{"id":63193,"date":"2026-09-28T14:11:01","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T10:11:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whatabout.live\/?p=63193"},"modified":"2026-10-17T14:13:44","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T10:13:44","slug":"italys-opera-season-opens-in-rome-and-milan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatabout.live\/ka\/italys-opera-season-opens-in-rome-and-milan\/","title":{"rendered":"Italy&#8217;s Opera Season Opens in Rome and Milan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-lfile-container=\"47c3d137-7c7f-432e-bac7-113024a8be79\" data-pm-slice=\"1 1 []\"><em>Two dates define Italy&#8217;s cultural winter: 27 November in Rome and 7 December in Milan. This year both opening nights break with tradition.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In Italy, opera isn&#8217;t a museum piece \u2014 it&#8217;s a national event. Season openings make the evening news, stars walk red carpets, and millions watch from home. Here&#8217;s what makes the 2026\/27 openings worth following.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"rome-stravinsky-opens-the-teatro-dellopera-27-november\">Rome: Stravinsky opens the Teatro dell&#8217;Opera \u2014 27 November<\/h3>\n<p>The Teatro dell&#8217;Opera di Roma has chosen a bold opener: Stravinsky&#8217;s <strong>The Rake&#8217;s Progress<\/strong>, in a new production that marks the Rome debut of director Rafael R. Villalobos. Music director <strong>Michele Mariotti<\/strong> conducts, and rising soprano <strong>Rosalia Cid<\/strong> makes her house debut as Anne Trulove (<a href=\"https:\/\/tg24.sky.it\/spettacolo\/2026\/06\/18\/teatro-dell-opera-stagione-20262027\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Sky TG24<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>The season takes its title, <em>Il dolce suono mi colp\u00ec<\/em>, from a line in <em>Lucia di Lammermoor<\/em>. It includes 12 new productions across 11 opera titles and 7 ballets (<a href=\"https:\/\/turismoroma.it\/en\/events\/il-dolce-suono-mi-colp%C3%AC-la-stagione-del-teatro-dellopera-2026-27\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Turismo Roma<\/a>). Highlights:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Robert Carsen<\/strong> returns with Gluck&#8217;s <em>Iphig\u00e9nie en Tauride<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Barrie Kosky<\/strong> directs Shostakovich&#8217;s <em>Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Mario Martone<\/strong> stages a new <em>Cenerentola<\/em> at the historic Teatro Valle.<\/li>\n<li>John Neumeier&#8217;s ballet to Mahler&#8217;s Third Symphony opens on 4 February 2027.<\/li>\n<li>A world premiere, Nicola Sani&#8217;s <em>Code: Unknown<\/em>, arrives from 19 May 2027 (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.eroicafenice.com\/teatro\/opera-di-roma-2026-2027\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Eroica Fenice<\/a>).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3 id=\"milan-la-scalas-otello-7-december\">Milan: La Scala&#8217;s Otello \u2014 7 December<\/h3>\n<p>On the feast of Sant&#8217;Ambrogio, Milan&#8217;s patron saint, La Scala opens its season with Verdi&#8217;s <strong>Otello<\/strong>. It&#8217;s a night of firsts. <strong>Myung-Whun Chung<\/strong> conducts his first opening as music director, succeeding Riccardo Chailly, and <strong>Damiano Michieletto<\/strong> directs his first Scala premiere (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ilgiorno.it\/milano\/cultura\/scala-milano-otello-lackface-direttore-myung-whun-chung-tc4rf874\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Il Giorno<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>The choice carries history. <em>Otello<\/em> premiered at La Scala in 1887, and exactly 50 years ago a Carlos Kleiber\u2013Franco Zeffirelli <em>Otello<\/em> began the tradition of televising the opening night. This time, for the first time at La Scala, the title role will be sung without blackface. Brian Jagde and Arsen Soghomonyan alternate as Otello, with Luca Salsi and Roberto Frontali as Iago and Eleonora Buratto and Roberta Mantegna as Desdemona.<\/p>\n<p>The rest of the Scala season is just as eye-catching: John Adams&#8217; <em>Nixon in China<\/em> arrives for the first time, with Ren\u00e9e Fleming and Thomas Hampson, and Chung returns to Verdi with <em>Macbeth<\/em> from 4 May (<a href=\"https:\/\/tg24.sky.it\/spettacolo\/2026\/05\/29\/teatro-alla-scala-milano-stagione-2026-2027\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Sky TG24<\/a>).<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"how-to-be-there\">How to be there<\/h3>\n<p>The Scala opening is already sold out. The good news: it airs live on Rai 1 from 17:45 CET, as well as on Radio3, and on ARTE in France (<a href=\"https:\/\/pixidia.com\/?p=81372\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Pixidia<\/a>). In Rome, tickets for the season are on sale through the theatre&#8217;s box office and website. If you can&#8217;t make opening night, later performances are easier to get and often cheaper.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why it matters:<\/strong> Opera was born in Italy, and these two nights are when the whole country remembers it. Whether you&#8217;re in a velvet box or on your sofa, it&#8217;s one of the great cultural rituals of the European winter.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two dates define Italy&#8217;s cultural winter: 27 November in Rome and 7 December in Milan. This year both opening nights break with tradition. In Italy, opera isn&#8217;t a museum piece [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":82,"featured_media":63194,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatabout.live\/ka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatabout.live\/ka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatabout.live\/ka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatabout.live\/ka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/82"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatabout.live\/ka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63193"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/whatabout.live\/ka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63196,"href":"https:\/\/whatabout.live\/ka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63193\/revisions\/63196"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatabout.live\/ka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatabout.live\/ka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatabout.live\/ka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatabout.live\/ka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}