Music: Opera at La Scala

Despite a rather dour façade, Milan’s great opera house is one of the most impressive in the world. Its gilded interior contains 2,800 seats and no fewer than six tiers of boxes, surmounted by the infamous* loggione*, a gallery favored by aficionados who terrorize performers they deem inadequate. The Teatro alla Scala was inaugurated in 1778 and is renowned for performances of the Italian greats: Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi and Puccini. However, the 2012-13 season is marking Wagner’s bicentenary with two complete performances of the Ring Cycle in June (and it concludes on July 25 with Verdi’s “Un Ballo in Maschera”). The 2013-14 season opens on October 12 with “Don Carlo.”