Roberto Bolle lays himself bare in Vanity Fair: it’s difficult to say “I love you”

 ballet, interview  2 Responses »
Dec 212012
 

Roberto Bolle Vanity Fair 2 700x487 Roberto Bolle lays himself bare in Vanity Fair: its difficult to say I love you

 

In a reveal­ing inter­view with the Italian , opens up, and reveals parts of his psyche that he usu­ally prefers to keep hid­den in interviews.

Roberto Bolle Vanity Fair 378x500 Roberto Bolle lays himself bare in Vanity Fair: its difficult to say I love youLuca Dini was ask­ing the ques­tions, and Bolle lit­er­ally laid him­self bare to phở­to­grapher Marc Hom:

Dance has improved me as a per­son. I’ve always danced bet­ter on stage than dur­ing the rehears­als because of the con­tact with the pub­lic and the pro­tec­tion of inhab­it­ing the ‘armour’ of a char­ac­ter which allows me to let go, to exper­i­ence and com­mu­nic­ate emo­tions, to not be restrained and timid as I am by nature.

It has been thera­peutic; it has given me the pos­sib­il­ity to express things that I still struggle to expose, and it’s a work in pro­gress.… [con­tinue reading]

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Billy Connolly, star of Dustin Hoffman’s film Quartet, on old age

 cinema, interview  No Responses »
Sep 122012
 

Billy Connolly Billy Connolly, star of Dustin Hoffmans film Quartet, on old ageBilly Con­nolly stars in ’s movie adapt­a­tion of Ron­ald Harwood’s stage play Quar­tet. The film, set in a retire­ment home for opera sing­ers, with Brit­ish stal­warts , and Tom Cour­tenay, is an amus­ing but thought-provoking look at old-age and ageing.

Con­nolly, who turns 70 in two months’ time, spoke to the Toronto Sun about old age with the wry humour and dis­sect­ing eye that has made his com­edy so universal:

[Old age] is lovely as long as you don’t pay any atten­tion to it. Don’t let a num­ber con­trol your life. People make decisions based on what num­ber you’ve become, which I think is quite baff­ling. It’s like act­ing your street num­ber. Because you’ve become 57 or 58 you should wear beige or wear wide trousers with a saggy ass.… [con­tinue reading]

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Juan Diego Flórez on his future, his family, his colleagues, and the economic crisis

 interview, opera  No Responses »
Aug 172012
 

Juan Diego Florez Julia Trape Lima 2008 Juan Diego Flórez on his future, his family, his colleagues, and the economic crisisTo coin­cide with his Pesaro appear­ances this year, Juan Diego Flórez talked with Italy’s Il Cor­ri­ere della Sera.

It was at Pesaro’s Rossini Opera Fest­ival in 1996 that the young Per­uvian sud­denly burst on to the world stage when he stepped in to take the lead­ing tenor role in Mat­ilde di Shabran after Bruce Ford became indisposed.

They were search­ing des­per­ately for a replace­ment all over the world, and finally came to me.

Flórez was already at the Fest­ival to sing a small role in ’s Ric­ciardo e Zoraide. He was 23.

Reck­lessly I said I’d do it. I had two weeks to pre­pare and I didn’t know any­thing of the role. I felt like a tor­eador who enters the ring without a cape.… [con­tinue reading]

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La Famiglia: opera Italian-style with the Muti family

 interview, Italy, opera  2 Responses »
Jun 252012
 

Riccardo Muti Chiara Muti 2012 La Famiglia: opera Italian style with the Muti family’s daugh­ter is about to make her dir­ect­ing début: Chiara Muti will dir­ect Hindemith’s Sancta Susanna, which her father will con­duct, for the Ravenna Fest­ival. Oh yes, her mother, Cristina Mazza­vil­lani is the Festival’s artistic dir­ector. Nice and cozy…  keep it in the family.

Chiara Muti isn’t new to the theatre. She emerged from the pres­ti­gi­ous theatre school of ’s Pic­colo Teatro in 1995. She’s played Lady Macbeth along­side Italian heartthrob Raol Bova, and has worked in film and tele­vi­sion. With M° Muti as her father she grew up watch­ing  opera, see­ing work­ings of an opera house from the inside. She might well be an excel­lent opera director.

There’s no “it’s been dif­fi­cult work­ing in the same busi­ness as my extraordin­ar­ily suc­cess­ful and power­ful father” for her. … [con­tinue reading]

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Sylvie Guillem on why she’s still ‘Mademoiselle Non’

 ballet, dance, interview  No Responses »
Jun 192012
 

Guillem Manon 2011 Sylvie Guillem on why shes still Mademoiselle NonSylive Guillem will be in tomor­row to receive from the Bien­nale  the Leone d’oro  (Golden Lion) for “hav­ing redesigned the form of the dan­cer, defy­ing the laws of physics”.

Valeria Crippa  of the Cor­ri­ere della Sera talked to her about aspects of her career.

I could have ended up like a cork bob­bing along on the water at the whim of the cur­rents. Instead I pre­ferred to take the helm and steer my life into the open sea and its storms.

When Nureyev nom­in­ated me étoile at the Paris Opera when I was 19 it would have been, for many dan­cers, the max­imum aspir­a­tion, but not for me. It was only the begin­ning of a dream that I’m still liv­ing through.… [con­tinue reading]

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Roberto Bolle — interviewed by Sportweek — on football, ultras, Beckham and tattoos

 ballet, interview, Italy  No Responses »
Jun 172012
 

Roberto Bolle Sportweek 1 Roberto Bolle interviewed by Sportweek on football, ultras, Beckham and tattoosAnother day, another cover. After the Chi magazine art­icle a couple of days ago fol­lows a 7-page spread in the equally pop­u­lar men’s magazine Sportweek, the weekly insert of the sports daily La Gazz­etta della Sport. Alessia Cru­ciani goes for a dif­fer­ent tack with her ques­tions, her ter­min­o­logy all com­ing from the world of foot­ball. It works well.

Ath­letes are fam­ous for tak­ing great care over their look. Would you go on stage with a crest like Beckham?

Once I shaved my hair very short, but I couldn’t do more than that for pro­fes­sion­al­ism. Some dan­cers have tattoos.

That they then cover on stage?

That they then don’t cover on stage, though they should. A col­league has thirteen!

Have you ever been booed?… [con­tinue reading]

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Roberto Bolle: I conquered America… ABT, Black Swan and solitude

 ballet, interview  1 Response »
Jun 142012
 

Roberto Bolle Chi 1 Roberto Bolle: I conquered America... ABT, Black Swan and solitudeAfter Roberto Bolle’s Romeo and Juliet with the Amer­ican Bal­let Theatre in , ’s gos­sip magazine Chi sent their editor Alsonso Signorini to inter­view him, and phở­to­grapher Fab­rizio Cestari to snap the dan­cer in vari­ous iconic Big Apple locations.

You are among the few Itali­ans who have made it in Amer­ica. Was it difficult?

It happened nat­ur­ally. It began in 2007 when I came here with Aless­andra Ferri for her ‘addio’ to the stage… I didn’t look for it. Then Bruce Weber con­tac­ted me for his book after see­ing me in the theatre. And it was the same for the Annie Leibovitz cover of Vogue. It all happened by chance.”

Have you paid for this success?

I have had to give up the near­ness of my fam­ily with whom I’m very close.… [con­tinue reading]

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