On 14 February, one of the world’s most eminent opera houses plugged in. Milan’s La Scala launched its digital platform, LaScalaTV, and for the first time, opened up the house to a worldwide audience.

Featuring livestreamed and on-demand content, the platform aims to reach an international audience and make its archive of the opera house’s rich history of performance and production widely accessible.

La Scala. Image courtesy of Wolfgang Moroder/Wikimedia Commons

“I’m in the shoes of a ballet-lover, and an opera-lover. I think it is so interesting to be able to access performances from the past,” said La Scala CEO and Artistic Director Dominique Meyer in a press conference earlier this year. “I dream of discovering those treasures that I could only watch on a very small TV set when I was a child.” 

“I’ve always had this dream of allowing people to rediscover these pearls from the past, and allow more and more people to [join] our international audience. That is what this project is all about.”

Watching live operas and ballets will cost around $18.60 for...