Travel tips for opera lovers – Milan and Gioachino Rossini

Rossini in Milan

The series about historical places of opera art & culture. Get to know exciting excursion and travel ideas for opera lovers. This time:  Rossini in Milan.

All Destinations on google maps with links to detailed Blogposts:

Rossini in Mailand

The years 1810-1820 were Rossini’s galley years, during which he wrote over 30 works for a dozen theaters. Yet in Rossini’s biography, Milan was overshadowed by Naples, Bologna and Paris. Nevertheless, the Lombard capital saw the premieres of half a dozen of Rossini’s works, including “Gazza ladra” and “Il turco in Italia.”

Rossini met Domenico Barbaja there, who was in charge of the “entertainment center” at La Scala. The Scala of Rossini’s time must be imagined somewhat differently than we are used to nowadays. While the music was important, the social aspect of a visit was at least as important. Scala also included a café, a pastry shop, a kitchen, and game rooms. The resourceful Domenico Barbaja was responsible for the latter. With the French coming to power during the Napoleonic years, gambling was legalized and Barbaja turned La Scala into an entertainment center with music, gastronomy and gambling.

TO THE FULL ROSSINI BIOGRAPHY

Destination Teatro alla Scala

Rossini became one of the most important composers for La Scala early on, his name was enough to fill the theaters. La Scala honored Rossini with a large statue in its premises.

Rossini’s statue in the Scala:

https://www.teatroallascala.org/en/index.html

Destination Barbajada

The Barbajada is not a place, but a product. In fact, the said, later opera impresario Domenico Barbaja had started as a waiter and discovered a product with which he became rich and in his younger years built a chain of coffee houses in Milan, immodestly giving his last name to the product: the Barbajada was born. It is a drink made of cocoa, chocolate and cream, a precursor of the cappuccino. It was popular until the thirties of the last century, but then disappeared from the coffee houses. In 2007, the Municipality of Milan included it in the De.Co list, the list of typical gastronomic products of the city, and since then you can find it more and more often. The Barbajada proudly appears on this list alongside the Minestrone alla Milanese, the Panettone, the Cassoeula, the Rostin negàa, the Mondeghili, the Costoletta alla Milanese, the Michetta di Milano, the Ossobuco Milanese and, of course, the Risotto alla Milanese.

What does all this have to do with Rossini, you may ask?

Barbaja went to Naples and turned the San Carlo opera house there into a Milanese-style gambling headquarters and brought Rossini in as composer and artistic director.

Barbajada:

Enjoy the product, for example, in the restaurants of Milan Panettone Institution Vergani.

http://www.panettonevergani.com/