The Museo Teatrale alla Scala is a theatrical museum and library attached to the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Italy. Although it has a particular focus on the history of opera and of that opera house, its scope extends to Italian theatrical history in general, and includes displays relating, for example, to the commedia dell'arte and to the famous stage actress Eleonora Duse.
The museum, which is adjacent to the opera house in the Piazza della Scala, was opened on 8 March 1913 and was based on a large private collection which had been purchased at auction two years earlier, with funds raised both from government and private sources. The displays include costumes, set designs, autograph scores, and musical instruments of historical interest as well as paintings of musicians and actors, and a range of related paraphernalia including precious ceramic figures portraying characters from the commedia dell'arte, and board games which used to be played in the theatre's foyer.
The Biblioteca Livia Simoni, the museum's library, is situated on the II floor of the museum. It was formed in 1952 with 40,000 volumes donated by author and Corriere della Sera critic Renato Simoni; it is named in honour of his mother. Today it holds some 140,000 works related to theatre history, opera and ballet including librettos, periodicals and the correspondence of musicians, actors and dancers, as well as books.
Pietro Mascagni was an Italian composer primarily known for his operas. His 1890 masterpiece Cavalleria rusticana caused one of the greatest sensations in opera history and single-handedly ushered in the Verismo movement in Italian dramatic music. While it was often held that Mascagni, like Ruggero Leoncavallo, was a "one-opera man" who could never repeat his first success, L'amico Fritz and Iris have remained in the repertoire in Europe since their premieres.
Ruggero Leoncavallo was an Italian opera composer and librettist. Throughout his career, Leoncavallo produced numerous operas and songs but it his 1892 opera Pagliacci that remained his lasting contribution, despite attempts to escape the shadow of his greatest success.
La Scala is a historic opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as il Nuovo Regio Ducale Teatro alla Scala. The premiere performance was Antonio Salieri's Europa riconosciuta.
Hariclea Darclée was a celebrated Romanian operatic spinto soprano of Greek descent who had a three-decade-long career.
Turandot (1762) is a commedia dell'arte play by Count Carlo Gozzi after a supposedly Persian story from the collection Les Mille et un jours (1710–1712) by François Pétis de la Croix. Gozzi's Turandot was first performed at the Teatro San Samuele, Venice, on 22 January 1762.
The music of Milan has ancient roots. The Ambrosian chants are among the first codified music in Western culture, which fact led to the later development of its concept of scales, for example. In more recent history, the city of Milan has been an important social, cultural, political and commercial center not just in Italy, but in all of Europe.
Giorgio Strehler was an Italian stage director, theatre practitioner, actor and politician.
The Teatro Lirico is a theatre in Milan, Italy. In the 19th and early 20th centuries it hosted numerous opera performances, including the world premieres of Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore and Giordano's Fedora. The theatre, located on Via Rastrelli, closed in 1998. However, a restoration project was begun in April 2007, and it has finally re-opened in December 2021 as the Teatro Lirico Giorgio Gaber. Stage Entertainment carried on the renovation of the Theatre, completing all finishes and all workings started by the administration "Comune di Milano".
Le maschere is an opera in a prologue and three acts by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica.
Renato Simoni was an Italian journalist, playwright, writer and theatrical critic noted for his collaboration work with Giuseppe Adami for Giacomo Puccini's Turandot.
Adolfo Hohenstein was a German painter, advertiser, illustrator, set designer and costume designer. Hohenstein is considered the father of Italian poster art and an exponent of the Stile Liberty, the Italian Art Nouveau. Together with Leonetto Cappiello, Giovanni Mario Mataloni, Leopoldo Metlicovitz and Marcello Dudovich, he is considered one of the most important Italian poster designers.
Commedia dell'arte was an early form of professional theatre, originating from Italian theatre, that was popular throughout Europe between the 16th and 18th centuries. It was formerly called Italian comedy in English and is also known as commedia alla maschera, commedia improvviso, and commedia dell'arte all'improvviso. Characterized by masked "types", commedia was responsible for the rise of actresses such as Isabella Andreini and improvised performances based on sketches or scenarios. A commedia, such as The Tooth Puller, is both scripted and improvised. Characters' entrances and exits are scripted. A special characteristic of commedia is the lazzo, a joke or "something foolish or witty", usually well known to the performers and to some extent a scripted routine. Another characteristic of commedia is pantomime, which is mostly used by the character Arlecchino, now better known as Harlequin.
Piazza della Scala is a pedestrian central square of Milan, Italy, connected to the main square of Milan, Piazza del Duomo, by the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II passage. It is named after the renowned Teatro alla Scala opera house, which occupies the north-western side of the square; the building actually includes both the opera house and the Museo Teatrale alla Scala, dedicated to the history of La Scala and opera in general. On the opposite side to "La Scala", to the south-east, is the facade of Palazzo Marino, Milan's city hall. Another relevant building on the square, on the north-eastern side, is the Palazzo della Banca Commerciale Italiana. The south-western side of the square has the entry to the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele as well as Palazzo Beltrami. Most of the architecture of the square is due to architect Luca Beltrami, who designed the eponymous palace, the facade of Palazzo Marino, and the Banca Commerciale Italiana building. The centre of the square is marked by the monument of Leonardo da Vinci by sculptor Pietro Magni (1872).
Flaminio Scala, commonly known by his stage name Flavio, was an Italian stage actor of commedia dell'arte, scenario writer, playwright, director, producer, manager, agent, and editor. Considered one of the most important figures in Renaissance theatre, Scala is remembered today as the author of the first published collection of commedia scenarios, Il Teatro delle Favole Rappresentative, short comic plays that served as inspiration to playwrights such as Lope de Vega, William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and Molière.
The Zone 1 of Milan, since 2016 officially Municipality 1 of Milan, is one of the 9 administrative divisions of Milan, Italy.
Dolores Puthod is an Italian painter.
Antonio Fava is an actor, comedian, author, director, musician, mask maker and Internationally renowned Maestro of Commedia dell'arte who lives in Reggio Emilia, Italy.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Milan:
Savino Monelli was an Italian tenor prominent in the opera houses of Italy from 1806 until 1830. Amongst the numerous roles he created in world premieres were Giannetto in Rossini's La gazza ladra, Enrico in Donizetti's L'ajo nell'imbarazzo and Nadir in Pacini's La schiava in Bagdad. He was born in Fermo where he initially studied music. After leaving the stage, he retired to Fermo and died there five years later at the age of 52.
The theatre of Italy originates from the Middle Ages, with its background dating back to the times of the ancient Greek colonies of Magna Graecia, in Southern Italy, the theatre of the Italic peoples and the theatre of ancient Rome. It can therefore be assumed that there were two main lines of which the ancient Italian theatre developed in the Middle Ages. The first, consisting of the dramatization of Catholic liturgies and of which more documentation is retained, and the second, formed by pagan forms of spectacle such as the staging for city festivals, the court preparations of the jesters and the songs of the troubadours.
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