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Milan’s famed opera house is cracking down on the underdressed, even as it and other European opera companies try to attract a wider audience.
Amelia Nierenberg, a London-based reporter, brings her great-grandmother’s opera glasses whenever she goes to the Met in New York. Though maybe not a full-length gown.
July 10, 2025Updated 12:25 p.m. ET
Few operagoers still button up tuxedos or roll on elbow-length gloves for a performance, as many venues have relaxed their dress codes. But tank tops, flip-flops and shorts? That’s where Teatro alla Scala, the storied Milan opera house commonly known as La Scala, draws the line.
The venue is stepping up the enforcement of its dress code this summer, reminding patrons via signs in the foyer to dress “in keeping with the decorum of the theater.” The underdressed will not be allowed inside, according to its policy, which is also printed on tickets, nor will they be reimbursed.
“In order not to exclude anyone, it is necessary to establish some minimum rules,” Paolo Besana, a La Scala spokesman, wrote in an email.
La Scala is the latest European opera to find itself in a sartorial bind as it tries to both court younger patrons and maintain the frisson of a fancy experience.
“For people who go to the opera occasionally, it is — by definition — something of an occasion,” said John Allison, the editor of Opera With Opera News, who said he had no personal issue going in jeans. “That can be interpreted however people like.”
Some think the concern is overplayed. “The only clothes that matter in any opera house or theater are the ones on the stage,” Andrew Mellor, a roving critic, wrote in an Instagram message.
