La Scala

By Giorgio Lotti

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0688034934
• ISBN13: 9780688034931
• Release Date: January 1979
• Publisher: Morrow
• Length: 235 Pages
• Weight: 4.05 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The Queen of Opera Houses

I've never had an opportunity to visit La Scala, so this book by Giorgio Lotti (photographs) and Paul Radice (text) will have to serve as a substitute. It contains over 353 illustrations with 135 in color, so readers are introduced to sections of the opera house and performances that they otherwise might not have seen even if they were life-long residents of Milan.Naturally the photos include many of the great singers who appeared at La Scala, such as Nicolai Gedda, José Van Dam, Mirella Freni, Theresa Berganza, Montserrat Caballé, Placido Domingo, and Ruggiero Raimondi.Renata Tebaldi also appears, but there is little mention (and no photographs) of her famous rival, Maria Callas. Evidently the authors of this book took sides in the 'great soprano war' because Callas and La Scala were inseparable in the 1950s. She opened the 1951 season at La Scala in "I Vespri Siciliani" and over the next seven years this opera house witnessed some of her greatest triumphs in a wide range of roles. I would have thought it impossible to write a book about the "Teatro alla Scala" without mention of this fascinating woman. But when opera fanatics take sides...And really, there isn't much text in this book. It was produced in commemoration of the two hundredth anniversary of La Scala, but is not so much a history of the opera house as it is a photographic celebration of productions during the 1970s. Ballet is not neglected, but most of the photographs are of operas, their singers and musicians, the back-stage workers who support them, the directors who produce them, and the audiences who attend them. One of the most gorgeous photographs in this book is of La Scala's stage surrounded by golden tiers of boxes, and seemingly reflected upside down in the waters of an imaginary lake.If you are in love with the 'Queen of Music' you should have this book, no matter which side of the 'Great Soprano War' you espouse.