La Scala is an opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was known as the Nuovo Regio Ducale Teatro alla Scala; the premiere performance was Antonio Salieri's Europa riconosciuta. Most of Italy's greatest operatic artists, many of the finest singers from around the world, have appeared at La Scala; the theatre is regarded as one of the leading opera and ballet theatres in the world and is home to the La Scala Theatre Chorus, La Scala Theatre Ballet and La Scala Theatre Orchestra. The theatre has an associate school, known as the La Scala Theatre Academy, which offers professional training in music, stage craft and stage management. La Scala's season opens on Saint Ambrose's Day, the feast day of Milan's patron saint. All performances must end before midnight, long operas start earlier in the evening when necessary; the Museo Teatrale alla Scala, accessible from the theatre's foyer and a part of the house, contains a collection of paintings, statues and other documents regarding La Scala's and opera history in general.

La Scala hosts the Accademia d'Arti e Mestieri dello Spettacolo. Its goal is to train a new generation of young musicians, technical staff, dancers. Above the boxes, La Scala has a gallery—called the loggione—where the less wealthy can watch the performances; the gallery is crowded with the most critical opera aficionados, known as the loggionisti, who can be ecstatic or merciless towards singers' perceived successes or failures. For their failures, artists receive a "baptism of fire" from these aficionados, fiascos are long remembered. For example, in 2006, tenor Roberto Alagna left the stage after being booed during a performance of Aida; this forced his understudy, Antonello Palombi, to replace him mid-scene without time to change into a costume. A fire destroyed the previous theatre, the Teatro Regio Ducale, on 25 February 1776, after a carnival gala. A group of ninety wealthy Milanese, who owned private boxes in the theatre, wrote to Archduke Ferdinand of Austria-Este asking for a new theatre and a provisional one to be used while completing the new one.

The neoclassical architect Giuseppe Piermarini produced an initial design but it was rejected by Count Firmian. A second plan was accepted in 1776 by Empress Maria Theresa; the new theatre was built on the former location of the church of Santa Maria alla Scala, from which the theatre gets its name. The church was deconsecrated and demolished and, over a period of two years, the theatre was completed by Pietro Marliani, Pietro Nosetti and Antonio and Giuseppe Fe; the theatre had a total of "3,000 or so" seats organized into 678 pit-stalls, arranged in six tiers of boxes above, the'loggione' or two galleries. Its stage is one of the largest in Italy. Building expenses were covered by the sale of boxes, which were lavishly decorated by their owners, impressing observers such as Stendhal. La Scala soon became the preeminent meeting place for wealthy Milanese people. In the tradition of the times, the main floor had no chairs and spectators watched the shows standing up; the orchestra was in full sight.

As with most of the theatres at that time, La Scala was a casino, with gamblers sitting in the foyer. Conditions in the auditorium, could be frustrating for the opera lover, as Mary Shelley discovered in September 1840: At the Opera they were giving Otto Nicolai's Templario; 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. La Scala was illuminated with 84 oil lamps mounted on the stage and another thousand in the rest of theatre. To prevent the risks of fire, several rooms were filled with hundreds of water buckets. In time, oil lamps were replaced by gas lamps, these in turn were replaced by electric lights in 1883; the original structure was renovated in 1907. In 1943, during World War II, La Scala was damaged by bombing, it was rebuilt and reopened on 11 May 1946, with a memorable concert conducted by Arturo Toscanini—twice La Scala's principal conductor and an associate of the composers Giuseppe Verdi and Giacomo Puccini—with a soprano solo by Renata Tebaldi, which created a sensation.

La Scala hosted the first productions of many famous operas, had a special relationship with Verdi. For several years, Verdi did not allow his work to be played here, as some of his music had been modified by the orchestra; this dispute originated in a disagreement over the production of his Giovanna d'Arco in 1845. The premiere of his last opera, Falstaff was given in the theatre. In 1982, the Filarmonica della Scala was established, drawing its members from the larger pool of musicians that comprise the Orchestra della Scala; the theatre underwent a major renovation from early 2002 to late 2004. The theatre closed following the traditional 7 December 2001 sea

Emanuelle and the White Slave Trade is an Italian sexploitation film from 1978 directed by Joe D'Amato as his last Black Emanuelle film. It was known as Emanuelle and the Girls of Madame Claude. Emanuelle is in Kenya to arrange an interview with the Italian American gangster George Lagnetti, she succeeds in meeting him with help from her friend Susan Towers and Prince Aurozanni but is intrigued by other events, leading her to meet the white slave trader Francis Harley, setting her up for a dangerous undercover operation at the San Diego mansion of Madame Claude, which functions as a brothel for top-level dignitaries and civil servants. Laura Gemser... Emanuelle Ely Galleani... Susan Towers Gabriele Tinti... Francis Harley Venantino Venantini... Giorgio Rivetti Pierre Marfurt... Prince Arausani Gota Gobert... Madame Claude Nicola D'Eramo... Stefan Bryan Rostron... Jim Barnes Emanuelle and the White Slave Trade features the investigative journalist character known to her readers as'Emanuelle'. Like most films directed or produced by Joe D'Amato, it is an attempt to capitalise on the commercial success of another film - in this case the 1977 film The French Woman.

The film is one of the Black Emanuelle films with the heaviest censorship, eight minutes cut in a theatrical release. Emanuelle and the White Slave Trade was released in Italy on April 20, 1978. In a contemporary review, John Pym "a flimsy, though unsensational, yarn concerned with the horrors of'white slavery'; the dismal artifice of the whole tests the viewer's patience." Emanuelle and the White Slave Trade on IMDb

Manuel Gourlade was the first manager of S. L. Benfica and one of driving forces that led to the creation of Sport Lisboa that 4 years would be known as Sport Lisboa e Benfica. Little is known about him, he was born in Lisbon, came from a family with money, studied at Colégio Nobre de Carvalho and worked as an employee at Fármacia Franco where a meeting took place for the signing of Sport Lisboa foundation act. He was chosen to do treasury management in the Administrative Board, he helped funding the club with his own money: the ball bought from Lisbon Cricket Club for 150$ Reais, the translation from English to Portuguese, of the Laws of the game for 2500$ Reais, plus ordered from London, a whistle and another 3 balls. He managed the club for 2 seasons, with a total of 16 games resulting in 8 losses. Cosme Damião replaced him as coach, he remained close to the club but because all of the expenses he had made for Benfica he took a toll on his finances and died from poverty in Campolide