“A riveder le stelle”: an alternative December 7
Despite the restrictions, the Teatro alla Scala celebrates 7th December with an evening broadcast by Rai Cultura on Rai 1 under the baton of Maestro Riccardo Chailly, directed by Davide Livermore and with the participation of 23 of the greatest voices of our time and of La Scala dancers.
“A rivedere le stelle” ("To see the stars again") are the last words of the famous final verse from the Inferno of the Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri's masterpiece, whose 700th anniversary of death Italy celebrates in 2021. But it is also the title of the evening presented today at La Scala by the Superintendent and Artistic Director Dominique Meyer with Music Director Maestro Riccardo Chailly, director Davide Livermore and the CEO of Rai Fabrizio Salini. An evening of music and dance with which La Scala, despite the closure of the theatres and the continuing health emergency, confirms its Sant’Ambrogio thanks to the collaboration with Rai Cultura, which will broadcast it on Rai 1, Radio 3 and Raiplay from 5 p.m.
On 7 December twenty-four of the greatest singers of our time will be in Milan to testify their closeness to a theatre that has been hit hardest by the pandemic; but in addition to singers and dancers, orchestra professors and choir artists, this will be the evening of technicians, tailors, set designers, all those workers who - after the resumption of September, when La Scala presented a program of 66 evenings of entertainment until 7 December - had to suspend their activities in the face of the second wave of Coronavirus that has affected the whole world but the city of Milan in particular, bringing the contagion even within the walls of Piermarini.
It will not be a festive evening in these still dramatic weeks: it will be an evening of hope and determination in which La Scala and Rai will bring the value of opera and dance to the homes of Italians (but also to France and Germany thanks to the agreement with Arte, and to many other countries) through their highest performers, reaffirming not only the ability of art to express feelings, passions, beauty, but also its civil function. The journey into the enchantment of musical theatre and the truths it can tell us will focus on the Italian repertoire, but will also include pages by great European composers. It starts with extracts from Giuseppe Verdi’s operas and continues with Gaetano Donizetti, Giacomo Puccini, Georges Bizet, Jules Massenet, Richard Wagner and Gioachino Rossini, while the ballet music is by Pëtr Il’ič Čajkovskij, Davide Dileo, Erik Satie and Giuseppe Verdi. The choreographies are by Manuel Legris (who contributes to the evening with Verdi Suite, a creation in homage to Italian music), Rudolf Nureyev and Massimiliano Volpini.
The opera arias and dance moments will be connected and contextualized by texts recited by actors, to signify the continuity between the arts already indicated by the title which takes up Dante.
The call of La Scala was answered by the singers Ildar Abdrazakov, Roberto Alagna, Carlos Álvarez, Piotr Beczala, Benjamin Bernheim, Eleonora Buratto, Marianne Crebassa, Plácido Domingo, Rosa Feola, Juan Diego Flórez, Elīna Garanča, Vittorio Grigolo, Jonas Kaufmann, Aleksandra Kurzak, Francesco Meli, Camilla Nylund, Kristine Opolais, Lisette Oropesa, George Petean, Marina Rebeka, Luca Salsi, Andreas Schager, Ludovic Tézier, Sonya Yoncheva. All these artists did collaborate in the past with Teatro alla Scala and in many cases have made it their musical home by participating in various productions.
In the section dedicated to the ballet, which will be conducted by M° Michele Gamba, the protagonists will be the étoile Roberto Bolle, the first dancers Timofej Andrijashenko, Martina Arduino, Claudio Coviello, Nicoletta Manni and Virna Toppi and the soloists Marco Agostino and Nicola Del Freo.
The scenic layout, which sees the Theatre with the Orchestra at the centre of the stalls and artists not only on stage but also in the boxes and in different spaces of the building and workshops, is signed by the director together with Giò Forma, with D-Wok's digital scenography.
Thanks to an agreement between Teatro alla Scala and the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana, some of the most prestigious Italian designers will dress the artists on stage, coordinated by costume designer Gianluca Falaschi.
The broadcast on Rai 1, which will use ten cameras and a group of directors coordinated by Stefania Grimaldi, will be presented for the fifth consecutive year by Milly Carlucci, joined for the first time by Bruno Vespa.
The evening is made possible thanks to the support of Intesa Sanpaolo, the Season's main partner, Edison, Rolex, BMW Group Italia and Banca del Monte di Lombardia.