La Scala into a costume. As with most of the theatres at that time, La Scala was also a casino, with gamblers sitting in the foyer. Conditions in the auditorium, too, could be frustrating for the opera lover, as Mary Shelley discovered in September 1840: At the Opera they were giving Otto Nicolai's "Templario". Unfortunately, as is well known, the theatre of La Scala serves, not only as the universal drawing-room for all the society of Milan, but every sort of trading transaction, from horse-dealing to stock-jobbing, is carried on in the pit; so that brief and far between are the snatches
Lisa Gasteen National Opera School musical faculty members included Lisa Gasteen AO, John Fisher, Giovanni Reggioli, Margaret Baker-Genovesi, Sharolyn Kimmorley AM and Jill Stoll. UK-based psychotherapist and expert on psychogenic dysphonia (voice problems due to emotional mismanagement) Phiroze Neemuchwala was amongst the members of the non-musical faculty. Faculty members have been associated with leading international and national opera companies such as the Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, Teatro alla Scala, Opera Australia, Teatro la Fenice, New York City Opera, Washington National Opera, Welsh National Opera, the Théâtre de la Monnaie, De Nederlandse Opera and Opera Queensland, as well as the Rossini Opera Festival,