- The world-famous opera house in Milan. It was inaugurated in August 1778, the year and was originally called Nuovo Teatro Reggio Ducale alla Scala. First production at the theater was "Recognized Europe" Antonio Salieri. Over the past 200 years at La Scala were virtually all the great opera singers in Italy and a huge number of celebrities from around the world. Today La Scala is one of the leading opera and ballet theaters in the world. Season the theater traditionally begins on December 7 - the Day of St. Ambrose, the patron saint of Milan.

At the Museum of La Scala, which you can get in through the theater lobby, a collection of paintings, drawings, statues, costumes and other exhibits related to the history of theater and opera as a whole.

In 1776, a terrible fire destroyed Milan's Teatro Regio Ducale. Immediately after that, a group of wealthy citizens who had their own box at the theater, wrote to Archduke Ferdinand of Austria with a request to build a new theater burned down in return. The project of the new building work neoclassical architect Giuseppe Piermarini, but his first project was rejected. Only some time later, the Empress Maria Theresia approved a somewhat modified idea of ​​the architect.

The new theater was built on the site of the church of Santa Maria alla Scala - hence the title of his contemporary. Over 2 years working on the construction of the building architect Giuseppe Piermarini, Nozetti Pietro and Antonio and Giuseppe Fe. New Scala accommodates more than 3 thousand people, and it had already been the scene of one of the biggest in Italy (16, 15 * 20 m, 4 m * 26 m). Construction costs were offset by the sale of the theater boxes, which were richly decorated with the owners (one of the first, for example, was Stendhal). Soon, La Scala became the meeting place of nobles and wealthy residents of Milan, but could go to the theater and less affluent audience - for them has been provided so-called "lodzhone." As in most theaters of the time, La Scala was also a casino, players who placed in the foyer.

Initially, La Scala was covered by more than a thousand oil lamps, and in case of fire a few rooms of the building were filled with hundreds of sump pumps. Subsequently, oil lamps were replaced with gas, and those in turn, electrically in 1883, the year.

In 1907 the building was renovated La Scala, and the amount of visual places decreased slightly - up to 2800. During the Second World War the theater was severely damaged by air strikes, but in 1946 was rebuilt and reopened. The first postwar staging was a concert under the direction of Arturo Toscanini, a student and colleague of the great Giuseppe Verdi and Giacomo Puccini.