La Scala torna alla Scala, 2004
GPE-0112
The Scala Returns to the Scala
Lithograph
48 x 34 cm
No inscriptions
No numbering
999 unnumbered copies
Teatro della Scala, Milan
Mondadori Electa, Milan
The print was commissioned from the artist by the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, on the occasion of its reopening on 6 December 2004 after it was closed for restoration.
Double-sided dark blue card stock folder, central side with two flaps, closed format 49 x 35 cm; on the front board white label with titles in red and black (author, title, publisher). Contains a title-page, which also serves as a colophon, and the plate.
Includes information regarding the context of production, printing technique, measurements, edition size, and printer.
In the upper half of the sheet, a drawing recalls the entrance to the Scala Theatre in Milan. The door-frame doubles as a pentagram with musical notations; the perspectival grid alludes to a stage, while the image of a nocturnal sky, in the vanishing point of the perspective, bears the date of the reopening of the Theatre after a period when it was closed for refurbishment.
In the lower half, the artist transcribed the title of the opera that on 3 August 1778 opened the Scala, Europa riconosciuta (Europe Recognized) by Antonio Salieri, and that on 7 December 2004 returned to inaugurate the new season of the refurbished theatre. The title is followed by the transcription of Europe's words to Isseo, taken from the libretto of the opera, act two, scene two, when Europe declares to Isseo the destiny that had led her to abandon him.
Quotation from the opera L’Europa riconosciuta by Antonio Salieri, 1778, Act II, Scene 2.
| • | Giulio Paolini. Impressions graphiques, l’opera grafica (Turin: Marco Noire Editore, 2005), update supplement 1996-2005 to the volume Impressions graphiques. L’opera grafica 1967-1992 di Giulio Paolini (Turin: Marco Noire Editore, 1992), cat. no. 113, col. repr. (artist’s proof). |
