For four years, the director of AKKC, Ernst Trillingsgaard has been in negotiations with the management of La Scala and finally, he has now finished and signed the contract with the most influential ballet and opera theatre company in the world.

The much-coveted contract is the main reason why AKKC, as the first cultural institution in Scandinavia, is able to welcome La Scala that will be performing “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” from October 18th-20th and “Viva la Mamma” - Convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali from October 22nd-24th.

The economy behind this incredible and first time visiting performance in Aalborg consists of a budget on more than 10 million DKK., and we have been granted sponsorships from both local funds and our own sponsors. Without these sponsorships I would not have been able to sign the contract, states a thrilled Ernst Trillingsgaard.

World-class culture
It is an unprecedented event when La Scala performs respectively “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “Viva la Mamma” - Convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali on the main stage in Aalborghallen. The enormous effort and the more than four years of negotiations have now succeeded, and the signed contract is the final result of a long-term strategy and hard work that have aimed directly at securing Aalborg as one of the main cultural cities in Denmark.

Classical and international performances of such dimensions are usually reserved for the capitals. Nevertheless, La Scala has approved the artistic and the logistic conditions available in Aalborg. Last but not least, AKKC has succeeded in establishing the huge economic foundation that is needed to attract one of the most appreciated and admired theatre houses in the world. The mayor of Aalborg, Henning G. Jensen, is also very satisfied with the city’s current promotions into both the cultural world and the sporting league.

- The city of Aalborg has - with the success of AaB, the city’s football team, and the visit of La Scala this autumn - strengthened itself within the league. AaB has reached an international as well as a professional level that benefits both the city and the nation. Similarly, La Scala’s ballet and opera performances will strike a responsive chord in Denmark and Scandinavia. Therefore, it is a beautiful score made by AKKC that I as mayor and Aalborg as city are very proud of, says Henning G. Jensen, mayor of Aalborg.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream only in Aalborg
Besides being one of the big attractions in Milan, the La Scala ballet, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” choreographed by Georges Balanchine has also travelled around the world with great success. La Scala has travelled from Mariinskij in St. Petersburg to theatres in Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro, from Baden-Baden Festspielhaus, Aspendos Amphitheatre in Turkey and to Herodes Attikus in Athens. The ballet is considered by La Scala to be so spectacular that it represented La Scala at the first China-tour in 2006. This underlines the significance of Aalborg being the only location in 2009 to present the performance of La Scala’s ballet “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”.

Luisa Spinatelli has created the gorgeous scenography to Shakespeare’s romantic comedy from approximately 1594-1596. “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is one of Shakespeare’s most popular and famous plays, and the music is composed by the German composer and conductor, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy.

Opera with future senior stars in Milan
The comical opera, “Viva la Mamma” or “Convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali” is instructed by Domenico Gilardoni and performed by the Accademia Teatro alla Scala - the young and most talented members of La Scala’s opera academy. Before the opera visits Aalborg, it will participate in a Donizetti Festival. Furthermore, there are a number of performances on La Scala’s own stage from Oct. 4th-14th. The opera was created in the 1830s by Gaetano Donizetti. However, the unrestrained opera-comedy first experienced a revival in 1963 and has, since then, been performed in several countries.

More than 200 performers
La Scala’s arrival in Aalborg will not go off quietly. More than 200 performers in the form of dancers, choirs, soloists and members of the orchestra will arrive in Aalborg along with three Air Italia airplanes containing costumes, properties, scenes, instruments and technical equipment.