One of the oldest opera houses in Italy, and the oldest in Milan, Teatro alla Scala, The Scala, was first opened in August of 1778. Second in age only to Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, born 1737, The Scala has just completed a major renovation, and it shows. Although the house still reflects classic 17th century design, the furnishings are all new and feel clean and modern, and not like an old building hanging on to its glory. The design of the house is classic early theater: An orchestra level at the base, and surrounding levels of boxes and gallery seating. It's also a sad statement of the separation of classes from back in the day. Are you kidding? Mingle with those low class street people? As if! OK, joking aside, it's a large, lovely palace of fine art, and it was quite a thrill to be in such a historic opera house. And the other cool aspect was that it is just a few blocks few the Park Hyatt hotel, so an easy breezy walk of a couple of blocks through downtown Milan brought you home to brass and red velvet.

I selected gallery level seats for our viewing of Hansel and Gretel. I was in fact disappointed that the gallery levels have a brass railing that is right in the sight line of the stage, so you're forced to either duck under them to have a clear view, or sit back with the front of the stage cut off. At six feet tall, I figured I had enough neck to elevate me above the rail, but I got tired of having to lean forward when the actors approached stage front. And what was with those homeless people anyway? From the play, not in the street. Weird. I guess some take on modern times that did not fit in with the play.

Anyway, the view of the house itself is spectacular in the way the boxes wrap around the stage and the gigantic chandelier in the middle. And that chandelier is interesting in its design: more new modern than classic opera house. Glass beads are strung inside the lighting of old style filament bulbs inside clear glass saucers. Interesting in its space age design, but still does the job as the center piece of the theater. The new offering for Alla Scala is each seat has a small digital display. Unfortunately, it did not kick in until half way through the second act to display the words of the opera in English. Good thing I already read the production notes, so I was hip on the acts of the opera. But again, where did those homeless people come from?

True to form though, we did receive a taste of ancient Italy in the house. As there's only a tiny elevator to service Alla Scala at either end of the theater, we took the stairs up to our 5th level gallery seats. The gallery sits two rows deep, and weirdly, the people behind me seemed to sit right mover my shoulder to get a good view. Kinda creepy, but we were all tourists at that point, so deal with it. I just enjoyed being there, in the moment, taking in this Italian wonder.

One insider tip: If you have your tickets, you can go to Alla Scala gift shop and receive your program brochure before the show. I highly recommend this, as it allowed me time before hand to read the Hansel and Gretel production notes. Good thing, the opera was in it's original German, and I had no idea what was going on from the singing based on the faulty sound system that failed the singers voices at times.