Milan’s cultural
scene boasts some diverse and interesting offerings for classical
purists, and for those interested in the avant-garde.
A visit to La Scala will never be forgotten and
should be top of the list for foreign visitors. Italian speakers
should not ignore the stage too, as the Teatro Piccolo
offers excellent performances all year round and has become one
of Milan's best-known cultural institutions next to La Scala.
Listings are best obtained from the pullout in the Corriere
della Sera on Wednesdays. The free monthly information programme,
Milano Mese, in Italian, has listings and is available
from the tourist information office and most hotels.
The English language HelloMilan and Milan
Where, When, How are available free from bars, hotels,
and the Duomo tourist office.
Tickets for most events are available for purchase at Ricordi
Box Office, Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II (telephone number:
02 869 0683), La Prevendita, Virgin Megastore,
Piazza Duomo 8 (telephone number: 02 7200 3370), and Last
Minute Tour, Fiorucci, Galleria Passarella 1. Tickets are
also available online at Ticketweb
Music
Opera lovers worldwide know the Teatro
alla Scala, La Scala for short. The theatre
is currently undergoing a full interior modernisation. All performances
have been transferred to the new Teatro degli Archimboldi.
Hopefully, La Scala will reopen on 7 December 2004,
the beginning of the 2004 opera season.
The Teatro
degli Archimboldi is a new theatre built by the City of
Milan in collaboration with Pirelli. Its large capacity means there
are about 500 more seats currently available. The new theatre box
office opens two hours before performances start at 2000 hrs. The
Museo Teatrale alla Scala has moved to Palazzo Busca, Collegio
San Carlo, Corso Magenta 71. The main ticket office remains under
the Piazza Duomo, admittance from the stairs of the Duomo Metro
and opening times are 1200 hrs-1800 hrs daily.
Teatro degli Arcimboldi
Viale dell’Innovazione
Telephone number: 02 7200 3744.
Transport
Shuttle bus from Piazza Duomo on performance evenings,
every five minutes from 1845 hrs -1700 hrs. This service is free
for season ticket holders, all others should buy a normal metro
ticket. Metro (M1) to Precotto, then shuttle to Biococca), every
8 to 10 minutes.
Bus 44 from Metro (M2) Cascina Gobba to Biococca (via Brecotto).
Tram 7 from Lagosta to Mattei (via M3 Zara). Trains from Porta Garibaldi,
Lambrate, Rogoredo and sometimes from Stazione Centrale to the Greco-Pirelli
station, using a normal ATM ticket. There is a special train on
performance nights from Greco-Pirelli railway station to Milano
Centrale and Porta Garibaldi Station and this is free for season
ticket holders, all others should purchase a normal ATM ticket for
the city network. This train departs 20 minutes and 40 minutes after
performances.
Opening hours: Usually two hours before the performance.
Admission: depends on the performance and seats available.
Milan’s respected symphony orchestra, the Orchestra
Verdi (telephone number: 02 8338 9201), was founded in 1993
and conducted by Riccardo Chailly and frequently
performs concerts in the Auditorium di Milano,
Corso San Gottardo. Performances take place on Thursday and Friday
at 2030 hrs and on Sunday afternoon at 1600 hrs . Tickets cost €18-50.
Another venue for classical concerts is the Conservatorio
Giuseppe Verdi, Via Conservatorio 12. Tickets for the Cantelli
Orchestra (telephone number: 02 655 391 ), which plays at the
Conservatory, and cost from €18.
Theatre
Milan has become a driving force behind Italian drama since the
foundation of the Teatro
Piccolo by Giorgio Strehler and Paolo Grassi during 1947. The
company puts on a broad repertory of international, classical and
experimental drama in three different theatres. Audiences can choose
between programmes for the Teatro Grassi, Via Rovello, the experimental
theatre Teatro Studio, Via Rivoli, and the new Teatro Strehler,
Largo Greppi. The box office is at Via Rovello 2 (telephone number:
02 7233 3222).
Dance
The home of classical ballet in Milan is also at La Scala (see Music
above), which is also the venue for its renowned ballet school,
the Scuola di Ballo del Teatro alla Scala, Via Verdi 1 (telephone
number: 02 877 995). CRT
(Centro di Ricerca per il Teatro) at Teatro dell’Arte, Viale
Alemagna 6 is Milan’s main advocate for contemporary dance,
organising performances and festivals like Short Formats Festival
during May which investigates all the latest trends in European
dance.
