Page 64 - Swann Galleries - Fine Photographs - Sale 2304 - February 26, 2013

45 ● EISENSTAEDT, ALFRED (1898-1995)
“Premier at La Scala, Milan.” Silver print, 171/4x121/2 inches (43.8x31.8 cm.), with Eisenstaedt’s
signature and edition notation AP3, in ink, on recto, and with a caption and credit, in pencil, in an
unknown hand, on verso. 1933; printed 1995 [10,000/15,000]
With the Certificate of Authenticity.
Alfred Eisenstaedt’s photographs of ballerinas and sopranos were frequently reproduced in LIFE magazine.
In his photograph, Premier at La Scala, the lens has shifted from the performers on stage to the patrons
seated in the opulent setting of this grand opera house.
Nestled amidst the 2,800 plush velvet seats, Eisenstaedt hones in on a young girl who’s oblivious to
the fact she is the focal point of the picture. Seated among the wealthy and cultured elite of Milan, she
evinces a sense of interest in her companion. Her sideward glance as well as the busyness of the assembled
throng indicates to the viewer that the performance has not yet begun. Despite her young age, she appears
self-possessed and at ease in her surroundings, the expansiveness of the setting not overwhelming her.
Pictorially, the subject’s placement against the curvature of the balcony set against the smaller and less
defined audience members also results in a refined aesthetic formality.
The six tiers of La Scala, with their intricate carved moldings, reflect a hierarchy of viewership, as the
main floor actually had no seats at all upon its original inception.Yet these intricacies lend a soft and
graceful backdrop to a theater in the midst of transition.The electric lights protruding from the façade
had once been oil lamps, combining the antiquity of the architecture and of opera itself with the newer
technologies of the inter-war era.
In addition to the premiere of the Milan production of Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera, Legend of the Invisible
City of Kitezh, Eisenstaedt also photographed backstage. But it is this iconic picture of a privileged
milieu that resonates to this day. For mature patrons, an opera premiere was one of the foremost social
events of the season. For the subject of the photograph, it signified her coming-of-age and introduction
to an extraordinary lifestyle
Eisenstaedt on Eisenstaedt, 39.
Eisenstaedt: Remembrances, 12.