[Dec. 2024] The day after we went to the small but beautiful Gerolamo Theatre in Milan, Italy, we went to see a ballet at the Piccolo Theatre.
There is a station called Lanza on the metro in Milan, and before you arrive at the station, the train announces “Lanza, Brera, Piccolo Teatro.”
So I knew where it was, but this was my first time going there.
I expected it to be small because it’s called Piccolo (small), but it was actually a spacious and modern theatre.
After doing some research, I found out that there are three “Piccolo Theatres” in Milan.
It was founded in 1947 as Italy’s first public theatre with the aim to be “a small but high-quality theatre to show good dramas to the general public.”
That’s why it’s called “Piccolo.”
The Piccolo Theatre in Lanza that we visited is the largest of the three, Teatro Strehler, with 974 seats.
Strehler is the name of one of the founders of the Piccolo Theatres, and apparently he was also the director.
It is a functional theatre with minimal decoration, focusing on visibility and acoustics, and is like a smaller version of the Royal Festival Hall in London.
It was not at all as beautiful as the Gerolamo Theatre the day before.
There was an exhibition room on the side of the entrance that told the history of the theatre.
We didn’t have time to look inside, though.
Here we saw Cinderella by the Scuola di Ballo dell’ Accademia Teatro Scala.
It is the gateway to joining the La Scala Ballet Company, and apparently Roberto Bolle and Carla Fraccci also graduated from here.
For a student recital, it was very professional, with professional-level stage equipment and lighting.
This is how children who go on to become professional dancers get used to being on stage.
They all looked to be teenagers, but they were very good.
Only thing which was a shame was that the boys didn’t have enough strength to perform the lifts well.
There were no mistakes, but it seemed like Cinderella was just too heavy.
I could see that lifts are very difficult.
