Singer

The next Music Director of the Teatro alla Scala, Myung-Whun Chung, reaches his eleventh opera title at La Scala (having conducted over 140 concerts both at home and on tour) with this new production of Bizet’s Carmen, a co-production with London’s Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and Madrid’s Teatro Real. Well-versed in French music—also through his work with the Opéra Bastille and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France—Chung leads a cast that is perfectly idiomatic. Alongside Clémentine Margaine in the title role, alternating with Stéphanie d’Oustrac, and Giorgi Manoshvili as Escamillo, the production features Vittorio Grigolo as Don José—a major Italian voice with a strong affinity for the French repertoire— alternating with Matthew Polenzani. Damiano Michieletto and set designer Paolo Fantin reduce local colour to a minimum in order to construct a bare and effective spectacle, focused on the ineluctable fate of the protagonists.

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Carmen

Teatro alla Scala

Italy honors its UNESCO Heritage at the Arena di Verona: an unprecedented show featuring two large-scale sets across the Arena and Piazza Bra, which will be broadcast worldwide via a live Rai1 production.

Campioni del mondo

Arena di Verona

Roméo et Juliette

Teatro dell'Opera di Roma

When the revolutionary and painter Mario Cavaradossi secretly attempts to help a political fugitive to escape the city of Rome, his lover, the famed singer Floria Tosca, believes he is cheating on her with another woman. Her jealousy is exploited by Scarpia, the unscrupulous chief of police, in order to help him capture Cavaradossi. Scarpia then makes Tosca an offer: if she gives herself to him for one night, he will release her lover.

Tosca

Bebelplatz

“The artist is a man, and he must write for men. … and you will see true hatred and its bitter fruit.” In the Pagliacci prologue, Tonio tells us what this opera is about – it seeks to put the reality of life on the stage. This applies for both works, which will now enjoy their first new staging at the Bayerische Staatsoper in 46 years (1978). Together Cavalleria rusticana by Pietro Mascagni and Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo simply exemplify verismo. The basic situation: A woman is unfaithful. Another reveals this to the husband, and he, spurred on by this woman, takes bloody revenge on the lover. Cavalleria rusticana is about Turiddu, who returns to find his old flame Lola again, but she is now married to the carter, Alfio. Turiddu then consoles himself by seducing Santuzza. But the old love is reignited, and Lola betrays her husband, and Turiddu his girlfriend. In Pagliacci, the plot revolves around Nedda and her husband Canio, the leader of a group of comedians. Nedda’s love for him has grown cold, so she turns to the farmer, Silvio.

Cavalleria Rusticana / Pagliacci

Max-Joseph-Platz

After meeting for the first time, the two are in love. Surprisingly, the Spanish King Philip II announces that he wants to marry Elisabeth himself. Elisabeth complies for reasons of state. The liberal Marquis Posa advises his desperate friend Don Carlo to become politically active for a better future for Flanders. However, this puts Don Carlo and Posa in dangerous opposition to the overpowering Grand Inquisitor.

Don Carlo

Vienna State Opera

Among the most beloved titles in the French repertoire for their melodic invention and the natural flow of dramatic progression, Faust by Charles Gounod has been absent from the stage of the Teatro alla Scala since 2010. The new production, a co-production with the Palau de les Arts in Valencia, the Staatsoper in Berlin and the Teatro Real in Madrid, marks the return of conductor Daniele Rustioni, who is about to conclude his tenure as Principal Conductor at the Opéra de Lyon and has not conducted at La Scala since Il Trovatore in 2014. It also marks the debut of director Johannes Erath, a musician by training, whose production of Ermione for the 2024 Rossini Festival won the Italian music critics’ prestigious Abbiati Award for Best Production. On stage, some of the most beloved artists by the La Scala audience: Marina Rebeka, who will bring Norma by Bellini back to Milan in 2025, and Alex Esposito, an artist with an ever-expanding repertoire.

Faust

When Manon arrives in Amiens, she meets Des Grieux and immediately falls madly in love with him. Despite fleeing to Paris to start a life together, Manon's desire for luxury and wealth becomes her undoing.

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Vittorio Grigolo

Events

Upcoming events

8 - 27 Jun, 2026

Carmen · Teatro alla Scala

4 - 16 Sep, 2026

Don Carlo · Wiener Staatsoper

Oct 20 - Nov 8, 2026

Faust · Teatro alla Scala

7 - 18 Apr, 2027

Manon Lescaut · Wiener Staatsoper

Past events

8 - 27 Jun, 2026

Carmen · Teatro alla Scala

Jun 5, 2026

Campioni del mondo · Fondazione Arena di Verona

Future and recently performed repertoire

Turiddu in Cavalleria Rusticana by Mascagni

Bayerische Staatsoper

Chevalier René Des Grieux in Manon Lescaut by Puccini

Wiener Staatsoper

Cavaradossi in Tosca by Puccini

Staatsoper Berlin

Roméo in Roméo et Juliette by Gounod

Teatro dell'Opera di Roma

Don Carlo in Don Carlos by Verdi

Wiener Staatsoper

Faust in Faust by Gounod

Teatro alla Scala

Don José in Carmen by Bizet

Teatro alla Scala

About

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