Triumphant return to Moscow for Carla Fracci
After several years, Carla Fracci danced again in Moscow last week, with a sold out theatre, a twenty-minute standing ovation and enough flowers to fill a florist’s window.
In this case it is only right to be indiscreet and reveal a lady’s age because, quite remarkably, Carla Fracci is now seventy-nine.
The piece, Lilacs, set to the music of Sergei Rachmaninov, was created for her by Nikolai Androsov, and her leading man was the young up-coming Bolshoi dancer Dmitry Ekaterinin. Italian pianist, Gregorio Nardi, was also part of the large ensemble taking part.
Here are some photos of the occasion which have been kindly sent to me from Moscow.
Graham Spicer, aka ‘Gramilano’, is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan. 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, and he wrote the Danza in Italia column for Dancing Times magazine. Graham was the historical advisor on Codice Carla, the 2023 documentary on Italian ballerina Carla Fracci.
Graham also works as a dance photographer, and his photos have appeared in many books, theatre programmes, and magazines, including Dancing Times, Dance Spirit and Ballet2000, as well as all the major Italian newspapers.
He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.
I wish I could have been in attendance of Carla Fracci’s performance.
It is such a remarkable performance of a great artist that I hope
this occasion will be available on video for everyone else who was
not able to be there in person. For that matter I would like to ask
if Carla Fracci was wearing special character shoes made for her
performance.
I don’t pay close attention to the ballet world and hadn’t heard of Carla Fracci in a long while. Assuming this event came off well—and apparently it did, given the ovation—I’m glad she made it back to the stage. Your contact(s) sent a fine bunch of photographs. Thanks for sharing!
Fantastically inspiring!
She was, and still is, so beautiful. When I was an undergrad back in the mid-60’s, I was in love with her. I swore that once she smiled at me from the stage and that sealed the deal for me.
I am really happy that this presentation of Carla Fracci made the evident success (20 minutes of standing ovation is more than suficient as a good proof). She has always been just a stunning ballerina, perfect in elegance of gesture, suave as a breeze in each step.
I love the Rachmaninoff song, and I am sure Fracci with her expressive face and arms was a delight.