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Les Étoiles in Rome: Zakharova, Nuñez, Lopatin, Soares…

12 January 2015 by Gramilano 5 Comments

Svetlana Zakharova in Revelation
Svetlana Zakharova in Revelation

A good old-fashioned ballet gala: Nutcracker, Don Q, Swan Lake, Le Corsaire… it's sometimes just what the doctor ordered. Daniele Cipriani's Les Étoiles injected the audience in Rome with a generous dose of positive energy administered by some of the world's best dancers.

It wasn't all cherries. Silvia Azzoni and Oleksandr Ryabko danced Hamburg Ballet repertoire with John Neumeier's Shall We Dance? set to Gershwin's music and the pas de deux from his Third Symphony of Gustav Mahler. There was also Svetlana Zakharova with her favourite bon-bon, Motoko Hirayama's Revelation set to John Williams' theme tune from the film Schindler's List. In many hands, it would be a piece that could veer toward the obvious, but with Zakharova – who seemed especially inspired – it is seductive and convincing.

Less so with Makhail Lobukhin's All is Going Wrong, a solo choreographed by Morihiro Ivata, which mixes in a little of Ben Van Cauwenbergh's Les Bourgeois with a touch of Spartacus and the result is… well… obvious.

Marianela Nuñez and Thiago Soares in Swan Lake 2014
Marianela Nuñez in Don Quixote 2014
Flavia Stocchi, Giorgia Calenda, Susanna Salvi and Flavia Morgante as the four cygnets, Swan Lake 2014

It was wonderful to see Marianela Nuñez, partnered by her partner – i.e. husband – the macho but sensitive Thiago Soares, in their showpieces Don Quixote and Swan Lake, throwing off her triple turns between pirouettes as Kitri, then showing her subtle dancing technique and acting skills as the white swan, matched by Soares' intensity. Always beautiful and exhilarating to watch.

Vyacheslav Lopatin in The Talisman
Vyacheslav Lopatin in The Talisman

Perhaps the most exciting part of the evening was the delightful Anastasia Stashkevich together with one of today's finest dancers, the Bolshoi's Vyacheslav Lopatin, in The Talisman pas de deux. Stashkevich is dainty and beautifully proportioned, a very fine dancer indeed, but it was Lopatin who took everyone's breath away with his energetic jumps and mid-air turns, coupled with a clean and refined technique. A marvellous performance.

A nice touch was to have young ballerinas – Flavia Stocchi, Giorgia Calenda, Susanna Salvi and Flavia Morgante from the Rome Opera Ballet – dance three pas de quatre from Don Quixote, Swan Lake (precisely coordinated cygnets) and, in the last part of the gala, before the Le Corsaire pas de deux. This was with Zakharova and Lobukhin. He was in Spartacus mood again with a tendency to raise his shoulders in his effort to jump as high as possible, but there's no denying his testosterone-filled presence. Zakharova seemed even more elegant and regal by his side, her beautiful lines evident in every position. A true queen of dance, and by the reaction of the audience, the reigning favourite in Italy today.

Jack Devant's photographs of Les Étoiles in Rome

Anastasia Stashkevich and Vyacheslav Lopatin in TheNutcracker by Jack Devant
Silvia Azzoni and Oleksandr Ryabko in Adagietto by Jack Devant
Svetlana Zakharova in Revelation by Jack Devant
Makhail Lobukhin in All is Going Wrong by Jack Devant
Silvia Azzoni and Oleksandr Ryabko in Shall We Dance by Jack Devant
Marianela Nuñez and Thiago Soares in Swan Lake by Jack Devant
Svetlana Zakharova and Makhail Lobukhin in Le Corsaire
Graham Spicer version
Gramilano( Editor )

Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.

His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.

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Filed Under: dance Tagged With: Daniele Cipriani, Don Quixote, John Neumeier, Les Étoiles, Marianela Nuñez, Rome Opera Ballet, Susanna Salvi, Svetlana Zakharova, Swan Lake, Thiago Soares

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Avatar of Giovanna LevaGiovanna Leva says

    13 January 2015 at 08:32

    Is there a video of the performance?…I will really enjoy seeing it. I guess other people who live far away and have no chance to go to programs like this would love to have it.

    Giovanna Leva
    Mumbai (India)

    Reply
  2. Avatar of MonicaMonica says

    13 January 2015 at 16:49

    http://youtu.be/rk91CQiep0k not beautiful quality but better than nothing 😉

    Reply
    • Avatar of NicoleNicole says

      1 February 2015 at 16:22

      Oh my god… You have on video!!! I was there the second day and I wanted souch to watch the “Shall we Dance” again but I couldnt find a trace of it anywhere!!

      Reply
  3. Avatar of Bill Philin PloplisBill Philin Ploplis says

    14 January 2015 at 02:48

    I am always grateful for your thoughtful and insightful reporting on dance events in Italy. Now with all of the terror threats, I doubt I shall ever be able to return to Europe to enjoy all of its cultural beauties–before I die. Mille grazie!!!

    Reply
  4. Avatar of gramilanogramilano says

    14 January 2015 at 17:04

    Mille grazie to you Bill for taking the time to send your thanks. I hope you will be over before too long, in the meantime I will keep on reporting!

    Reply

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GRAMILANO

Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan, aka ‘Gramilano’. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. His articles have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times. He wrote the ‘Danza in Italia’ column for Dancing Times magazine.

Since 2022, Gramilano is pleased to welcome guest authors: Alisa Alekseeva, Paul Arrowsmith, Kathrina Farrugia-Kriel, Jonathan Gray, Marina Harss, Matthew Paluch, Jann Parry, Graham Watts, and Deborah Weiss.

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