In pictures: Milan's La Scala

Milan's world-famous opera house La Scala opens its new season on 7 December with a production of Giuseppe Verdi's Otello.

But after only three weeks, the theatre will close to allow a major restoration programme to be carried out.

But music fans will not be deprived.

The opera company will move from the centre of Milan to a new theatre in an industrial suburb in the north of the city for the next few years.

The opening of the season is always a glittering occasion attended by a host of celebrities

The company will move to the newly-built Teatro degli Arcimboldi in the Bicocca development area

The restoration work will improve facilities but leave the elegant 18th Century building unaffected

The new theatre, which holds 2,500 people and took 18 months to build, opens on 19 January 2002

La Scala has already been rebuilt once before, after being damaged in a World War II bombing raid

Music Director Riccardo Muti said the new venue has exciting architecture and state-of-the-art acoustics

The next opera season at La Scala opens on 7 December 2004 with Salieri's L'Europa Riconosciuta

Images reproduced by kind permission of the Fondazione Teatro alla Scala