Notes from Milan & Brussels
Milan’s Teatro alla Scala
La Scala, Milan
We are blessed by the unique experience offered by the Santa Fe Opera: World-class productions, costume designs, and performances in a glorious setting, surrounded by the mountains and spectacular sunsets.
If you ever find yourself in Milan, don’t miss another world-class opera experience. The Teatro alla Scala is surely one of the most thrilling venues available to opera lovers. I recently enjoyed two evenings in this iconic auditorium, soaking up performances of Lucia di Lammermoor, one of my favorite pieces. It starred Juan Diego Florez and Lisette Oropesa in the leading roles, and I had a seat in the third row of the orchestra both nights. Wow!
La Scala’s entry faces the Piazza della Scala at the corner of the Via Giuseppe Verdi. It is a quick walk from Milan’s spectacular Gothic Cathedral and the 19th Century Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. The theatre’s lobby is elegant with crystal chandeliers, white marble columns with gilded capitals, and statues of famous composers. It only hints at the grandeur inside. After passing through a very ordinary corridor, one goes up a set of steps into the main theatre, with an interior that is nothing short of sumptuous--lots of red satin and velvet upholstery and a tiered horseshoe that sports beautiful white and gold filigree. A giant gold coat of arms for the House of Savoy hangs over center stage against more red velvet drapery.
Tickets are not easy to get, nor are they cheap. Performances sell out quickly. This is especially true of the opening night of any given production. An orchestra seat runs €300 and--in my humble opinion--is worth every penny. Seat prices start at €15, and I’ve been told that the least expensive seats sell even faster than the more expensive ones. With 1,800 seats, the Teatro alla Scala holds approximately 300 less than the Santa Fe Opera.
Lisette Oropesa, Michele Pertusi, & Juan Diego Florez in Lucia di Lammermoor at La Scala
La Scala’s website is relatively easy to use, with an interface in Italian and English. I woke at 2am Mountain Time on the day tickets went on sale to buy mine. I suggest that you establish an online account ahead of time so that you can get through the purchase process quickly. This involves giving the website your email address and credit card credentials and creating a password. I found the website easier on my laptop than on my phone.
Both performances of Lucia di Lammermoor were wonderful. In addition to our Peruvian tenor and American soprano, the international cast featured a Russian baritone named Boris Pinkasovich in the role of Lucia’s brother Arturo, and Michele Pertusi as Raimondo. The audience gave all the singers enthusiastic applause after both performances. Booing from the notorious scalinisti in the upper tier was limited to feedback for the director and designers on opening night. I found the minimalist modern production acceptable, but it was clear that not everyone agreed.
Opera-goers at La Scala enjoy the same electronic libretto system that originated in our own Santa Fe Opera. There is a small screen embedded in the back of each seat, giving patrons the option of play-by-play titles in English or Italian.
There are some dining options for after-opera near the Teatro alla Scala. A few of the restaurants in the Galleria Emanuele stay open late, but I strongly recommend that you make an advance booking for a table. I dined one night at the Ristorante Galleria. Service was very professional and the food was good, but not spectacular. A calzone and glass of wine came to €30.
Plenty of hotels are within walking distance of the theatre. I opted for a less-expensive alternative near the central train station, a four-star called the Hotel Berna. An entrance to the metro station was just half a block from the hotel. I found it very clean and quiet, and half the price of accommodations near the historic center.
I’m going back to Milan in late June 2023 for a performance of Macbeth, followed by a couple of nights at the ancient Roman arena in Verona for productions of Rigoletto and La Traviata. I’ll post more about that trip after I return.
Donizetti In Brussels
La Monnaie, Brussels
Ultimately headed for a visit to Italy, I decided to start with a few nights in Brussels, partly to give myself some time to recover from jetlag. Brussels had a convenient flight from Albuquerque via Chicago O’Hare and I had not seen the city since a visit in 1974 when I was an impoverished student. The city’s opera house, La Monnaie, was staging a production called La Bastarda, originally intended for the 2020 season but postponed due to the COVID pandemic.
Also known as De Munt in Flemish, the opera house is located in a traditional building on the Place de la Monnaie, a short walk from the famous Grand Place. The lobby is nice but unremarkable except for modernist painted panels (àla Sam Francis) in the coffered ceiling. The theatre’s interior is like a smaller, darker version of La Scala in Milan. Rather than glittering white and gold, its four horseshoe tiers are decorated with an abundance of gold and polychrome figures against a background of burgundy red upholstery. It seats 1,152 patrons.
