EPSG:4326

Percussionists of Teatro alla Scala

Teatro alla Scala

A huge success since its creation in 2011, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland solidifies Christopher Wheeldon’s place among the most interesting contemporary choreographers for his skill and originality in engaging and even entertaining audiences with a modern narrative ballet, described almost as “a classic of our time,” where academic technique blends with contemporary sensibility. An explosion of colours, innovative and sophisticated choreography, imaginative and astonishing costumes and sets – from puppetry to projections – and a score that combines contemporary sound worlds with sweeping melodies that gesture to ballet scores of the 19th century. With Alice, we are drawn into a myriad of adventures and encounters; the extraordinary and recognisable characters from Lewis Carroll’s books provide the opportunity for the artists to shine in a variety of styles, even winking at the great 19th-century ballets: how can one resist the Queen of Hearts in a hilarious send-up of the Rose Adage.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai, Michele Gamba, Minh-Tam Nguyen - 35° Festival Milano Musica

Alda Caiello and Quartetto Noûs - 35° Festival Milano Musica

After the Kurt Weill Triptych and the Season opening in tribute to Shostakovich, Music Director M° Chailly adds another key milestone to his ongoing exploration of Verdi’s work, completing his survey of the composer’s early operas with the work that marked a turning point. The triumph of Nabucodonosor at La Scala in 1842 signaled the definitive breakthrough of the composer, while also forging a strong bond between the Milanese theatre (and, more broadly, Italian opera) and the emerging spirit of unification and the Risorgimento. The new production, in which the divertissements composed by Verdi for the 1848 revival in Brussels will be performed, marks the La Scala debut of the now well-established talent of Alessandro Talevi, a South African director who has reconnected with his Italian roots. The cast is the best imaginable: Anna Netrebko, Luca Salsi, Francesco Meli, Michele Pertusi, and Veronica Simeoni. Also central to the production is the Chorus, conducted by Alberto Malazzi, performing the iconic “Va, pensiero.”

Nabucodonosor

Michele Mariotti

The opera that Claude Debussy created from Maurice Maeterlinck’s symbolist drama stands as one of the greatest achievements in the history of musical theatre. The stage of La Scala recalls productions of exceptional significance: from Victor de Sabata’s conducting in 1948 and 1953, to Herbert von Karajan’s in 1962, and the legendary staging by Antoine Vitez with Claudio Abbado on the podium in 1986, while Georges Prêtre conducted the productions in 1973, 1977, and 2005. In such a prestigious interpretative history, we find the return of Maxime Pascal’s fresh and insightful artistry – one of today’s most compelling French conductors, who has led major contemporary works at La Scala – and the La Scala debut of Romeo Castellucci, a renowned Italian stage director. As one of Italy’s most influential directors—regularly invited to major European theatres and festivals—Castellucci brings a vision of theatre that is both sacred and visionary, deeply rooted in art history, and promises a profound encounter with the symbolism of Debussy’s work.

Pelléas et Mélisande

The world premiere of Giacomo Puccini's final masterpiece took place at La Scala on April 25, 1926. The composer had died in Brussels on November 29, 1924, without being able to complete the score. Arturo Toscanini had asked Franco Alfano to prepare a finale, which remained problematic. On the night of the premiere, Toscanini placed his baton on the last note composed by Puccini, upon Liù's death: a gesture that has remained in the history of La Scala and is also remembered in the production conceived by Davide Livermore for Puccini's centenary. A rich production, combining technological marvels and artisanal expertise, revived under the baton of Nicola Luisotti.

Turandot

Alba and Lorenzo Gentili-Tedeschi - 35° Festival Milano Musica

Filippo Gorini - 35° Festival Milano Musica

Trio di Parma - 35° Festival Milano Musica

Quartetto Noûs - 35° Festival Milano Musica

Teatro alla Scala String Quartet

Everybody to the Opera, Kids! Vol. V

A true performance in the Boxes Foyer, titled Un, due, tre... Turandot !, tailored for preschoolers and infants. An age in which music can play a fundamental role in growth and learning.

