DISCOVERING ITALY with GMC: Teatro alla Scala.

Before I left for this trip, my voice teacher said to me, "You're going to visit the Opera House in Milan, right?" "Oh yeah, of course!" I replied, having never even thought about visiting the Opera House in Milan. This was the beginning of setting a plan into action. I knew I had to at least stop by and see it - just for her!
When we first arrived in Brescia, Mrs. Clewis had mentioned going to see some performances at the local theater. After learning of the website, we looked at our options but unfortunately nothing seemed to work with our schedule. That's when it occurred to me to check out the acclaimed opera house, Teatro alla Scala, in Milan. It turned out, that almost every weekend there was a different show, and one happened to work out for us perfectly. It was a ballet featuring 3 Russian composers - Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev and one I'd never heard of before. This would be perfect! Seats in Galleria 1 were only 20 euro - even better! Four of us decided that we would make a day trip to Milan and attend the performance.
After making the plans, I learned that Teatro alla Scala had quite a history to it. It's been around for hundreds of years! In 1776, it caught fire and burned down. The people of Italy pleaded with Prince Ferdinand for the funds to rebuild the opera house. Their cries were heard and the opera house was rebuilt. Then, in 1939 the opera house suffered another casualty when it was hit by bombs in World War II. Again, the opera house was rebuilt and is what we know it to be today. The opera house is also home to an academy that trains its students to be great performers in vocal, instrumental and dance performance. If they're exceptional, they may get to become a part of the Teatro alla Scala performance company one day! In addition, I learned that Teatro alla Scala is the place to go to see musical and theatrical performances, not just in Italy but in all of Europe! Now, I could understand why it was so important to my voice teacher that I make the trip to go there!
The four of us were really impressed with the performance we saw. The musicianship and dancing was absolutely breathtaking and the theatrical interpretations of the choreography was truly amazing. We were all happy that we made the trip - it was definitely worth the aggravation that it took to actually find the opera house! (Note to readers: "straight ahead" is not a good enough description for directions. My suggestion - take a taxi!)
Also, while we were in Piazza alla Scala we had the opportunity to walk around a little bit. We went to the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II and The Duomo. Here are some pictures of our adventures! Enjoy!

Teatro alla Scala