la Scala Opera (Opera company)
La Scala (Italian: Teatro alla
Scala), is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre
was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New
Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala. The premiere performance was Antonio
Salieri's Europa riconosciuta.
The Teatro alla Scala was founded, under the auspices of the Empress Maria
Theresa of Austria, to replace the Royal Ducal Theatre, which was destroyed by
fire on 26 February 1776 and had until then been the home of opera in Milan. The
cost of building the new theatre was borne by the owners of the boxes at the
Ducal, in exchange for possession of the land on which stood the church of Santa
Maria alla Scala (hence the name) and for renewed ownership of their boxes.
Designed by the great neoclassical architect Giuseppe Piermarini, La Scala
opened on 3 August 1778 with Antonio Salieri's opera L'Europa riconosciuta, to a
libretto by Mattia Verazi.
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