OPERA BABY: Un, due, tre… Turandot!

Once again this year the young Ballet School students become acquainted with the great masters of the classical, modern and contemporary repertoires. To these aspiring young artists, dancing at the Teatro alla Scala means something more than simply putting their technical and interpretive skills to the test: it means having an educational and professional experience of the highest level on a much dreamed-of stage.

La Scala Academy's Ballet School Show

McGregor / Maillot / Naharin - Fondazione Ospedale Niguarda ETS

This adaptation of Rigoletto is designed for children aged 3 to 6, and transforms Verdi’s opera into a large theatrical game. The world of Mantua becomes a colorful board game where the characters move like pieces, and the audience is invited to participate actively: singing, playing, and discovering. Gilda is the protagonist of this adventure: no longer just a romantic figure, but a girl who learns to make her own choices and follow her own path. With lightness and imagination, children are guided on a journey where even play becomes an opportunity to understand more about themselves, others, and the world.

Gilda, nel gioco del Duca

Three titles never before presented at La Scala, three acclaimed and influential contemporary authors, a new stylistic test for La Scala’s artists. In Chroma, which explores the drama of the human body and its ability to communicate emotions and deepest thoughts, McGregor’s inventive and energetic choreography which 20 years ago earned him the appointment as resident choreographer at the Royal Ballet. In Dov’è la luna, Jean-Christophe Maillot’s intimate work with its chiaroscuro tones, shakes and extends the vocabulary and technique of classical dance, pushed by the choreographer to its furthest boundaries. To finally explode with the enthralling power of Minus 16, one of the most distinguished manifestos of Ohad Naharin’s originality and his innovative movement language, which bursts into La Scala for the first time bringing dancers to challenge themselves, breaking down the barriers between artist and spectator in an intense and joyful experience for both.

McGregor / Maillot / Naharin

In La Scala’s kitchens, Mimì and Teo stumble upon a secret recipe… signed by Gioachino Rossini! And who knows—perhaps with a pinch of salt, a dash of pepper, and a touch of imagination, our heroes will discover that, just like in cooking, music always requires the right balance.

Mimì & Teo and… Rossini’s Recipe

The final day of The Ring is staged with The Twilight of the Gods . This completes Sir David McVicar's directorial vision, which returns the Ring to its mythical foundations and narrative linearity, rightfully placing it among the benchmarks of the Western canon. Ancient tragedy, Baroque theater, and Elizabethan drama converge in a reading that identifies two episodes of comedy— Rheingold and Siegfried —and two episodes of tragedy, Die Walküre and, above all, Götterdämmerung , which marks the final arrival at catastrophe.

Götterdämmerung (Der Ring des Nibelungen)

The third episode of the Tetralogy introduces the character of Siegfried, the son of siblings Siegmund and Sieglinde, who grew up in the lair of the treacherous Mime and was called upon to reforge the sword Nothung with which he would slay the dragon Fafner, guardian of the treasure, before freeing Brünnhilde from the spell of fire. A young man unfamiliar with fear, he is the protagonist of a fairytale plot that recurs with the sentiment of Nature and the obstacles to be overcome, culminating in his encounter with the Valkyrie, who renounces her divine nature for him.

Siegfried (Der Ring des Nibelungen)

Did Leopold Mozart really take his son, Wolfgang Amadeus, on a journey through Italy? What a wonderful adventure it would have been to travel with them. But be careful with time travel… it just might come true!

Mimì & Teo... A Trip with Mozart

Esa-Pekka Salonen / Sibelius

After ten years, Teatro alla Scala presented a new production of Ring des Nibelungen in the fall of 2024 , conducted by Simone Young and Alexander Soddy, who join the ranks of great maestros such as Toscanini, De Sabata, Krauss, Furtwängler, Cluytens, Muti, and Barenboim. The direction is by David McVicar, one of the most authoritative names on the international stage, who has won acclaim at La Scala in a vast repertoire, from Cavalli to Berlioz, Cilea, and Verdi.

