Teatro alla Scala new ballet season 2016-2017, “a strange equilibrium”
La Scala has released its new ballet season for 2016-2017. Not surprisingly, the new Ballet Director, Mauro Bigonzetti, is putting his mark on the season with a new production of Coppélia which he will choreograph to launch the season. Bigonzetti’s long-standing collaborator Eugenio Scigliano will create a new version of Sheherazade, while in the same evening, Bigonzetti will ‘supervise’ choreography created by members of the La Scala Ballet set to Ravel’s La Valse, an idea which sounds as though it should belong to a Dance Festival or a dancing school’s End-of-Term Show, rather than to a major subsidised opera house. Svetlana Zakharova will participate in Bigonzetti’s Progetto Handel (Handel Project) which seems to be along the lines of this season’s Giardino degli Amanti (The Lovers’ Garden) and last season’s Cello Suites… a ballet without the full orchestra. I imagine this frees it up for the greater number of opera performances that will be on offer next season.
There will be the return of Ratmansky’s Swan Lake, which actually is still to have it’s debut at the theatre (at the end of June), and MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet will be back with Roberto Bolle and Marianela Nuñez. Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream will also make a comeback, as will Tetley’s Rite of Spring and Fokin’s Petrushka.
Bigonzetti says that the programming allows room for new Soloists and Principals to emerge from the ranks, with the corps de ballet “having even more of an important role as a key player”. This is thanks to new works being “made to measure” for the corps and with “an equilibrium between guests and company dancers”. There are three guests next season… no strike that, one! Zakharova and Bolle are “Primi ballerini étoiles” at La Scala, so Nuñez is the only guest. A strange equilibrium.
17 December 2016 Young People’s Preview; 20, 21, 29, 30, 31 December 2016; 5, 13 (2 perfs), 15, 19 January 2017
Coppélia
Léo Delibes
Choreography – Mauro Bigonzetti
Conductor – Patrick Fournillier
Sets and Lighting – Carlo Cerri
Costumes – Maurizio Millenotti
Video Designer – Carlo Cerri, Alessandro Grisendi and Marco Noviello
Étoile- Roberto Bolle (20, 21 Dec; 13, 15 Jan)
La Scala Corps de ballet and Orchestra
New Production
11, 14, 16, 18, 22, 23 February; 1 March 2017
Igor Stravinsky
Stravinsky Evening
Le sacre du printemps
Choreography – Glen Tetley
Sets and Costumes – Nadine Baylis
Petrushka
Choreography – Mikhail Fokin
Sets and Costumes – Alexandre Benois
Conductor – Zubin Mehta
La Scala Corps de ballet and Orchestra
19, 21, 27, 28 April 2017; 4 (2 perfs), 10 (2 perfs), 11, 13 May 2017
La Valse / Symphony in C / Sheherazade
Maurice Ravel
La Valse
Choreography by dancers from Teatro alla Scala
Supervised by Mauro Bigonzetti
Costumes – Irene Monti
Lighting – Carlo Cerri
New Production
George Bizet
Symphony in C
Choreography – George Balanchine
Costumes – Barbara Karinska
Production Teatro alla Scala
Nikolaj Rimskij-Korsakov
Sheherazade
Choreography – Eugenio Scigliano
Sets and Lighting – Carlo Cerri
Costumes – Kristopher Millar and Lois Swandale
New Production
Conductor – Paavo Järvi
La Scala Corps de ballet and Orchestra
20, 21, 23 (2 perfs) 24, 25, 26, 30 May; 1 June 2017
Georg Friedrich Händel
Handel Project
Choreography – Mauro Bigonzetti
Costumes – Helena Medeiros
Lighting – Carlo Cerri
Étoile – Svetlana Zakharova (20, 23, 24, 25 May)
La Scala Corps de ballet and Orchestra soloists
New production
28 June; 4, 7, 12, 15 17 July 2017
Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Choreography – George Balanchine
Conductor – David Coleman
Sets and Costumes – Luisa Spinatelli
La Scala Corps de ballet and Orchestra and students from the La Scala Academy.
6, 8, 11, 13 18, 19, 20, 21 July 2017
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Swan Lake
Choreography – Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov
Staged by – Alexei Ratmansky
Sets and Costumes – Jérôme Kaplan
Lighting – Martin Gebhardt
Conductor – Michail Jurowski
La Scala Corps de ballet and Orchestra and students from the La Scala Academy.
Co Production with the Zurich Opera House
23, 26, 28, 29 September 2017; 6, 12, 18 October 2017
Sergei Prokofiev
Romeo and Juliet
Choreography – Kenneth MacMillan
Conductor –Felix Korobov
Sets – Mauro Carosi
Costumes – Odette Nicoletti
Lighting – Marco Filibeck
Étoile – Roberto Bolle (23, 26, 28 Sep)
Artista Ospite – Marianela Nuñez (23, 26, 28 Sep)
La Scala Corps de ballet and Orchestra
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 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.
Interesting in how uninteresting it looks. I fear that the mediocrity (or better lack of excitement) that was expected of a mid-level modern choreographer like Bigonzetti.
I wonder how the ticket sales will be with such few guests. It could be that ballet will spend less, create lower sales, and take second place to Opera in the next season.
However, it seems Bigonzetti will make the most of his directorship creating a new piece on Roberto Bolle (and Zakharova) whose performance was the only saving grace in Cinderella this season.
I think I will be spending more time in Munich, visiting only for the two Roberto Bolle performances.
I will see how La Scala does with Swan Lake, but have seen that Zurich were really very good for this, with fantastic long limbed russian ballerinas for their casts of the Swans.
OMG, please… I am so disappointed! I guess I am going to attend “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” only and maybe “Romeo & Juliet” once again (great performance by Nunez last time BTW)
I hope Ratmansky’s new Swan Lake is going to be better than Sleeping Beauty.
This year is the last year for the Etoile Massimo Murru. Nothing… nothing for one of the greatest italian dancer of all time.
It simply a shame. Bigonzetti, you, with your program, with your mentality, with all… you are simply a shame!
I do agree with you Mary, it’s a real shame!
Zakharova and Bolle are everywhere! This is what you call being “over-exposed”. Aren’t there any other good dancers? How about Jacopo Tissi? where is he?