The work behind this season's opening opera at La Scala Milan - AP explains

Описание: (6 Dec 2025)
FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4622434

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Milan, Italy - 4 December 2025
1. Wide of curtain rising at the Teatro Alla Scala for the premiere of Dmitri Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, reserved for spectators under 30.
2. Lead soprano Sara Jakubiak sitting at a table in front of a man in uniform
3. Various of initial scene of the opera with Jakubiak starting to sing while sitting at a table

ASSOCIATED PRES
Milan, Italy - 5 December 2025
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Colleen Barry, Associated Press: ++PART OVERLAID++
"We're here in front of La Scala, where inside a performance is underway of Shostakovich's 'Una Lady Macbeth.' It's a performance for people under 30 to prepare for this Sunday's gala season premiere that opens La Scala season. It's really one of the top cultural events of the European calendar. And we've had the privilege of being backstage today. We met with the wig makers who have been working for months to construct over 50 wigs for the female choral singers. Then we saw many of the costumes that are being made. This version of 'Una Lady Macbeth' is being set in a cosmopolitan city of Russia in the 1950s, so at the end of the Stalin era. So we see in the staging, we see elements of art deco, and in the clothing we see a lot of 1940s sharp angles. Everything is very toned down in terms of colour. And in fact, about the only colour we saw backstage was some of the fruit on the tables of the restaurant where much of the scene will happen. This is the start of La Scala season for the coming year, and it's a moment that everyone in Italy and across the European cultural landscape look forward to."

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Milan, Italy - 4 December 2025
5. Wide of wigs workshop
6. Mid of a lady working on a wig
7. Close of a lady creating a wig
8. Tracking shot of a lady pushing a trolley with stage clothes
9. Wide of theatre seen from the stage
10. Stage workers talking around a table part of the set
11. Various lady looking at stage clothes
12. Scene inside a restaurant with Jakubiak, who plays Katerina Izmaylova and Alexander Roslavets, as Boris Timofeyevich Izmaylov, acting on stage
13. Wide of the stage with the restaurant set and part of the “kitchen wagon” visible
14. Actors on stage
STORYLINE:
The theater lights dim, the auditorium falls silent, the curtain rises and the orchestra directed by Riccardo Chailly begins to play.

After months of work at Milan's Teatro Alla Scala, one of the most famous opera houses in the world, everything is ready for what traditionally marks the start of a new season: December 7th.

Before the gala evening, two events mark the real run-up to the premiere. The dress rehearsal open to theater employees and the special preview reserved for young people under 30.

This year, a Russian opera has been chosen to inaugurate the season, Dmitri Shostakovich's "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk".

The stage direction by Vasily Barkhatov sets the opera in a cosmopolitan Russian city in the 1950s, during the waning days of Stalin’s regime, rather than in the 19th-century rural village of the original 1930s premiere.

A story of love and violence, with a tragic end.

Making her La Scala debut is American lead soprano Sara Jakubiak. She plays the demanding role of Katerina Izmaylova, the opera’s central protagonist.

Backstage, preparations are in full swing. From wigs to costumes, from sets to props, everything must be ready and in place.



On and behind the stage, the final details are arranged before the performance begins.

A long, collective effort built on dedication and craftsmanship.



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