Affordable options for Milan’s La Scala Opera

Theaters love to play to the “hungry-for-culture” tourists and these guests only become even hungrier in these rainy fall days so the prices rise with the demand. Luckily, I found a way around the expensive tickets.

I paid 10 Euro

I paid just under $14 USD to walk inside the theater and enjoy three full hours of Beethoven. I didn’t just find tickets to a theatre, but to the theatre: more precisely, Milano’s La Scala Opera House.

Truth be told, there is no way La Scala could sell such cheap tickets. La Scala offers a wide range of shows, all at the highest level: ballet, opera, recitals and symphonic concerts.

The tickets are on sale on the official website and the prices go from 20 to 187 Euro, depending on the seats.

So how did I score my 10 euro tickets?

The tickets I bought at such a low price were for the official orchestra rehearsals. The rehearsal was something I had never experienced before and the performance of live music was done with such great passion and drive that it left me astonished. It’s strange how such a huge group of people can be all in tune with each other. In fact, the director was the tuning master. The shortest little man with the biggest personality – the saying is so true. He was devoted to his work. The frantic movement of his arms gave it all away. It was almost as if he was possessed by music itself. I had a perfect time.

Well, maybe not perfect

My last statement isn’t exactly true. I meant everything I said about the great qualities of the musicians and the director, but there is

nothing perfect about three hours of rehearsals. A rehearsal entails repeating, corrections, mistakes, talking and explaining.

Sitting through the entire three hours might become boring. I memorized one piece they performed at least 6 times. By the end of it everybody in the audience was humming the music without knowing it. Well, almost all of them. Some were fast asleep. I didn’t get the song out of my head until the next morning! To avoid the snoring and enjoy your time, I suggest doing what I did: sneak out while the orchestra is taking the half-time break!

The real reason I went to La Scala is because there is something about it that fascinates me: it has magic to it. The atmosphere. The scenes. The architecture. The power. The history. When all the lights are turned off you can picture yourself back in time. Time freezes. At La Scala I became an aristocrat from the 1800s sitting in my red velvet box with gold details and mirrors, watching the show and gossiping about the next-box-neighbor, plotting against one family and marrying into another.

It’s something worth experiencing from the inside. Whether you are a fan of art, music, opera, history, you will find magic in such a historical place. Think of everybody who has sat in those same chairs and boxes, and who has walked on the marble floors at the entrance and eyed the immense chandeliers. In a way, when you enter the theater, you become a small part of history.

Chiara Tarenzi is a political science student in Milan, Italy, hoping to become a very obnoxious journalist some day. She has a very large family split apart by the Atlantic Ocean: one side in Italy and the other in Philadelphia. She is a total American wannabe so BEWARE! She is also a beginner runner of half-marathons (very slow!) and intends to travel all over the globe to race and explore. Her favourite place in the entire globe has to be Crans Montana, an adorable small town hidden in the Swiss mountains.