The opera begins with a projection that occupies the entire proscenium, the screen is a large black BGO - Gobelin tulle.

After crossing the clouds ...

... one glides from a bird's eye view over a computer-reconstructed Milan ...

... up to a historic building near the Castello Sforzesco.

A scenographic and lighting expedient ...

... using the transparency of the tulle, will allow the viewer to see what is happening in an interior of the palace ...

... the facade of which will subsequently also be displayed on a large Rear-projection screen made of RNO - Notturno film which will be the background for the rest of the show.

The experience in the aerial acrobatic staging of the Catalan company La Fura dels Baus, which began in the late 70s ...

... is exploited once again by Àlex Ollé, one of its artistic directors, to conceive with the set designer Alfons Flores a singular and astonishing scenic system that will remain fixed for the entire show.

A parallelepiped suspended in mid-air ...

... is the claustrophobic interior that will host the events of the viscount of Valmont and the marquise of Merteuil.

The structural device to which its apparent levitation is due is a double radial pattern of steel cables that the lighting by Marco Filibeck emphasize ...

... or make almost invisible with the backlighting, which also is produced by the large Rear-projection screen ...

... in which sudden glimpses open up on numerous other backgrounds ...

... for example boreal skies ...

... or symbolic visions ...

... or simple luminous backgrounds which, in their variation, however have the constant of highlighting how the couple is imprisoned in a tiny room with no escape routes.

The two open walls, instead of giving breath to the room in which the fierce fight between the two protagonists takes place ...

... accentuate the impression of claustrophobia that surrounds them when two gigantic characters appear on the RNO - Notturno screen and look at them as if they were two canaries in a cage.

Or better ...

... the protagonists are observed, as the composer Luca Francesconi explained, as if they were «... some bugs in a terrarium.»

The visionary power of the cult Catalan company ...

... whose name means ''the ferret of the Baus'', a Catalan stream subsequently transformed into a landfill, was able to express itself at its best with gigantic video projections.

The show turned out, more than an opera ...

... as the composer Luca Francesconi also stated, «... a multimedia experience ».

Which made use of an original and complex orchestration, because the traditional orchestra in the pit was counterpointed by a second and smaller one, positioned higher up ...

... and led by another conductor.

The two orchestras were joined by a large choir which was located outside the theatre, in a place unknown to the spectators, whose singing was broadcast live to the hall.

Finnish Susanna Mälkki ...

... was the first woman to conduct an opera at the Scala.

«An important event», continues Luca Francesconi «also because all this dramaturgical construction ends up with a woman, as the protagonist, in a rather shocking way.
But basically my idea is that, perhaps, a woman will save us.»

Valmont dies poisoned by a glass of wine offered to him by the Marquise de Merteuil.

The backlighting of the screen creates a livid background against which the silhouettes of the protagonists and the symbolic cage of the cables that suspend the room stand out.

In the final scene, in which the Marquise de Merteuil destroys her own prison-house, the urban background of the screen cracks until it crumbles ...

... in blocks that fall, leaving room for a cloudy but blue sky ...

... before the curtain starts to close.

The service ladder used by the actors is visible in the rehearsal photos, never during the performance.

The perspective of the chamber has been deliberately exaggerated and its walls ...

... have been upholstered in black FTN - Tancredi 380 velvet.

To close the background, a transparent Backing flat made black BGO - Gobelin tulle was used, like that of the initial large screen.