La Scala Milan

[sydneyboy]

A question for seasoned opera queens. Has anyone booked tickets over the internet for La Scala and what was your experience? In July next year Juan Diego Florez will be singing in Rossini's "Otello" enough to make any opera queen want to detour home via Milan from London to experience, particularly if my plans fall into place I would have seen a new production of ''William Tell'' at Covent Garden. The bookings for ''Otello'' don't open until 29 April 2015. This question is a long shot but if anyone has experience of booking for La Scala I would to hear of their experience.

[whipped guy]

SB... Thanks for posting this! The details of what role Florez will be singing are a bit sketchy on the La Scala website and other sites as well. However, Gregory Kunde is listed first among the male singers and he has sung the title role of Otello in the past. In fact he has sung Verdi's Moor as well. Florez is listed second which implies that he will be essaying his usual role of Rodrigo, the conflation of Shakespeare's Roderigo and Cassio. That Olga Peretyatko is the Desdemona should be a plus as should the conducting of John Eliot Gardiner. Hopefully the production will be traditional in nature as opposed to what was presented in Zurich where at the end of the second act Desdemona takes a bottle of beer out of the fridge and pours it on her head... I kid you not!

 

http://www.teatroallascala.org/en/season/opera-ballet/2014-2015/othello.html

 

As for booking online, unfortunately I can't offer any specific insight. However, I have heard horror stories in the past of people going to pick up tickets at the box office only to find that they were being held for ransom. With any luck that is a thing of the past in this day and age. My only experience ordering opera tickets in Italy was at the Rome Opera years ago. The tickets were ordered by the now defunct Italian travel service La CIT and were supposedly being held at the box office. However, when we went to pick them up they were nowhere to be found. Fortunately nothing had been charged and tickets were still available. I'm not sure who was to blame, but La CIT had been totally efficient regarding ordering all sorts of other tickets for all other aspects of the trip.

 

In any event, I wish I could be there! However, since I am seriously contemplating an Italian sojourn in the next year or two who knows? At any rate, I also would be interested in getting more information about ordering tickets online... even though as SB says it might be a long shot... though given the guys who post here I have high hopes!

[actor61]

I would not book anything online for anything at any time in Italy. The inefficiency and I hate to say it dishonesty are mind blowing. If you can book by mail and have actual tickets sent to you, or if you have people in Milan who could go to the box office and purchase them for you, that would be the best way to go.

[whipped guy]

I would not book anything online for anything at any time in Italy. The inefficiency and I hate to say it dishonesty are mind blowing. If you can book by mail and have actual tickets sent to you, or if you have people in Milan who could go to the box office and purchase them for you, that would be the best way to go.

 

Actir61... Thanks for the input. That's what I suspected. Kind of like the guys who man the box office at Yankee Stadium... a bribe will usually get you a good seat. Otherwise all they have to sell are obstructed views. The last horror story regarding La Scala that I heard involved all sorts of dishonesty at the box office. Ah! Bella Italia! Non è cambiato nulla! Nothing has changed!

 

One of these days I hope to get to the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro. Fortunately I know someone who knows someone who lives in Pesaro. I guess that would be my best option.