Das Rheingold (Der Ring des Nibelungen)

Giorgio Bernasconi" Ensemble of La Scala Academy

Evergreen Vivaldi

The Twilight of the Gods marks the final day of The Ring of the Nibelung , before the complete performance of two cycles of the Tetralogy . This completes Sir David McVicar's directorial vision, which returns The Ring to its mythical foundations and narrative linearity, rightfully placing it among the reference points of the Western canon. Ancient tragedy, Baroque theater, and Elizabethan drama converge in a reading that identifies two episodes of comedy— Rheingold and Siegfried —and two delves into tragedy, Die Walküre and, above all, Götterdämmerung , which marks the final arrival at catastrophe.

Götterdämmerung

The tribute from La Scala and its artists to Carla Fracci continues, as she remains a pivotal figure in the history of dance, a source of inspiration for generations of young people, not just in the world of ballet. Ballet director Frédéric Olivieri continues the tradition established in 2022 by Manuel Legris, celebrating dance and ballet in the name of this extraordinary star. Following the sell-out success of previous editions, there will be two performances in 2026, the year that marks both the fifth anniversary of Carla Fracci’s passing and the 90th anniversary of her birth. The vast and rich repertoire of her signature roles and the ballets she performed will be revived with international guests, the full La Scala Ballet Company – étoile, principal dancers, soloists, and artists of the Corps de Ballet – along with students from the School, the present and future of La Scala’s dance tradition.

Riccardo Chailly / Hindemith / Gershwin

Comedian Harmonists: The Voices of Memory

William Forsythe Evening / The Blake Works - Beijing

National Centre for the Performing Arts

Lyric Opera soloists of the Teatro alla Scala Academy

Don Quixote - Beijing

Members of the Teatro alla Scala Orchestra

Falstaff is an old, roguish puppeteer who, short of money, devises schemes and intrigues to survive. His puppets and marionettes, together with boys and girls, laugh and have fun at his clumsy tricks, then help him set things right again. We thus enter a timeless world, populated by masks, puppets and marionettes, evoking photographs from the past with the vividness of the present. A world in which everything is a prank!

The adaptation adopts a “theatre within the theatre” structure to enhance the Shakespearean dramatic source and the role of the authors, drawing on the canons of commedia dell’arte and the art of puppetry. The themes highlighted include play and mischief, as well as awareness and self-determination, especially for the female characters.

Falstaff: burattini e burle

It’s Christmas morning in Milan, and Mary, the young girl from Hoffmann’s famous tale, has now grown into a young woman in search of happiness and, perhaps, her Nutcracker…

The Nutcracker Method

The most sumptuous and dreamlike ballet, almost the “ballet par excellence”: The Sleeping Beauty, when it was first performed in St Petersburg in 1890, saw the development of an exemplary collaboration between choreographer (Petipa), composer (Tchaikovsky), and the director of the Imperial Theatres, Vsevoložskij, who also created the costumes, to present to the Petersburg nobility the fabulous grandeur of the court of King Louis XIV. It was at La Scala that Nureyev entrusted the debut of his Sleeping Beauty in 1966, performing on stage alongside Carla Fracci in a role considered a key ballet in his artistic life. From the original choreography, Nureyev managed to preserve its purity while infusing it with a new theatrical breath, with a complex choreography that revealed the characters’ psychology, the Prince among them. Six years after the previous performances, the production returns in the setting created by Oscar-winning designer Franca Squarciapino for La Scala in 1993, splendid in its exquisite décor and costumes evoking the court of Versailles.

