No shoes, no shirt, no opera as Milan's La Scala enforces dress code
The drive to get patrons to dress more formally follows an all-around dip in decorum and rise in tourism, which has resulted in people heading into La Scala's red velvet-lined boxes clutching bags of burgers before taking photos throughout performances with their phones.
A warning now printed on tickets and on posters in the foyer has pictures of a vest, a pair of shorts, flip-flops and a hamburger with thick red lines through them.
A spokesman for the opera house said: 'We don't want to tell people what to wear, but we do want them to at least wear something.'
Opened in 1778, La Scala remains a centrepiece of Italian culture, where the country's great and good turn out in dinner jackets and gowns for the season opener in December.
A dress code was introduced in 2015 when Milan hosted the Expo World Fair and La Scala welcomed first-timers as it stayed open throughout the summer.
But Dominique Meyer, the theatre's French former director, took a lax approach, claiming that he would rather have badly dressed opera fans than empty seats, pointing out that he was criticised in his youth for showing up dressed down at the Paris opera.
Now, as management at La Scala reversed Meyer's decision, the venue has said that young opera fans are not the problem, but the tourists who have poured into Milan since the Expo. Visitor numbers hit nine million last year, up from 7.5 million in 2019 — a shock for the traditionally staid financial capital of Italy.
An article in the Italian daily La Stampa on Monday said: 'The truth is La Scala is infested with tourists who see it as a tourist attraction, take selfies and leave at the first interval.'
La Scala's spokesman said there had been a 'change in behaviour led by visitors who do not follow opera but see La Scala as a landmark'. Last year a spectator in the stalls was hit by a phone dropped from a box during a performance.
'Some come underdressed although others are overdressed, arriving in dinner jackets for 2pm performances,' he added.
In the first few days since the decorum warning was issued, no one had been turned back, suggesting the message was getting through.
The spokesman said he was also optimistic about next year. 'We are doing the complete Ring Cycle by Wagner, and Wagner devotees tend to be very well dressed,' he said.
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