Film
Italians share a great passion for the cinema and Milan’s
city centre has over twenty cinemas. Luchino Visconti’s masterpiece
Rocco and His Brothers (1960), starring Alain Delon,
was filmed extensively in and around Milan and along the Naviglio
Grande.
The Corso Vittorio Emanuele area is a good spot for cinemas with
the latest releases, such as Ambasciatori (telephone number: 02
7600 3306). For art movies, Cineteca Museo, Palazzo Dugnani, Via
Manin 2/A (telephone number: 02 655 4977), is a good option and
English-language films are shown on Monday at Anteo,
Via Milazzo 9. On Tuesday at Arcobaleno, Viale
Tunisia 11 (telephone numberl: 02 2940 6054, and on Thursday at
Cinema Centrale, Via Torino 30 (telephone number: 02 874 826).
Milan has not been a particularly popular film location. This is
partly due to the great old buildings being part of a modern cityscape
rather than being in isolation as it is in Rome, and partly to Italian
post-war neo-realism with its emphasis on the south of the country.
Vittorio De Sica's socially conscious fairy tale, Miracolo
a Milano (Miracle in Milan, 1950) includes fantasy elements
like the boy Toto being found in a cabbage patch, with angels and
a dove which grants wishes, against a story of poor squaters fighting
eviction by a rich landowner. Lichino Visconti's Rocco e
i Suoi Fratelli (Rocco and His Brothers, 1960) describes
the problems of a very poor Sicilian farming family who move into
Milan; although primarily set in the northern industrial suburb
of Bovisa, there are scenes in the centre of the city including
a dramatic one near the outside top of the Duomo.
There was a brief revival of interest in Milan in the 1980s, although
most films merely had small sections where the characters were leaving
Milan for somewhere else, as in the 1989 film Marrakech
Express. Michele Sordillo's Acquario (late 1990s)
is a triptych of stories concerning love, care for the aged and
problems arising from having someone stay in one's apartment. Renato
Castellani's 1982 superb docu-drama The Life of Verdi
(the Italian edition is simply called Verdi) has many accurate reconstructions
of 19th century Milan and Venice. The 580 minute programmes were
made by European television companies and have since been released
on video.
Cultural Events
Milan always has a series of events and minor festivals going on
somewhere in and around the city. For information, the Commune
of Milan (Municipality of Milan) regularly updates its website.
There are usually a number of jazz, theatre and dance spectacles
to be found around the city during the summer months, particularly
during July.
Visitors to Milan should not ignore the religious festivals, as
these traditional festivals are often Milan’s best-loved and
most charming features. Visitors will discover that the Milanesi
are particularly fond of Christmas, kick-starting the celebrations
on 7th December with the festival of O Bej, O Bej (since 1288) and
finishing with the Procession of the Corteo dei Re Magi on Epiphany,
6 January.
The main cultural centre, the Palazzo
Triennale, located on the western flank of the Parco Sempione
(telephone number: 02 724 3410 ), hosts a major international exposition
of the arts every three years, the last was held in 2004 (22nd March-13th
June).
Literary Notes
Modern Milan is a major centre within the publishing industry and
not surprisingly retains a keen interest in literature. Visitors
to the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II may happily
while away a few hours as they explore the bookshops Zanichielli
and Ricordi.
Academics are sure to head to the Biblioteca Ambrosiana located
next to the art gallery, to study the writings of Leonardo
da Vinci and other historic texts in its significant collection.
Alessandro Manzoni is the best-known Milanese author. His
novel, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed, 1827),
is a tale of two lovers set against times of war and pestilence
in Lombardy, during the 1620s.
Gabriele D’Annunzio’s
early autobiographical novel Il Piacere (The Child of Pleasure,
1898) is a classic of the decadence movement and his poetry
is also excellent.
Part of Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms takes
place in Milan.
Many Italian authors have since ended up in Milan, including the
1959 Nobel literary prize winner Salvatore Quasimodo,
a Sicilian poet who is buried in Milan’s Monumental Cemetery.
The most important Italian literary event of the year, the Bagutti
Prize, originated in Milan’s Bagutti Ristorante (see
Restaurants section), Via Bagutti, where the founders of the Literary
Review (Fiera Letteraria) used to eat and where they founded the
prize in 1925. |
