On the night of my return from Athens, I got the chance to go to one of the most famous opera houses in the world, La Scala. Each semester, IES typically gets access to a handful of tickets to a variety of shows, from operas to orchestral performances to ballets. They then offer the tickets to students on a first-come-first-serve sign-up basis. The best part is that they are FREE OF CHARGE (IES picks up the cost)! Since I figured I needed to see a show in this venue while being in Milan for four months, I agreed to go on Sunday. The show that I went to see was the Mozart-written opera, “The Magic Flute.”

First of all, getting to the opera house turned out to be quite the adventure. Since my flight from Athens was delayed 40 minutes, I didn’t get back to my apartment until 7:15 P.M., while the opera started at 8:00 P.M. I had to shower, get dressed, and take a cab the entire way across the city, since our apartment is about as far as you can get and still be in Milan, in 45 minutes. Miraculously I was able to make it there by 7:50 after throwing on clothes and running to the cab stop in a full suit!

After getting my tickets from one of our RA’s waiting outside the theater, I hiked up to my seat on the 6^th level, the highest one. My seat was located near the stage, but since the seating area is shaped like a U, this was not exactly the best location and required me to contort my neck all night to see the stage. However, it is impossible to complain since they were free and tickets are notoriously difficult and incredibly expensive. For example, tickets on the ground level go for around 500 euros per show.

After reaching my seat, I was amazed by the beauty of the building’s architecture. Almost every part of the theatre was made out of dark wood and was adorned with flowing burgundy drapes. Unfortunately, in my mad dash to get there on time, I forgot my camera, so I have no pictures from the night.

I was pleasantly surprised by the entire experience. As a person who strongly dislikes musicals, I figured it was going to be very much the same. However, due to the difficult vocals and limited number of large group sing-alongs, it was actually pretty good. Since the entire thing was written in German, it was annoying having to use small translator at my seat to understand what was going on, but overall I enjoyed it. It was an good cultural experience and it’s pretty cool to say that I have seen an opera at La Scala. It’s incredible to think that in the morning I was standing at the base of the Acropolis and at night going to one of the world’s best opera houses!

Location: Milan, Italy