Ivan Vasiliev is forced to cancel début at the last minute

Ivan Vasiliev, who has been suf­fer­ing from back pains for a few days, was forced to bow out of his début at Teatro alla Scala in Milan at the last minute. He was already in make-up for his role as the Hunch­back in Roland Petit’s Notre-Dame de Paris, when half-an-hour before cur­tain up he real­ised he couldn’t go on.

21-year-old Clau­dio Cov­i­ello who had danced the role at the mat­inée per­form­ance stepped in. As the announce­ment was made in the theatre wails arrived from all parts of the house with cries of “No!”. It is to young Coviello’s credit that the cries turned to cheers by the end of his first solo. His Esmer­alda was rising young Italian star Petra Conti, who danced the role superbly, and her real life part­ner, Eris Nezha, played her stage suitor in apt heroic fashion.

Carla Fracci, who was in the theatre to wit­ness Vasiliev’s per­form­ance, found her­self watch­ing Cov­i­ello who she has known since he was a boy. He was a stu­dent in the Rome Bal­let School when she was the dir­ector of Rome Opera Ballet.

Nat­alia Osipova (Vasiliev’s real life part­ner) played Esmer­alda in the first three per­form­ances of the run, with Roberto Bolle as her Quasimodo.

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