Newsgroup: it.arti.musica.classica.mod
Titolo: New York Times sulla ristrutturazione della Scala

E' incredibile quanto gli stranieri ne sappiano + di noi.
Anke sulle cose di casa nostra.
Facciano l' es della Scala: il New York Times esce ieri con un
articolo di Alan RIDING in cui informa:
·	ke il Management scaligero ha preso la decisione di non
computerizzare integralmente il macchinario di palcoscenico per non
incorrere negli stessi problemi ke han fatto tribolare il Covent
Garden, ma di modernizzare l' impianto idraulico esistente
·	ke a seguito di ciò, oltre ke dell' ampliamento dell' area di
stoccaggio scenografie (a spese dell' ex-Piccola Scala) le
rappresentazioni operistike alla Scala passeranno dalle attuali 90 a
120-160 l' anno
·	ke con la recita dell' Otello nella prossima serata inaugurale
del 7 Dic 2001 Placido Domingo farà la sua ultima apparizione nel
ruolo
·	ke il punto + alto del Trovatore mutiano di quest' anno è
stata l' eccitante scoperta del giovane tenore Salvatore Licitra nel
ruolo di Manrico
·	ke nel calendario della prossima Stagione 2001-2 ci saranno,
oltre ke Otello, anke Traviata, Rigoletto ed opere di Gluck e Mozart
·	ka alla riapertura - sperabilmente il 7.12.2004 - della Scala
rinnovata verrà eseguita la stessa opera di Salieri, "L'Europa
Riconosciuta," con cui il Teatro fu inaugurato nel 1778.
Vedere il testo integrale dell' art in inglese nel follow-up.
LUX

