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La Scala Opera House Organizes Closed Audience-free Concert

A worker walks as Italy's La Scala opera house reopens to the public for the first time since the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, with new social distancing and hygiene rules, in Milan, Italy, on June 21, 2020. (REUTERS/Flavio Lo Scalzo)
A worker walks as Italy's La Scala opera house reopens to the public for the first time since the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, with new social distancing and hygiene rules, in Milan, Italy, on June 21, 2020. (REUTERS/Flavio Lo Scalzo)
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La Scala Opera House Organizes Closed Audience-free Concert

A worker walks as Italy's La Scala opera house reopens to the public for the first time since the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, with new social distancing and hygiene rules, in Milan, Italy, on June 21, 2020. (REUTERS/Flavio Lo Scalzo)
A worker walks as Italy's La Scala opera house reopens to the public for the first time since the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, with new social distancing and hygiene rules, in Milan, Italy, on June 21, 2020. (REUTERS/Flavio Lo Scalzo)

La Scala opera house organized an exceptional event featuring stars including Placido Domingo, and Roberto Alagna on December 7, in its closed auditorium due to the coronavirus pandemic, but it would be broadcasted on TV.

Milan's famed La Scala opera house announced in a press conference the program of the evening "A riveder le stelle" (Seeing the stars again) which will be held despite the closure of theaters and the persisting health crisis.

According to AFP, the event is aimed at maintaining the Italian tradition of holding one of the biggest cultural events in the country on the Saint Ambrose's Day, on December 7, the annual date of the house's season-opener.

"Twenty four of the greatest operatic voices of today will gather on December 7 in Milan to express solidarity with this theater affected the most by the pandemic. The second wave of COVID-19 has led to the cancelation of all performances scheduled since September," the house said in a statement.

"La Scala and RAI state television in Italy will work together on this evening "full of hope and determination" to "deliver the values of opera and dancing to Italians in their houses through their favorite artists," the statement added, noting that the concert will also be broadcasted in Germany, France, and many countries on channel ARTE.

In addition to Alagna and Domingo, the event will feature singers Ildar Abdrazakov, Carlos Álvarez, Piotr Beczala, Benjamin Bernheim, Eleonora Buratto, Marianne Crebassa, Rosa Feola, Francesco Meli, Camilla Nylund, and many others.

Directed by Michele Gamba, the ballet segment will see the participation of star Roberto Bolle, along with dancers Martina Arduino, Claudio Coviello, Nicoletta Manni, and Virna Toppi.

The evening is also set to include segments from opera Giuseppe Verdi, Gaetano Donizetti, Giacomo Puccini, Georges Bizet, Jules Masenet, Richard Wagner, and Gioachino Rossini, in addition to ballet music by Tchaïkovsky, Davide Dileo, Erick Satie, and Giuseppe Verdi. Choreography will be led by Manuel Legris, Rudolf Noureev, and Massimiliano Volpini.

In addition to operas and dance performances, a number of actors will read some literary extracts. A special arrangement has been made for this exceptional performance, which will be held without an audience. The orchestra will be located in the center of the hall, while the artists will not only be on the main stage, but also in other areas of the famous house.

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1st Car Made during Soviet-era in Poland Goes on Display 73 Years Later

This Warszawa M-20 car with serial number 000001, based on a Soviet Union's model, was the first vehicle to leave a car factory in Poland after World War II, on Nov. 6, 1951 and now, 73 years later, it goes on public display at a private museum in Otrebusy, central Poland, on Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)
This Warszawa M-20 car with serial number 000001, based on a Soviet Union's model, was the first vehicle to leave a car factory in Poland after World War II, on Nov. 6, 1951 and now, 73 years later, it goes on public display at a private museum in Otrebusy, central Poland, on Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)
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1st Car Made during Soviet-era in Poland Goes on Display 73 Years Later

This Warszawa M-20 car with serial number 000001, based on a Soviet Union's model, was the first vehicle to leave a car factory in Poland after World War II, on Nov. 6, 1951 and now, 73 years later, it goes on public display at a private museum in Otrebusy, central Poland, on Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)
This Warszawa M-20 car with serial number 000001, based on a Soviet Union's model, was the first vehicle to leave a car factory in Poland after World War II, on Nov. 6, 1951 and now, 73 years later, it goes on public display at a private museum in Otrebusy, central Poland, on Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

The very first car produced in Soviet-era Poland after World War II went on display Friday near Warsaw after it was tracked down in Finland during decades of searching and acquired after years of negotiations.

The chunky 1951 Warszawa M-20 bears the serial number 000001 it had when it left the FSO Passenger Car Factory in Warsaw on Nov. 6 of that year, exactly 73 years ago. It is a relic of the period of Poland’s post-war subordination to communist-ruled Soviet Union.

“We are extremely proud because now we count among the very few people in the world who have retrieved the very first vehicles of the series made in their countries,” said Zbigniew Mikiciuk, a co-founder of the private museum in Otrebusy.

The car was first given to the Soviet army marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky, who served as Poland’s defense minister after the war to seal the country’s dependency to Moscow. It eventually was discovered in the possession of the family of Finnish rally car driver Rauno Aaltonen, though the car's history in between remains unclear, Mikiciuk said.
It took more than two years of negotiations to obtain the vehicle from the Finnish owners, The Associated Press quoted him as saying.

The car's original light color has been painted over with a shade of brown that was fashionable in the 1970s and bears marks of once-intensive use that the museum has preserved to keep it authentic, but it is still "holding together” and is “cool” despite its age, Mikiciuk said.
The now-defunct FSO factory intensively sought the original model during the 1970s in hopes of using it to mark an anniversary. The company even offered a new car in exchange for it, at a time when cars were still a luxury in Poland, but to no avail.
The FSO factory was originally built in the late 1940s to make Italian Fiat 508 and 1100 cars, but Soviet leaders in Moscow objected to the ties with a Western company during the Cold War. They ordered production to be based on the Soviet Union's Pobeda (Victory) cars, with Moscow providing the technology and the production lines.
The car now joins the museum’s many historic vehicles, including a 1928 US-made Oakland brought to Poland before the war by a doctor’s family and a 1953 Buick that belonged to Poland’s communist-era Prime Minister Jozef Cyrankiewicz. The former leader brought the car to Poland via the Netherlands apparently to avoid a direct connection to the US during the Cold War.
The museum also displays a Volvo that was used by Poland’s communist leader, Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, known for having imposed martial law in 1981.
“We have been doing this for more than 50 years and we are not collecting cars you can see in the street but cars that have their history, their soul and their legend,” Mikiciuk said.
The museum owners hope that by displaying the initial Warszawa M-20 they can encourage members of the public to come forward and fill in more details of its history.