Riccardo Chailly brings “Giovanna d’Arco” back to La Scala after 150 years

Foto: Anna Netrebko as Giovanna D'Arco - Silvia Lelli

On December 7th, Anna Netrebko, Francesco Meli and Carlos Álvarez take the lead roles in one of Verdi’s early operas that premiered here at La Scala in 1845  Staging by Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier   

On 7th December 2015, Riccardo Chailly opens the 2015/2016 Season of the Teatro alla Scala with Giuseppe Verdi’s “Giovanna d’Arco” (Joan of Arc), which was performed for the very first time here at La Scala on 15th February 1845 and has not been staged at this opera house since 1865. The staging of La Scala’s new production is by Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier and the cast includes Anna Netrebko in the role of Giovanna (Joan of Arc), Francesco Meli as Charles VII and Carlos Álvarez as Giacomo. Riccardo Chailly has been the Principal Conductor of the Teatro alla Scala since January 2015. His debut at La Scala dates back to 1968 with Verdi’s Masnadieri and he opened the 2006 season with Verdi’s Aida.  Under his leadership the Milanese opera house will focus on an Italian repertoire with a cycle of operas by Puccini, which opened with Turandot in May 2015 and is scheduled to continue in May 2016 with La Fanciulla del West (The Girl of the West), and will then be followed up with works by Verdi, Rossini and Donizetti in the coming seasons.  Riccardo Chailly already conducted Giovanna d’Arco, which Verdi defined as ‘the best of my operas without exception and without doubt”, in Bologna with the staging by Werner Herzog in 1989.  The production at La Scala of the critical edition of the score is even more remarkable as it boasts some of the most acclaimed voices on the international opera scene, great talents that have already performed and been hugely applauded in Milan: Anna Netrebko, who had the lead in Mozart’s Don Giovanni for the season opening in 2011 and made her debut as Giovanna, together on stage with Francesco Meli, in Salzburg in 2013. The baritone Carlos Álvarez, on the other hand, makes his debut in the role of Giacomo.