The Sleeping Beauty

The Sleeping Beauty - UNDER30 Preview

Members of Teatro alla Scala Orchestra

On the fiftieth anniversary of Shostakovich's death, La Scala opens its season with his masterpiece, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District , based on Nikolai Leskov's story in which a young bride, with the complicity of her lover, kills her husband and tyrannical father-in-law, but is discovered and ends up committing suicide in Siberia, betrayed by all. After its debut in St. Petersburg, the opera, which was intended to be the first chapter of a trilogy on the condition of women in Russia, was enormously successful at home and abroad. Stalin attended a performance in Moscow in 1936; two days later, the famous criticism in Pravda, titled "Chaos Instead of Music," appeared, decrying both the opera and the composer. Years later, Shostakovich prepared a new version, which premiered in Moscow in 1963 under the title Katarina Izmailova , after Superintendent Ghiringhelli had unsuccessfully attempted to secure its premiere at La Scala. Today, the Theatre presents the 1934 version, conducted by Maestro Chailly and featuring the debut of director Vasily Barkhatov.

A Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District

Cameristi della Scala

Filarmonica della Scala / Robert Treviño / Arsenii Moon

Daniel Barenboim / Beethoven

Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano

Festival MITO SettembreMusica / Sir Antonio Pappano / London Symphony Orchestra

Mimì wonders about her future: “What will I be when I grow up?… a marine biologist?” Yes! So why not start from the canals of the Navigli and set off on an adventure through the waters of the world…

Mimì & Teo and… The Fantastic Raft

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.

Carmen

Myung-Whun Chung / Beethoven / Brahms

Treble Voices Chorus of the Teatro alla Scala Academy

A milestone in the history of musical theatre, Lucia di Lammermoor was born from the encounter between the sensibility of Italian melodrama and the gothic atmosphere of Walter Scott’s novel. Director Yannis Kokkos, who originally staged this production in 2023 under the baton of Riccardo Chailly, sees the opera as a ruthless hunt in which the victim is driven toward the depths of madness—evoked by Donizetti through the ethereal sound of the glass harmonica. The revival is entrusted to Speranza Scappucci, a conductor well-versed in bel canto, who made her La Scala debut with Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi. The cast features distinguished voices: alongside the leads—Rosa Feola, Pene Pati, and Boris Pinkhasovich—is Michele Pertusi as a commanding Raimondo.

Lucia di Lammermoor

A milestone in the history of musical theater, born from the encounter between the sensibilities of Italian melodrama and the Gothic atmospheres of Walter Scott's novel, Lucia di Lammermoor is conceived by director Yannis Kokkos, who created this production in 2003 under the baton of Riccardo Chailly, as a merciless hunt whose victim is driven to the depths of madness, evoked by Donizetti with the diaphanous sound of the glass harmonica. The revival is entrusted to an expert conductor in bel canto, Speranza Scappucci, who made her debut at La Scala with Bellini's I Capuleti ei Montecchi .

Rudolf Nureyev’s Don Quixote returns to the stage, a flagship production of the La Scala Ballet Company since 1980, when the famous ballet entered the repertoire with Nureyev himself in the lead alongside Carla Fracci. With its lively energy and the warm colours of the production by Raffaele Del Savio and Anna Anni, it will transport the audience with freshness, joy, virtuosity, and rich choreography to a captivating Spain, featuring gypsy dances, fandangos, matadors, windmills, and the suspended candour of the Garden of the Dryads. Set to Minkus’ immediate music, the adventures of Don Quixote and his loyal squire Sancho Panza intertwine, or rather serve as the backdrop for a love story and an evening of sparkling, temperamental dance, with amusing secondary roles and virtuosic leading parts. Through escapades, deceptions, and disguises, Don Quixote will dance with his Dulcinea, while the young Kitri and the barber Basilio will realise their dream.

