La Scala

About this project

La Scala lifts the curtain with Ocellis to showcase in images its new Piccola Scala room with 180 seats, buried 8.5 meters underground.
Two years after its inauguration, La Scala celebrates the opening of its little sister, the Piccola Scala. It was with the technical support of Ocellis that its director took up the challenge during the Covid period to create a second underground room at 8.5 meters beneath the stage of the legendary Scala.
A challenge that, on the eve of the curfew, resonated as a unique cultural feat in Paris! 5,000 – 1,000 – 500, the decline of spectator quotas imposed by Covid did not impress Frédéric Biessy, who was determined in this very particular context "to stay alert and adapt hour by hour."

Already "a love story" by Alexis Michalik scheduled in the main hall at 7:00 pm, plays out fully despite the curfew.
But his ambition to facilitate the emergence of young talents and establish a real synergy with La Scala could only rely on a room whose dimensions and capacities are complementary and adapted to these cultural productions by artists seeking their first audience.
Thus, transforming the former rehearsal room gave birth to the idea of this Piccola Scala, whose ambition is to host meetings, concerts, conferences, or stand-up performances…

"It was obviously an incredible challenge to decide to carry out the work and inaugurate a new Parisian stage during the Covid period," explains the general manager of La Scala. "With incredible technical constraints to achieve the perfect isophony of a second room allowing the simultaneous production of two shows within the same building. In a site that required intervention on the very foundations of this building, integrated into the hyper-urban environment of the Strasbourg Saint-Denis district in Paris."

"The challenge for Frédéric Biessy involved three inseparable axes," explains Benjamin Perron, Ocellis project manager. "The regulatory context to be respected to make accessible to the public the level located 8.5 meters deep under the LA SCALA theater, in accordance with the standards of a Category 2 ERP of type L."

The operational constraint on which we had to propose solutions was to realize a perfect soundproofing of the Piccola Scala. Finally, the creation of this box within a box had to be completed within a timeframe matching Frédéric Biessy's ambitions."

Having faced the craziest challenges for over 25 years at the head of his production company "les petites heures," Frédéric Biessy admits that this bet would not have been possible without the highly professional support of the Ocellis teams. "To undertake an impossible mission, you need people running at the same speed as you. Especially when you tell them that the night of the reserve release, ‘the show must go on.’ A special thanks to Benjamin for taking on this technological and human challenge!"