La Scala announces 2021-21 season, with hope of fewer limits

Milan’s famed Teatro alla Scala has announced a 2021-22 season of 13 operas, seven ballets and numerous concerts as Italy’s most important theater looks toward a gradual removal of pandemic restrictions

MILAN -- Milan’s famed Teatro alla Scala on Monday announced a 2021-22 season of 13 operas, seven ballets and numerous concerts as Italy’s most important theater looks toward a gradual removal of pandemic restrictions. Audiences returned to La Scala last month, and, in the next significant step, the theater will remove flooring form the main seating area where the full orchestra has been playing at a social distance on risers and with plexiglass dividers separating woodwind and brass musicians. “It will be the end of this horrendous experience,’’ said La Scala’s music director, Riccardo Chailly. The conductor has been placed about 30 meters from musicians, and the musicians have been spaced at a distance where they can't properly hear each other to play, especially challenging during complicated executions, Chailly noted.