Travel inside the Teatro alla Scala, step on the stage like an opera star, walk through secret corridors, enter the Royal Stage, browse the industrial laboratory and enlarge the smallest and most refined details of the costumes worn by Maria Callas thanks to the Art Camera used for the first time on stage costumes. Teatro alla Scala puts its most precious treasures online on Google Arts & Culture to reach audiences around the world at home, after the closure for the pandemic. And in the days of the lockdown 92 artists from five countries created the first opera performance of La Scala performed in quarantine: a concerted by Giuseppe Verdi's 'Simon Boccanegra'.
"We are happy to present this new project with our Google friends who has already done a lot in the world with museums. La Scala is one of the largest opera houses in the world, one of the most important, it is a brand. 250 year old has built a wonderful archive with many images and memories, costumes. Our whole team has put on this site more than 240 thousand photos, 1,200 images that come from the museum, 16 thousand musical documents. A very important collection. an exhibition of 12 historical costumes has been organized with high definition cameras where you can see the smallest details of each costume. A wonderful thing. Everyone with this system can travel inside La Scala "said the superintendent of the Theater, Dominique Meyer, in connection from Vienna to the online press conference dedicated to the project in which Amit Sood, Director of Google Art & Culture took part; Luisella Mazza, Head of Global Google Art & Culture and Filippo del Corno, Councilor for Culture of the Municipality of Milan.
"These works that are done with technology to bring together all those who love opera are important. This wonderful project is dangerous only for one point: you can spend the nights browsing and it is a great pleasure. I too have learned many things I didn't know about La Scala. It's a way to create a new, very fun and very beautiful culture. It adds aspects that otherwise we wouldn't have available, "explained Meyer. And he underlined: "Of course, we work every day to ensure that when there is a green light we will be able to come back with our spectators to the theater. And we can't wait, but also when the shows, we will have the pleasure of going in the evening, when the day is over, a little in the secret corridors of the theater and learning about the things we didn't know about our history ".
Del Corno recalled that "La Scala has always been a symbol of beauty for its extraordinary architectural design, both in the original Piermarini building and in its transformations. It was a symbol of creativity, there are no counting the works that have been performed in absolute premiere and the extraordinary composers who had the opportunity to present their works and has always been a symbol of quality for the value of musical performances and stage creations. But today the most powerful symbol that Scala embodies is that of Historically it has always been like this, La Scala has experienced moments in which it has been able to identify itself with the history of the city This project therefore has enormous significance: the virtual doors of the Teatro alla Scala open to the world waiting for the physical ones to reopen ".
The project lasted two years and there are 42 stories collected that tell the story of La Scala. "It is clear - added Meyer - that this project will go on for many years. There are already many stories and more will be added". Among the artist's scenography you can see those of De Chirico, among the photos those of Gae Aulenti at work with Ronconi, browse the pages of a rare handwritten edition of Turandot's score or Verdi's first libretto of Nabucco. The online project can also be discovered on the App and work is underway to create a new Scala website.