A documentary which, like the opera, builds in emotional tension towards its glittering climax.
La Scala: The Force of Destiny screens as part of the 2026 ST. ALi Italian Film Festival more information about the festival is available here:
The ST. ALi Italian Film Festival is coming soon to cinemas!
Read the Glam Adelaide story about the festival here: The ST. ALi Italian Film Festival – Glam Adelaide
In the world of opera, no name is perhaps quite as evocative as La Scala: Milan’s feted opera company and theatre. Every year December 7th is La Prima, the night that La Scala opens its new season, becoming the focus of the entire city of Milan. For the 2024/25 season, the opening performance was La Forza del Destino, Verdi’s masterpiece. The red carpet is out; stylish women of Milan are strutting their Versace; the royal box is loaded with fresh flowers; the paparazzi is jostling for position; the orchestra is warming up.
But what does the work look like leading up to this moment?
Director Anissa Bonnefont and her crew spent four months with the company in the lead up to La Prima. We become privy to auditions, rehearsals, costume fittings, choreography, and major building works. All of the technical precision which goes into a production such as this makes for fascinating viewing. But what is perhaps most engrossing are the discussion between creatives, leading to the final iteration of the director’s vision. The director in this case is Leo Muscato, who wants the opera to speak to our times, and the repetitive, pointless, nature of most wars. Maestro Riccardo Chailly takes the baton for this production. The central opera cast consists of Anna Netrebko (soprano), Ludovic Tézier (baritone), and Brian Jagde (tenor) who has starred in several Metropolitan Opera productions which have been filmed, including the upcoming Otello.
Bonnefont and her fabulous cinematographer Martina Cocco capture the extraordinary amount of work which goes into a major theatrical production, and in particular opera (or ballet). On top of a large cast and a director, there is a substantial orchestra, a conductor, a chorus, a concert master, a choreographer, and a répétiteur or two! La Scala has money, so the scenery workshop is the size of an airport terminal, and the costume department looks like an entire clothing factory. And yet in all this vastness and seeming hubris, what Bonnefont finds is the small moments of artistic humility, such as the Head of Costume buying a tray of scrumptious pastries to thank her seamstresses.
La Scala: The Force of Destiny builds in anticipation towards La Prima, as we see not just the theatre itself getting ready, but the rest of the city too. A large screen is set up for live streaming in Milan’s beautiful central shopping arcade, and so is one in the city’s prison. Opera is writ so large on the Italian psyche that yes, even rough and ready prisoners are keen to listen to Verdi and weep.
Don’t think that this film is just one for the opera lovers. If you have any interest in theatre, music, the creative process, or Italy, then this documentary will hold you spellbound.
But it is also a love letter to that most outlandish, camp, brilliant, moving, and precise, of human art forms: opera.
Reviewed by Tracey Korsten
Rating 5 out of 5
Distributor: PalaceFilms
