(Milan) The 245-year-old La Scala in Milan entered the digital age by launching its own television channel on Thursday which will broadcast live operas, ballets and concerts and will also allow you to watch old shows from your sofa .
The streaming program will be inaugurated on February 14 with the live broadcast of a performance of the opera The Sicilian Vespers by Giuseppe Verdi, but the first performances from the archives are available this Thursday.
“We want to be able to go to every house”, wherever it is, including in “the South American Pampa”, explained during a press conference the director of La Scala, Dominique Meyer.
In addition, “we want to decide ourselves what will be broadcast”, it is a question of “independence”, he underlined. La Scala’s partnership with the public channel Rai will however be maintained.
La Scala thus follows the example of many opera houses around the world, including those in Vienna, Paris or New York, which have sought to target a wider audience or to reinvent themselves in the face of the coronavirus pandemic which has blocked access to their rooms.
A pioneer in the field, Mr. Meyer had launched the streaming platform of the Vienna Opera in 2013, of which he was the director from 2010 to 2020.
The new platform, called “LaScala.tv”, is aimed at music lovers “who already know and frequent the theater, who will have the opportunity to see shows they have already seen” and to “catch up on those they have missed”, explains the theater in a press release.
But this offer, paying except for schools, is also aimed at an audience who, “for reasons of distance, cannot always go to Milan, but who want to know the program and be part of the La Scala family”.
Prices range from 2.90 to 11.90 euros per show, varying according to the audio and video quality offered and the mode of transmission, live or from the house archives.
This platform is also dedicated to younger generations, thus having tools “to easily and naturally approach an immense artistic heritage that is part of the history and collective identity” of Italy.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, which led the prestigious theater to cancel many performances, La Scala had nine cameras for recording shows.
A novelty reserved for virtual spectators during intermissions, they will now be able to go behind the scenes to discover the protagonists and the secrets of the staging.