............... testo integrale dell' art in inglese.............
July 10, 2001 
Arts Abroad: Closing La Scala to Open It Up
By ALAN RIDING
MILAN - Europe's opera houses seem to have a way of creating high
drama off the stage as well as on, whether it is the recurrent strikes
at the Paris National Opera or the 1994 fire in Barcelona that
destroyed the Liceu Theater, now rebuilt. Or the disarray in Venice's
plans to reconstruct the Fenice Theater, which burned down in 1996. Or
the infighting that recently accompanied reconstruction of the Royal
Opera House in London.
Now it is the turn of the Teatro alla Scala to have a $50 million
renovation, and the people of Milan are holding their breath. This
venerable opera house in the heart of this city will close on Dec. 31
and transfer its activities to a new theater being built on Milan's
outskirts. 
But people cannot help wondering if La Scala's management can keep its
promise to reopen on Dec. 7, 2004.
Perhaps surprisingly, there is good reason to believe it can. While
opera performances here can still be disrupted by angry verbal
exchanges between La Scala's music director, Riccardo Muti, and the
so-called loggionisti (fans in the highest balcony), theater officials
have been quietly preparing for the closing since 1996, when they got
approval from the city, which owns the opera house and will pay for
the renovation.
The principal focus of course is on what must be done to modernize La
Scala, which opened in 1778 and was largely reconstructed in 1946
after severe war damage. When it comes to the magnificent horseshoe
auditorium, with its six golden balconies, the answer is nothing
beyond redecoration. But the entire backstage area and adjoining
office space, rehearsal rooms and dressing rooms are to be gutted and
rebuilt, with even the flies to be heightened.
The need for change is self-evident. The theater still uses prewar
stage machinery, and a lack of storage space limits performances each
year to just 90 of opera and 40 of ballet. "The problem is that La
Scala is opera, and the demand is great," said Carlo Fontana, the
house's general manager. "After the renovation we'll be able to put on
120 to 160 opera performances a year as well as more ballet."
The key to this will be more space to keep sets in the theater. "At
present we cannot have two or three opera productions going on at the
same time," explained Paolo Arcà, La Scala's artistic director.
"People here like big sets, not just a chair in the middle of the
stage for `Lohengrin,' as they might in Germany. So we can only
present one opera a month, perhaps alternating with a ballet, but
nothing more."
In 2004 this should change. The Piccola Scala, a little-used small
theater in the present building, will be converted into storage space,
while more space will be created behind, beside and above the stage.
Conveniently nearby, part of the abandoned Ansaldo steel factory has
been renovated by the city government and is being used by La Scala as
workshops and rehearsal rooms.
La Scala also appears to have learned from the disastrous planning
that plagued the closing of the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden in
the late 1990's. For instance, while completely revamping La Scala's
backstage, Mr. Fontana and his engineering team have decided against
computerizing the stage machinery, choosing to modernize existing
hydraulic lifts rather than risk the teething problems experienced
with Covent Garden's new high-tech stage.
Further, while Covent Garden's opera and ballet companies were left to
wander around rented spaces, La Scala has arranged to set up temporary
home in the Teatro degli Arcimboldi, a new auditorium being built by
the Pirelli tire company 30 minutes' drive from downtown Milan. It
will offer 2,500 seats compared with 1,800 in La Scala, but the stage
size is the same, allowing sets to move from one to the other.
The big concern, mentioned in nervous whispers, is whether Milan's
opera lovers will move from La Scala's glittering social arena to a
somewhat run-down part of town. Mr. Arcà, himself a composer, said he
had the answer. "The program for the new season must be, I don't want
to say popular, I want to say attractive," he said, "so I will do the
masterpieces of opera, Gluck, Mozart and the 19th century."
Among these will be three Verdi operas - "La Traviata," "Otello" and
"Rigoletto" - that are among 11 of his works contributing this year to
the celebration of the centenary of his death here. This year's
schedule also includes the first production of "Un Giorno di Regno" at
La Scala since 1840 and has already offered new productions of "Un
Ballo in Maschera" and "Il Trovatore" (the high point of which was
Milan's excited discovery of the young Italian tenor Salvatore Licitra
in the challenging role of Manrico).
That said, despite the eyebrows raised here when La Scala presented 12
performances of "West Side Story" last year, Mr. Arcà insists that he
is under no pressure to popularize his program. 
The Verdi Year is special, he noted, but in the 1999-2000 season he
presented an all-20th-century program, which included decidedly
up-market works like Poulenc's "Dialogues des Carmélites," Berg's
"Wozzeck," Britten's "Peter Grimes" and "Tatiana," a contemporary
opera by Azio Corghi.
In all areas La Scala has enjoyed greater freedom since it was
transformed from a municipal department into a foundation in 1997.
While still owned by the city government, which provides 45 percent of
its $100 million annual budget, it now operates independently and is
encouraged to seek private sponsors. Among the first was Alberto
Vilar, the American opera benefactor, who donated $2 million toward
this year's new productions of "Il Trovatore," "Un Ballo in Maschera"
and "Otello."
"Otello," with Plácido Domingo making his final appearance in the
title role, will in turn open the 2001-2 season on Dec. 7, just 24
days before the theater closes. La Scala's opera season always begins
with a gala evening on Dec. 7, the day of St. Ambrose, Milan's patron
saint, so the date chosen for the theater's reopening in 2004 is no
surprise. 
Mr. Fontana, Mr. Arcà and Mr. Muti, however, have found another symbol
to dramatize the occasion. When the curtain goes up, it will be for
"L'Europa Riconosciuta," a long forgotten opera that Antonio Salieri
wrote for the inauguration of La Scala on Aug. 3, 1778.

 oltre ke Otello, anke Traviata, Rigoletto ed opere di Gluck e Mozart
e il Boris Godunov diretto da Gergiev.
Ciao
Rudy
====================================================
If the doors of perception were cleansed every 
thing would appear  to man as it is: infinite.
William Blake
====================================================

e il Boris Godunov diretto da Gergiev.
Ovviamente dimenticavo ke l' unico a saperne sulla Scala + del NYT è
sempre il Ns Rudy!...	;-)))
LUX