La Gioconda (opera) opera", the equivalent of French "Grand-Opéra". Ponchielli revised the work several times; the version that is played today was first given in 1880. There are several complete recordings of the opera, and it is regularly performed, especially in Italy. It is one of only a few operas that features a principal role for each of the six major voice types. "La Gioconda" was first performed at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, on 8 April 1876. It was especially successful in its third and final version first seen at the same theatre on 28 March 1880. The opera had its American
Santa Maria la Scala Santa Maria la Scala Santa Maria la Scala is a Baroque style church in a Piazzetta of the same name in Naples, Italy. The complex was built in 1054, when merchants of the town of Scala in the peninsula of Sorrento, traded with Neapolitans, thus were granted a plot which then stood outside the city walls, to erect a church complex. By the 15th century, the church stood inside the walls of the city. As trade between Naples and Scala declined, the church fell in disuse. The church was reconstructed in the 17th and 18th century as the home of