Don Quixote

Each year, La Scala entrusts a production to the forces of the Teatro alla Scala Academy of Performing Arts: the orchestra, soloists, and chorus are given the opportunity to engage with the main stage in front of the Season’s audience. For 2026, a new production of Gaetano Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore is planned, conceived and designed to later be adapted as a performance for young audiences. The production offers the opportunity for two important debuts: Marco Alibrando, one of the most interesting Italian conductors of the new generation, recently appointed Music Director of the Nationaltheatre and Staatskapelle Weimar and the musical force behind the innovative Milan-based project Voce all’Opera, is rapidly establishing his career both in Italy and internationally. Maria Mauti arrives at La Scala following her work as a writer and documentary filmmaker, as well as her first opera directing experience with Norma in Macerata.

L’elisir d’amore

A blessing and a challenge in the programming of every major opera house, La traviata holds a special place in La Scala’s history, marked by the legendary 1953 production conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini, directed by Luchino Visconti, and starring Maria Callas. That iconic interpretation seemed untouchable until 1990, when Riccardo Muti commissioned a new, lavish production from director Liliana Cavani, with sets by Dante Ferretti and costumes by Gabriella Pescucci, featuring an all-young cast. This evocative and poetic staging returns to the stage in 2026, conducted by Michele Gamba, who in recent years has led major productions at La Scala including Rigoletto, Médée, Turandot, and Tosca. The cast is unmissable: alongside the charismatic Nadine Sierra in the title role, Piero Pretti and Iván Ayón Rivas alternate as Alfredo, with Boris Pinkhasovich and Amartuvshin Enkhbat as Giorgio Germont

La traviata

A story of love, betrayal, and redemption, set between joyful peasant festivals and the white throng of willis, as captivating as they are merciless: Giselle, the quintessential romantic ballet, continues to move audiences with its delicate story, drawing them in through the technique and sensitivity of the performers’ interpretation, in the contrast between a sunny world and a dark realm populated by spirits. The La Scala Ballet brings back the unforgettable choreography of Coralli-Perrot in the revival by Yvette Chauviré, who, with her care and refinement in roles like Giselle, elevated the classical tradition in all its purity and earned global acclaim. Her version, which first premiered at La Scala in 1950, saw her perform as the ill-fated young peasant girl who dreamed of love and loved to dance. With the classic La Scala staging by Aleksandr Benois, Giselle is a part of the theatre’s history, performed by its artists in many countries around the world, infusing each revival with new life and emotions, keeping this wonderful production alive.

Giselle

On World Animal Day, our heroes will embark on a journey through some of the most beautiful and famous works in the operatic world… and who knows, the sound of a horn might just take them to other places as well.

Mimì & Teo and… The Magic Horn

Impressions… on Ravel and Debussy

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

L'elisir d'amore for Children

Teo is having some trouble with his La Scala report card: he just can’t seem to understand opera! What he needs is an artificial intelligence… a robot capable of showing him a different perspective on music. But watch out for those notes!

Mimì & Teo and… The Jazz Robot!

In the spirit of Stravinsky, timeless masterpieces, pinnacles of art and dance that have made history. A unique, highly anticipated event: for the first time, La Scala, its artists, and its audience will be overwhelmed by the telluric force of one of the most powerful readings of Le Sacre du printemps, the one created by Pina Bausch in 1975 for the Tanztheater Wuppertal. Emotional rawness, of rare expressionist power, earthy and dramatic in the viscerality of an ancient ritual, a true foundation of contemporary dance. Fundamental to 20th-century ballet is Apollo, which opens the evening, in the brilliance of Balanchine’s style, which in 1928, at the age of 24, achieved international recognition and began his lifelong partnership with the composer.

Teatro alla Scala

Jan 11 - Nov 15, 2026

Members of the Teatro alla Scala Orchestra

Jun 7, 2026

Mimì & Teo and… The Fantastic Raft

8 - 27 Jun, 2026

Carmen

May 16 - Jun 9, 2026

Nabucodonosor

11 - 17 Jun, 2026

Myung-Whun Chung / Beethoven / Brahms

May 31, 2026

Percussionists of Teatro alla Scala

21 - 30 May, 2026

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Teatro alla Scala