I love bel canto opera, and Donizetti is one of my favorite composers. Spanning two evenings, La Bastarda served up arias from all four of his Tudor Queen works (Il Castello di Kenilworth, Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda, and Roberto Devereaux). Arias were not performed in the chronological order of composition or in historical order. Instead, they were interspersed with each other to tell Queen Elizabeth I’s tumultuous story. There were two English-speaking Masters of Ceremony who occasionally broke into song (good operatic voices) and a young actress who portrayed an often-petulant, sometimes-imperious young Elizabeth. The production made extensive use of live video projection and featured modernized versions of traditional Elizabethan costumes.
The music was excellent. The cast included Francesca Sassu as Elisabetta, Salome Jiccia as Anna Bolena, Lenneke Ruiten as Maria Stuarda, Luca Tittoto as Enrico, and Sergey Romanovsky as Roberto Devereaux. A young mezzo-soprano named Valentina Mastrangelo turned in a brief-but-spectacular performance as Amy Robsart from the seldom-staged Il Castello di Kenilworth. The only cast member who may be familiar to Santa Fe Opera audiences was David Hansen. He served as one of the Masters of Ceremony and sang two arias written for the role of Smeaton in Anna Bolena. A countertenor, he appeared on our stage in the 2006 production of The Tempest.
La Bastarda Cast, La Monnaie, Brussels
La Monnaie’s title system uses electronic screens on both sides of the stage with titles in French and Flemish, Belgium’s two official languages. I found the titles’ placement somewhat awkward—a little like watching a tennis match—and soon discovered that my rusty high school French was not equal to the task of translating the libretto. Fortunately, I knew the music well enough that I could still enjoy the performances, and the casting featured excellent voices. Costuming also helped differentiate the various characters. I would definitely go back to La Monnaie but, due to the lack of titles in English, would attend performances of works I know well.
Prices are reasonable compared with many major opera houses. Orchestra seats go for €165, a little more than half the price at La Scala.
I was very lucky to find a boutique hotel called the Le Dixseptieme (The 17th). It is located on a quiet side street between the Central Train Station and Brussels’ Grand Place. This charming property proved to be a perfect location for my visit. It was a short walk to the opera house via the very scenic Galleries Royale St. Hubert, which might be described as a miniature version of Milan’s Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. In addition to designer shops, there are several chocolate emporia and some fine dining such as Le Marmiton.
Like Santa Fe, Brussels is an early town--restaurants are closed up tight by 11pm when the opera performance concludes. Since I prefer to eat very little and don’t drink alcohol before or during a performance, I found myself craving some food and a glass of wine shortly before midnight. Lucky for me there was a late-night stand serving up Belgian frites a short walk from my hotel. I ordered up a cone of spuds fried in beef tallow topped with a big dollop of homemade mayonnaise, treated myself to a little bottle of white wine from the corner convenience store, and retreated to my room for an après opera snack that would earn a scowl from my cardiologist.
On evenings that did not include opera, I found loads of great dining options in Brussels. In addition to Le Marmiton (it helps to have the hotel’s front desk call and ask for a reservation), I can recommend Aux Armes de Bruxelles and Le Pecheur, both an easy walk from the Grand Place. A bit further afield, I enjoyed good service and a nice plate of carpaccio at Le Roxi in the Ixelles district.
Architecture is a great reason to include Brussels on your travel itinerary. Paris is remarkable for its consistency of design, as dictated by the Baron Haussmann during the city’s reconstruction in the latter half of the 19th Century. While facades in Brussels lack the regularity of buildings in France, they offer a dazzling array of styles and textures. Brussels is also home to some of the most extraordinary Art Nouveau and Art Deco architecture in the world. Blessed with a sunny, crisp day and map of architectural landmarks, I put 26,000+ steps on my FitBit in roughly 12 hours. If you are in Brussels, don’t miss the interiors of the Horta House--one of the pinnacles of Art Nouveau--and the Van Buuren House, an enchanting example of Art Deco design. Both require advance reservations and are totally worth the effort to stray from the center of town. Thanks to an excellent public transit system, both are easy to reach.
This OperaBlog was contributed by Martha Baker, Member At-Large, Santa Fe Opera Guild Board of Directors, July 1, 2023. Photos by Martha Baker.