Teatro alla Scala, Milan

La Scala in Milan on December 7, 2022, the night its season opened with Boris Godunov: every box full, the royal box hung with flowers and the stalls in evening dress. The season always opens on December 7, the feast of Milan's patron saint, Ambrose, and it is the biggest night of the Italian opera year. Giuseppe Piermarini designed the theater, which opened on August 3, 1778, with Salieri's L'Europa riconosciuta. Verdi and Puccini premiered operas here, and the crowd in the top gallery, the loggione, is famous for booing singers who fall short. From the stalls the tiers of boxes rise almost straight up, red and gold, like a cliff of faces.