Milan’s Teatro alla Scala has removed the paywall from its streaming platform LaScalaTV, giving audiences worldwide free access to a growing archive of opera, ballet and concert performances.

From September 1, the platform is available free of charge after registration, replacing the subscription model introduced when LaScalaTV launched in 2023. The initiative is being bankrolled by banking group Intesa Sanpaolo, the platform’s principal sponsor.

La Scala. Photo © Wolfgang Moroder/Wikimedia Commons

The digital catalogue includes 44 opera productions — 31 recent productions and 13 historic recordings — alongside eight ballets, 26 concerts, documentaries and educational programmes. Several historic performances come from RAI archives, reflecting the broadcaster’s five-decade collaboration with La Scala.

Artists represented include conductors Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Muti, Riccardo Chailly, Myung-Whun Chung and Simone Young, as well as singers including Anna Netrebko, Sondra Radvanovsky, Roberto Alagna and Benjamin Bernheim. Productions feature directors including Giorgio Strehler, Franco Zeffirelli, David McVicar and Deborah Warner.

The platform will continue adding recent performances rather than becoming solely a historical archive. New additions on September 1 include Gassmann’s L’opera seria, performed in 2025 under Christophe Rousset, and Mozart’s Requiem, conducted by Thomas Guggeis in 2024.

Further additions will include Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder and Wagner’s Götterdämmerung, completing La Scala’s recent Ring cycle on the platform.

LaScalaTV was developed during the pandemic and uses nine remotely operated cameras installed inside the Piermarini theatre to record performances. The platform struggled to attract significant take-up as a subscription service, however. La Scala is now presenting free access as part of its broader strategy to make its artistic heritage and current productions more widely accessible.

For information and streaming, visit LaScalaTV.