaker 1: He had a wonderful memory that apparently served him very
Speaker 1: well as he got older, because he lost his eyesight
Speaker 1: and had to start conducting exclusively memory but in terms
Speaker 1: of his leadership role at Lascala, he completely reorganized the
Speaker 1: entire structure of the theater, both from an artistic and
Speaker 1: an administrative perspective. He restaged many of the works of
Speaker 1: the opera house's most famous composers, and his interpretations reinvigorated
Speaker 1: a lot of pieces for the public ear He's said
Speaker 1: to have been able to pull the finest playing from
Speaker 1: the orchestra. He also brought the performance of symphonic works
Speaker 1: into Lascala's performance calendar, which allowed the orchestra to be
Speaker 1: the star instead of the singers. Yeah, similar to how
Speaker 1: you know, the choreographers had kind of expanded Lascala's repertoire
Speaker 1: to include ballet. He really expanded it by not only
Speaker 1: staging operas but also just huge symphonies. And then in
Speaker 1: more recent years, Lascala has had some off stage drama
Speaker 1: to contend with. At the end of two thousand and one,
Speaker 1: the theater concluded its run of Otello and it temporarily
Speaker 1: closed its doors for a pretty significant renovation. So from
Speaker 1: two thousand and two January two thousand and two to
Speaker 1: late two thousand and four, this major construction project was
Speaker 1: underway and there were really a lot of fears among
Speaker 1: Italians and even worldwide among people that were just huge
Speaker 1: fans and recognized the historic and important nature of La
Speaker 1: Scala that modernizing this facility was going to destroy some
Speaker 1: of the building's heritage. Despite the concerns, this entirely rebuilt
Speaker 1: stage let the theater perform three different shows in a
Speaker 1: single day, and the sound quality of the venue was
Speaker 1: improved when the heavy hallway carpets were taken away. Seating
Speaker 1: capacity was expanded to twoy one hundred five seats from
Speaker 1: one thousand, eight hundred, and during the restoration, a walled
Speaker 1: over fireplace was found in one of the boxes along
Speaker 1: the second level, and the boxes, which used to be
Speaker 1: privately owned, were all refurbished. Yeah, they tried to even
Speaker 1: though they were modernized a lot of stuff. They did
Speaker 1: sort of some complete kind of historical restoration type decor
Speaker 1: in some of the boxes. And on December fifth of
Speaker 1: two thousand and four, the New York Times reported that
Speaker 1: La Scala had reopened exactly on time, just a little
Speaker 1: bit over budget, and with fantastic new acoustics. So this
Speaker 1: all sounded great. The theater opened with the staging of
Speaker 1: the same opera, which had run when it first opened
Speaker 1: its doors in seventeen seventy eight Salieri's Europa Riconciuda, and
Speaker 1: tickets for this performance ran into the thousands of dollars range.
Speaker 1: People were very excited to be part of this new reopening.
Speaker 1: But just a year later, the BBC ran a story
Speaker 1: that seemed to suggest a bloomy future for the opera house.
Speaker 1: Budgets for the arts in Italy were being slashed and
Speaker 1: Lascala's future really didn't seem all that secure. In the
Speaker 1: months preceding that article, the head of the theater had
Speaker 1: been fired and the conductor of fifteen years, Ricardo Muti quit. Yeah,
Speaker 1: looked there was a while where there was a lot
Speaker 1: of head shaking and you know, sort of glowery faces
Speaker 1: and people really thinking that Lascala had finally been, you know,
Speaker 1: after two hundred years kind of run into the ground.
Speaker 1: But in fact, thankfully the theater has weathered the storm.
Speaker 1: You know, through some strong leadership and some really devoted staff.
Speaker 1: It's been able to kind of get through those rough
Speaker 1: times and put together a business plan that's kept it going.
Speaker 1: It's about to have a planned change of leadership this year,
Speaker 1: this coming October, when stefan listener who has been there
Speaker 1: for a while, is going to leave his position. He's
Speaker 1: going to the Paris Opera and Alexander Pereira is going
Speaker 1: to take over the position he comes from, I believe,
Speaker 1: an opera house in Germany. In addition to its theatrical
Speaker 1: opera productions, Lascala also still houses its ballet company, a
Speaker 1: ballet school, and a voice school. While the theater still
Speaker 1: does get a government subsidy, the operating costs are also
Speaker 1: covered by ticket sales and immuniiciple tacks.
Speaker 2: So yeah, it is still thankfully going strong, and it's
Speaker 2: one of those things I wanted to cover because it
Speaker 2: is the artists that were sort of supported by this
Speaker 2: theater have been so impactful, and like I said, there
Speaker 2: are so many songs that you hear that you don't
Speaker 2: even realize are by composers that came out of La Scala,
Speaker 2: So it's important. Stuffs. Thanks so much for joining us
Speaker 2: on this Saturday. Since this episode is out of the archive,
Speaker 2: if you heard an email address or a Facebook RL
Speaker 2: or something similar over the course of the show, that
Speaker 2: could be obsolete. Now. Our current email address is History
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