★ Teatro alla Scala Opening Night

01Why it matters

No other opera house has an opening night that functions as a national event. The Prima is covered by Italian television as a live broadcast, argued about in the newspapers for a week afterward, and used by every political faction in Milan as an occasion; the performance itself is judged by an audience that includes the most demanding amateur critics in the art form. Its fixity is part of the point - 7 December is 7 December, and the date has not moved for generations, which makes it the single most reliable entry in this entire calendar. In our reading, the evening's importance to a reader of the international calendar is twofold. It is the last great formal occasion of the European year before the festive season begins, and it is the clearest example anywhere of an elite cultural event that has kept a genuinely popular constituency, in the loggione above and in the free relays across the city below.

02The week around it

Sant'Ambrogio is a public holiday in Milan and 7 December usually anchors a long weekend, which changes the whole city. The Oh bej! Oh bej! street fair runs around the Castello Sforzesco in the days either side - a market that has been held for the saint's feast since the eighteenth century and is free to walk. The Christmas lights are up on the Via Monte Napoleone and the Corso Vittorio Emanuele, the Duomo and the Galleria are at their fullest, and the shops run holiday hours. Museums and galleries schedule openings to the same week. Hotel demand across the centre rises for the holiday weekend but is nothing like the pressure of Salone del Mobile in April or fashion week in February and September. On the night itself, the Piazza della Scala is closed, the Galleria is managed, and the streets around the theatre are policed for both the arrivals and the demonstration.

03When to arrive

Come for the Sant'Ambrogio weekend rather than for the performance, which almost nobody can attend. Arrive on the Friday or Saturday, take the street fair at the Castello, the Duomo roof, the Brera and the Museo del Novecento, and watch the Prima on one of the public relays or on television in a bar, which is what most of Milan does. If you do hold a ticket, be in your seat well before six - the doors close on the anthem and the house does not seat latecomers. Leave the Tuesday.

04Where to stay

The Quadrilatero and the streets around the Duomo, Brera and the Piazza della Scala put you within walking distance of the theatre and of everything else in the centre; this is the most expensive quarter and the most convenient. Brera itself is the pleasantest place to stay in Milan - narrow streets, restaurants, galleries - and is five minutes from the theatre on foot. Porta Nuova and the Isola district north of the centre are newer, cheaper and ten minutes by Metro. Navigli, southwest along the canals, is where the city drinks and is twenty minutes out. Milan is a compact, well-connected city and almost anywhere inside the ring works; the Central Station area is the exception and is worth avoiding.

05Access and hospitality

The Prima is the hardest ticket in Italian opera and the theatre sells it publicly, which is the important point: seats are sold by the Fondazione Teatro alla Scala through its own box office and website, at the highest prices of the year, and they go almost immediately. The gallery seats in the loggione are far cheaper than the stalls and boxes and are the route by which the theatre's most committed audience gets in. La Scala also operates a same-day gallery sale for ordinary performances, which does not typically apply to the Prima. Beyond the ticketed house, the theatre and the city have in recent years relayed the opening night free into cinemas, theatres, libraries, hospitals and public halls across Milan and Lombardy, and Rai broadcasts it live nationally. Corporate and institutional boxes exist and are arranged with the foundation; nothing about them is publicly sold. No prices are quoted here because the theatre's own pages could not be read directly.

06Where the social activity happens

The public dimension of 7 December is on the street. The Piazza della Scala and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele beside it carry the crowd, the cameras and the demonstration; the Oh bej! Oh bej! fair around the Castello Sforzesco runs all weekend and is free; the bars of Brera and the Corso Garibaldi show the broadcast. Afterward, the restaurants around the Piazza della Scala, Via Manzoni and Brera take the late trade, and the Camparino and the historic bars in the Galleria are open. Inside the theatre, the Ridotto dei Palchi and the foyers are where the intervals happen, and the private dinners that follow are closed functions.

07Getting there

08Practicalities

09History

La Scala was inaugurated on 3 August 1778, built by Piermarini on the site of the deconsecrated church of Santa Maria alla Scala from which it takes its name, and opened with Salieri's Europa riconosciuta. It became the central house of the Italian repertoire under Verdi and later under Toscanini, who shaped its modern practice. The theatre was bombed in 1943 and rebuilt, reopening in 1946 with a concert conducted by Toscanini that is still remembered as a civic event. The custom of opening the season on Sant'Ambrogio rather than at the start of the autumn dates from the middle of the twentieth century and hardened into an absolute rule. A major renovation closed the house between 2002 and 2004, and it reopened on 7 December 2004 with Europa riconosciuta again, conducted by Riccardo Muti. The Prima has been televised nationally for decades, and the free public relays across Milan are a recent addition.

10Who is there

The theatre's subscribers and box-holders; Italian political, industrial and cultural institutions, for whom the Prima is an official occasion; the loggionisti in the gallery, who queue for the cheapest seats and are the house's most expert listeners; the international opera profession and press; Milan's fashion and design industries, which are headquartered a few streets away; and, through the broadcast and the free relays, a national television audience of millions. The room is more Italian and more institutional than the equivalent night in New York or Vienna.