traveldk.com

Film director Michelangelo Antonioni takes the slow death of affection between a couple, masterfully played by Marcello Mastroianni and Jeanne Moreau, and sets it against a backdrop of rapidly industralizing Milan in 1960.

Rossini’s work signalled La Scala’s shift from comic opera and Neo-Classical works to Romantic melodrama.

The world’s greatest opera house was built in 1776–8 under the Austrians. It boasts a sumptuous interior, excellent acoustics and a staggering list of premieres (see Top 10 La Scala Premieres). Half destroyed in World War II, La Scala again became the toast of the town in 1946 when conductor Arturo Toscanini presided over its gala reopening. Check website for up-to-date programme listings and booking information.

The ultimate Renaissance Man was a genius painter, inventor and scientist. His sfumato technique of blurring outlines and progressively hazing distances lent his works tremendous illusory depth. His inventions – including helicopters, machine guns and water systems – were centuries ahead of their time but mostly confined to sketches, though working models have now been built at Milan’s technical museum. (see Leonardo’s Last Supper, Museums and Museo Nazionale della Scienza e delle Tecnica – Leonardo da Vinci)

The Italian Art Nouveau of the early 20th century delighted in asymmetrical organic curves.

“The Moor” ruled Milan’s Renaissance court but ceded to France, later siding against the French and being exiled.

Lombard buildings from the 5th to 10th centuries feature triangular façades, blind arcades and ribbed vaulting.

Salieri’s bellicose but lighthearted opera opened La Scala on 3 August 1778.

Puccini’s tale of enduring love between a Japanese geisha and an American soldier.

Boito’s first great success led to a collaboration with Verdi that produced Otello in 1887 and Falstaff in 1893.