Teatro alla Scala Museum

This guide to the Teatro alla Scala Museum in Milan opens in Paris in 1911, when antique dealer Jules Sambon put his life's collection of theatre costumes and scores up for auction at a price of four hundred fifty thousand lire. You'll hear how word reached Milan that the American banker J. P. Morgan wanted the whole collection for himself, and how a handful of Milanese, including composer Arrigo Boito and museum director Ettore Modigliani, began knocking on doors to raise the sum before he could. Fifty private citizens, the guide notes, each dug into their own pockets toward the total. Look for the portraits of long-dead sopranos and tenors watching from the gilt frames around you.