Va Pensiero: The Myth of La Scala Between News and the Critics

"Va Pensiero: Il mito della Scala tra cronaca e critica" is a short film directed by Francesca Molteni and Claudia Adragna. Audio in Italian with English subtitles.

The historical performances of the Teatro alla Scala through literature, criticism and the press.

Pier Luigi Pizzi's exhibition aims to demonstrate how much the intellectual elite’s thought has influenced every melodrama, as well as the collective perception of an era. The great opera composers have always drawn their inspiration from the written word, whether it is literary, critical, or journalistic, because the result of their work is inseparable from the cultural, social and political context.

In a similar way, from the post-war period onward, even directors, choreographers, set designers and costume designers have begun to question themselves more and more about the relevance of the work to be staged, opening a cultural debate that in many cases has changed it forever.

In fact, it is precisely the discussion process that shapes the taste of an era: the history of La Scala is also the history of this debate. An assiduous, stimulating and fruitful confrontation, born in the salons frequented by the greatest intellectuals of our country, continued in the press through the work of musicologists and journalists, to finally reach the stage of the theater which for centuries has served as a catalyst for these issues.