LA SCALA: 250 YEARS OF HISTORY REVEALED
LA SCALA: 250 YEARS OF HISTORY REVEALED
In 2028, Teatro alla Scala will celebrate its 250 years anniversary. The constructions of the Theatre began in 1776, on the foundation of the Santa Maria alla Scala church and Teatro alla Scala officially opened on August 3rd, 1778 with Antonio Salieri’s opera L’Europa riconosciuta, to a libretto by Mattia Verazi.
To commemorate such an important anniversary, the Theatre’s Historical Artistic Archive have initiated an ambitious project to build a new Digital Asset Management system (DAM) platform, that will allow professionals, researchers, scholars, and the general public to access an incredibly vast amount of information on what has been written, produced and performed at Teatro alla Scala in the past 250 years.
Much of the data in the Historical Artistic Archive has already been digitized and made publicly accessible. However, the goal of the new DAM is to drastically improve the way this information is accessed and experienced. By creating a unified, one-stop platform capable of gathering information from various sources and storage systems, the DAM aims to deliver the most accurate and comprehensive insights. This will not only unlock the extraordinary history and cultural heritage of Teatro alla Scala, but also enable its transmission to future generations and foster a deeper, broader understanding of classical music and opera.
The Teatro alla Scala Association of America commits to supporting the development of the new DAM platform, as well as the ongoing restoration and digitalization of the Theatre’s Historical Archives, with a focus in the 2025/2026 Season on Historical Costumes and Mariano Fortuny’s sketches for Der Ring des Nibelungen.
Fundraising goal for “La Scala: 250 years of history revealed” project $ 300,000*
TEATRO ALLA SCALA HISTORICAL ARTISTIC ARCHIVES
- Historical Productions Archive
- A chronology containing all the information related to performances held at Teatro alla Scala (conductor, director, cast, …) from Season 1942/1943 onwards.
- Giampiero Tintori Archive
- The historical chronology of La Scala’s performances from 1778 to 1977, currently being digitized.
- Music, Audio, and Audiovisual Archive
- 26,000 tapes (of which 11,000 are audiovisual).
- Sketches and Costume Designs Archive
- 30,000 pieces (of which 16,000 are digitalized).
- Costumes Archive
- Several thousands, 2,200 of which have historical importance.
- Photographic Archive
- 1,100,000 images (of which 484,000 are digitized).
- Documentary Archives
- Directing scores Archive; Posters and playbills Archive; Publications Archive; Osimo-Buzzi Archive;
- Pio Istituto Teatrale Archive.
- Beyond the above-mentioned archives, the Teatro alla Scala Museum also has its own collection of nearly 10,000 pieces of sketches and costumes, 3,000 posters, 6,000 librettos, over 10,000 autographed letters, 7,000 photographs, 10,000 engravings, as well as several musical manuscripts.
RESTORATION AND DIGITALIZATION OF THE THEATRE’S ARCHIVES
The archives of the Theatre are constantly undergoing processes of study, conservation, enrichment, and reorganization, while new elements are added to their vast collections every day of the Theatre’s activity. During the Season 2025/2026 La Scala major projects of restoration and digitalization will be:
Historical costumes: a group of costumes of exceptional value covering a period from 1937 to 1973, bearing the signatures of artists such as Picasso, De Chirico, Salvatore Fiume, Nicola Benois, Piero Tosi, and Lila De Nobili. The performers who have worn them include names such as Renata Tebaldi, Maria Callas, Rudolf Nureyev, and Carla Fracci.
Mariano Fortuny’s sketches for Der Ring des Nibelungen: several extremely precious large-scale oil sketches on canvas in preparation for the staging of Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, which was scheduled to be performed at La Scala in March and April 1950. On the occasion of the new staging of Der Ring des Nibelungen at Teatro alla Scala, Mariano Fortuny’s sketches will undergo a restoration process and will be presented to the public in a new light as part of the exhibition.
*As per approved grants of Teatro alla Scala Association of America