Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Italy’s most iconic opera house, is to release a new series of recordings. The announcement comes following the beginning of Riccardo Chailly’s tenure as music director, which began on 1 January this year, replacing predecessor Daniel Barenboim.
The Milanese conductor, who is no stranger to the label, boasts a near 40-year relationship with Decca and three million album sales.
Chailly will release a new album of Overtures, Preludes and Intermezzi with the Filarmonica Della Scala on 3 February, and a new DVD of Puccini’s Turandot on 27 January.
The DVD and Blu-ray release of Turandot will mark the start of a cycle of the complete Puccini operas in partnership with La Scala and conducted by Chailly. This Turandot presents the Luciano Berio completion of the opera, premiered by Chailly in 2001. Nina Stemme takes the title role with Maria Agresta as Liu and Aleksandrs Antonenko as the heroic Calaf.
Chailly will traverse 300 years of music first performed at La Scala for what is being billed ‘a sonically spectacular album’, which includes the overtures to Bellini’s Norma, Rossini’s La pietra del paragone and Verdi’s Il finto Stanislao.
The album also features the intermezzo from Puccini’s Madame Butterfly and ‘Dance of the Hours’ from Ponchielli’s La Gioconda.
Milanese by birth, Riccardo Chailly made his conducting debut at La Scala in 1978, as assistant to Claudio Abbado. Chailly’s father Luciano had also served as artistic director at La Scala, completing a family dynasty.
