Opera was invented in Italy, specifically in Florence, in the late sixteenth century, by the Florentine Camerata group of humanists and musicians who were attempting to reconstruct what they imagined ancient Greek musical drama had sounded like. The first recognized opera, Jacopo Peri's Dafne (1598), was performed in the Palazzo Corsi in Florence. Monteverdi's L'Orfeo (1607), composed for the Gonzaga court in Mantua, established the dramatic and musical language of the form. In the four centuries since, Italy has remained opera's principal country, the language in which most of the canonical repertoire is written, the home of the voice teachers and conducting traditions that defined the art form internationally, and the country with the most significant living opera infrastructure per capita of any nation in the world.
Attending opera in Italy isn't merely attending a performance, it is participating in a social ritual with specific codes and specific pleasures that differ in important ways from opera attendance in Vienna, London, or New York. The Italian opera audience is more vocal (literally, in Naples and in Verona, audience reaction during the performance is acceptable in ways that would be considered disruptive at Covent Garden), more knowledgeable about the specific vocal tradition of each role, and more invested in the performance of individual singers than in the direction or the staging.
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Italy's Major Opera Houses
Teatro alla Scala, Milan
La Scala is the world's most symbolically important opera house, not necessarily the best (this is debated), but the one whose approval or rejection of a singer, a conductor, or a production carries the most cultural weight globally. The December 7 opening night (the feast of Sant'Ambrogio, the Milanese patron saint) is the social apex of the Italian cultural calendar. The tickets for this evening are distributed through a system that prioritizes institutional subscribers and major donors, with remainder tickets available through the online system and the box office. Season: December-July. Prices: from €15 (upper gallery, restricted view) to €250+ (principal floor stalls or boxes). Online booking at teatroallascala.org. Gallery tickets also available at the box office from 12 noon on the day of performance (queue forms from approximately 10am). Dress code: smart casual minimum for the stalls. Formal dress for the main floor on opening night and premieres.
Teatro La Fenice, Venice
The Fenice (the Phoenix), named for its history of burning and being rebuilt twice (1792 and 1996), is the most historically romantic opera house in Italy and the venue for the world premieres of Verdi's Rigoletto (1851), La Traviata (1853), and Simon Boccanegra (1857), and Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress (1951). The current building is the 1996 post-fire reconstruction, faithful to the eighteenth-century original in every decorative detail. Season: January-July and October-December. Prices: from €35 (upper gallery) to €200 (principal floor). Online booking at teatrolafenice.it. Arriving by water taxi to the Fenice's secondary canal entrance is the most specifically Venetian way to arrive for a performance.
Teatro di San Carlo, Naples
The San Carlo (1737, predating La Scala by 41 years, the oldest continuously operating opera house in Europe) is the house with the most demanding and most knowledgeable audience in Italy. The Neapolitan opera tradition, bel canto, the specific Italian vocal style that emphasizes beauty of tone and florid ornamentation over dramatic intensity, was developed and refined here. The audience at San Carlo can hear a tenor go flat on a sustained note before the conductor does, and will say so audibly. Season: October-June. Prices: from €25 (upper gallery) to €150+ (main floor). teatrosancarlo.it.
Q&A: Italian Opera
What is the dress code for Italian opera houses?
For the stalls and principal floor boxes: smart to formal, jacket required for men, equivalent for women. Jeans and sportswear are technically permitted in gallery seats but are inappropriate in the lower house at any Italian opera house of significance. On opening nights, galas, and premieres: black tie is the standard at La Scala and La Fenice. The Italian operagoer considers dress part of the social ritual. Arriving inappropriately dressed is noticed and commented upon by the people around you, gently or otherwise. The dress code isn't arbitrary formality, it is the specific code of a social event that has been practiced in this form since the eighteenth century.
Internal Links
- Italian Classical Music: Opera in the Full Concert Context
- Italian Theater: The Non-Operatic Performing Arts
- Arena di Verona: Outdoor Opera in the Roman Amphitheater
- December 7 La Scala: Planning the Opening Night
- Mantova: Where Opera Was Invented
- Music Italy: Jazz and Opera in the Same Season
- Opera House Architecture: Building Visits
