Erio Piccagliani

Erio Piccagliani (1917—2002) was an Italian photographer who worked for thirty years at La Scala.

Erio Piccagliani was born in Modena and he died there. Little is known about his life except that he was the official photographer of La Scala, the most prestigious opera house in Italy, from 1950 to 1979. The copyrights of his photographs belong to Fondazione del Teatro alla Scala.^[1] He documented all opera and ballet productions during this time period. When he quit in September of 1979, he donated all photographic material to Scala.^[2] The book Scala Diva was produced in 1993 to accompany an exhibition at the Italian Cultural Institute at 39 Belgrave Square in London.^[3]

He frequently photographed all stars of La Scala — for example Maria Callas, Joan Sutherland, Renata Tebaldi, Giuseppe Di Stefano, Nicolai Ghiaurov, Luciano Pavarotti, dancer Carla Fracci, and conductor Herbert von Karajan. His photographs are on the cover of many disks and books. He photographed the singers not only on stage and in a studio setting, but also outside the theatre, in the wardrobe or on tour. Popular at the time was one of his Maria Callas images, showing the diva in a taxi in New York, smiling, surrounded by fans.^[4] Also remarkable his snap shot of Franco Zeffirelli and Carlos Kleiber in front of the Scala curtain after the Otello-Premiere of 1976.^[5]

One of his most famous photographs shows Alfred Hitchcock sitting alone in darkness in the empty auditorium of La Scala.^[6]

• Scala Diva, ed. by Silvana Turzio, Modena: Panini 1993, ISBN 88-7686-209-9
• Grandi Voce alla Scala: Callas, booklet for CD compilation, 1996
• Herbert von Karajan: Gli anni alla Scala, ed. by Giuseppe Pugliese, Edizioni del Teatro alla Scala 2000

• Teatro alla Scala - La Scala's Photographers