La Scala by Giorgio Lotti & Raul Radice 1981 Park Lane Opera Photo Book

Lavishly produced photographic history of Milan's famed Teatro alla Scala, one of the world's most celebrated opera houses. Created for the bicentennial era of La Scala, the volume combines Raul Radice's historical narrative with Giorgio Lotti's extensive photographic documentation of performances, rehearsals, backstage operations, scenery workshops, orchestra pits, ballet productions, architecture, and leading performers associated with the theater. The book contains numerous full-page and double-page color plates depicting opera and ballet productions, making it both a historical reference and an important visual record of twentieth-century European performing arts. Condition: Book is in Near Fine condition. Red cloth binding remains clean and bright with only minor shelf wear at extremities and a few tiny bumps at corners. Interior is clean with no ownership marks noted. Light age-toning to endpapers and margins, typical for the paper stock used. Dust jacket is Very Good. Jacket remains complete and unclipped but shows moderate rubbing, edge wear, several small chips and creases along the upper edge, discoloration/foxing to the reverse and rear panel, and remnants of an old price sticker on the front flap. Still presents attractively in spite of the wear. Copyright page shows the Park Lane/Crown Publishers issue with the letter line 'a b c d e f g h.' Printed and bound in Italy by Officine Grafiche di Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, Verona. Giorgio Lotti (1937-2023) was one of Italy's leading photojournalists and a longtime contributor to major European publications, noted for documentary photography of culture, politics, and the arts. Raul Radice (1916-1988), journalist, critic, and cultural historian, wrote extensively on Italian music, theater, and public life. Together they produced one of the most visually impressive book-length tributes to La Scala available in English.…