La Scala (Italian: Teatro alla Scala), is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala (Italian: Nuovo Regio Ducale Teatro alla Scala). The premiere performance was Antonio Salieri's Europa riconosciuta.

Most of Italy's greatest operatic artists, and many of the finest singers from around the world, have appeared at La Scala during the past 200 years. Today, the theatre is still recognised as one of the leading opera and ballet theatres in the world and is home to the La Scala Theatre Chorus, La Scala Theatre Ballet and La Scala Theatre Orchestra. The theatre also has an associate school, known as the La Scala Theatre Academy (Italian: Accademia Teatro alla Scala), which offers professional training in music, dance, stage craft and stage management.

La Scala's season traditionally opens on 7 December, Saint Ambrose's Day, the feast day of Milan's patron saint. All performances must end before midnight, and long operas start earlier in the evening when necessary.

Giusy Ferreri (born Giuseppa Gaetana Ferreri on 18 April 1979 in Palermo, Italy) is an Italian singer-songwriter. In 2008 Giusy took part at the first Italian edition of the talent show X Factor, in which she came second.

To date she has sold around 1,5 million records worldwide.

In June 2008 Sony BMG Italy released the debut EP by Ferreri, which includes her first single "Non ti Scordar mai di me" written by Italian pop singer Tiziano Ferro, and five covers of classic songs from the 60s–70s. The single held the number one position of the Italian singles chart for an impressive fifteen consecutive weeks, becoming one of the most successful tracks ever on that chart. The album debuted at the top spot of the Italian album chart and stayed there for eleven consecutive weeks. It went on to be certified 4x platinum denoting over 300,000 copies shipped. She is considered to be the Italian version of Linda Perry.^{[by whom?]}

In October 2008 the song Novembre, the first single from Ferreri's official debut album Gaetana, was released. The tune debuted at number one in Italy and held the top for eight weeks so far. The album was released on 14 November 2008. It debuted at number one on the iTunes Italy chart and subsequently peaked at #2 on the Italian FIMI albums chart, selling over 80,000 copies in its first week of release. The album sold so far over 390,000 copies in Italy and Greece. The second single from the album, "Stai fermo lì", was announced on 8 January 2009 and was released in Italy on 16 January 2009. The third single off the album was "La Scala (The Ladder)", originally written by Linda Perry and translated in Italian by singer Tiziano Ferro. The song peaking at #27 on the FIMI singles chart and at #49 on the Greece Singles Chart.

Carlos Kleiber (3 July 1930 – 13 July 2004) was a German-born, Austrian classical conductor who spent most of his early life in Berlin, Buenos Aires, Vienna and New York City, and from the early 1960s his professional career in Germany.

Kleiber was born as Karl Ludwig Kleiber in Berlin, the son of the Austrian conductor Erich Kleiber and American Ruth Goodrich, from California. In 1940, the Kleiber family emigrated to Buenos Aires. Karl's name became Carlos. As a youth, he had an English governess, grew up in English boarding schools. He also composed, sang, and played piano and timpani. While his father noticed his son's musical talents, Erich Kleiber nevertheless dissuaded Carlos from pursuing a musical career: "What a pity the boy is musically talented", wrote his father to a friend.^{[citation needed]}

Carlos Kleiber initially studied chemistry in Zürich, but soon decided to dedicate himself to music. He was repetiteur at the Gärtnerplatz Theatre in Munich in 1952, and made his conducting debut with the operetta Gasparone at Potsdam theatre in 1954. From 1958 to 1964 he was Kapellmeister at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf and Duisburg, and then at the Opera in Zürich from 1964 to 1966. Between 1966 and 1973 he was first Kapellmeister in Stuttgart, his last permanent post. During the following years, he often conducted at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich.

Keith Jarrett (born May 8, 1945, in Allentown, Pennsylvania) is an American pianist and composer who performs both jazz and classical music.

Jarrett started his career with Art Blakey, moving on to play with Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis. Since the early 1970s he has enjoyed a great deal of success in jazz, jazz fusion, and classical music; as a group leader and a solo performer. His improvisations draw not only from the traditions of jazz, but from other genres as well, especially Western classical music, gospel, blues, and ethnic folk music.

In 2003, Jarrett received the Polar Music Prize, the first (and to this day only) recipient not to share the prize with a co-recipient, and in 2004 he received the Léonie Sonning Music Prize.

In 2008, he was inducted into the Down Beat Hall of Fame in the magazine's 73rd Annual Readers' Poll.

Jarrett grew up in suburban Allentown, Pennsylvania, with significant early exposure to music. He possessed absolute pitch, and he displayed prodigious musical talents as a young child. He began piano lessons just before his third birthday, and at age five he appeared on a TV talent program hosted by the swing bandleader Paul Whiteman. The young Jarrett gave his first formal piano recital at the age of seven, playing works by composers including Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, and Saint-Saëns, and ending with two of his own compositions. Encouraged especially by his mother, Jarrett took intensive classical piano lessons with a series of teachers, including Eleanor Sokoloff of the Curtis Institute.

Alessandra Ferri (born 6 May 1963, Milan) is a retired Italian prima ballerina assoluta. She received her training at the La Scala Theatre Ballet School and the Royal Ballet School. She danced with the Royal Ballet (1980–1984), American Ballet Theatre (1985–2007) and La Scala Theatre Ballet (1992–2007) and as an international guest artist, before retiring on 10 August 2007, aged 44.

Alessandra Ferri was born in Milan, Italy. She began studying ballet at the La Scala Theatre Ballet School, later transferring to the upper school of the Royal Ballet School. She represented the Royal Ballet School in the 1980 Prix de Lausanne, winning a scholarship which enabled her to continue studying at the school.

Ferri joined the Royal Ballet in 1980 and in 1982, for her first major role in the ballet Mayerling, she was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding First Achievement of the Year in Ballet. In 1983, she was nominated for and won the Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Individual Performance of the Year in a New Dance Production for her role in Sir Kenneth MacMillan's Valley of Shadows. In 1984, she was promoted to the rank of Principal Dancer.