dance

Photo album: first look at Heinz Spoerli’s Goldberg Variations at La Scala

ByGramilano 25 January 20186 July 2024 Reading Time: 2 minutes

Goldberg Variationen ph Brescia e Amisano Teatro alla Scala 002 K65A8091 x (64) — Goldberg Variationen photo by Brescia e Amisano Teatro alla Scala

“Every time I listen to Bach I feel my heart jumps a beat. His music is for me an inexhaustible source of inspiration and has been since my early twenties, which was even before, in Düsseldorf, when I choreographed a piece to the Goldberg Variations, which many critics considered, at the beginning of the nineties, one of the most important works of the period.”

Goldberg Variationen Vittoria Valerio ph Brescia e Amisano Teatro alla Scala 002 K65A8091 x (23) — Goldberg Variationen Vittoria Valerio ph Brescia e Amisano Teatro alla Scala

Goldberg Variationen Virna Toppi Nicola Del Freo ph Brescia e Amisano Teatro alla Scala 002 K65A8091 x (52) — Goldberg Variationen Virna Toppi Nicola Del Freo ph Brescia e Amisano Teatro alla Scala

Goldberg Variationen Virna Toppi ph Brescia e Amisano Teatro alla Scala 002 K65A8091 x (19) — Goldberg Variationen Virna Toppi ph Brescia e Amisano Teatro alla Scala

Goldberg Variationen V. Lunadei W Madau M.Gavazzi E. Lepera ph Brescia e Amisano Teatro alla Scala 002 K65A8091 x (35) — Goldberg Variationen V. Lunadei W Madau M.Gavazzi E. Lepera ph Brescia e Amisano Teatro alla Scala

Goldberg Variationen Nicoletta Manni Timofej Andrijashenko ph Brescia e Amisano Teatro alla Scala 002 K65A8091 x (41) — Goldberg Variationen Nicoletta Manni Timofej Andrijashenko ph Brescia e Amisano Teatro alla Scala

Goldberg Variationen Martina Arduino Marco Agostino ph Brescia e Amisano Teatro alla Scala 002 K65A8091 x (65) — Goldberg Variationen Martina Arduino Marco Agostino ph Brescia e Amisano Teatro alla Scala

Goldberg Variationen Martina Arduino Claudio Coviello ph Brescia e Amisano Teatro alla Scala 002 K65A8091 x (33) — Goldberg Variationen Martina Arduino Claudio Coviello ph Brescia e Amisano Teatro alla Scala

Goldberg Variationen Antonella Albano Walter Madau Eugenio Lepera ph Brescia e Amisano Teatro alla Scala 002 K65A8091 x (44) — Goldberg Variationen Antonella Albano Walter Madau Eugenio Lepera ph Brescia e Amisano Teatro alla Scala

Heinz Spoerli was appointed artistic director and choreographer of the German Opera on the Rhine, Düsseldorf in 1991, where he “raised technical standards and built up audiences with a neo-classical repertoire that includes his own works plus those of choreographers like Balanchine and van Manen”.

From 1996, he was director of the Zurich Ballet for 14 years, which is where his collaboration began the La Scala‘s current Intendant, Alexander Pereira. His Cello Suites entered La Scala’s repertoire in 2015.

Goldberg Variationen Claudio Coviello ph Brescia e Amisano Teatro alla Scala 002 K65A8091 x (4) — Goldberg Variationen Claudio Coviello ph Brescia e Amisano Teatro alla Scala

Goldberg Variationen Antonino Sutera ph Brescia e Amisano Teatro alla Scala 002 K65A8091 x (45) — Goldberg Variationen Antonino Sutera ph Brescia e Amisano Teatro alla Scala

Goldberg Variationen Claudio Coviello ph Brescia e Amisano Teatro alla Scala 002 K65A8091 x (62) — Goldberg Variationen Claudio Coviello ph Brescia e Amisano Teatro alla Scala

Goldberg Variationen Gioacchino Starace ph Brescia e Amisano Teatro alla Scala 002 K65A8091 x (61) — Goldberg Variationen Gioacchino Starace ph Brescia e Amisano Teatro alla Scala

Goldberg Variationen Gioacchino Starace ph Brescia e Amisano Teatro alla Scala 002 K65A8091 x (63) — Goldberg Variationen Gioacchino Starace ph Brescia e Amisano Teatro alla Scala

Goldberg-Variationen opens at La Scala this evening and can be seen until 22 March.

Alexey Botvinov, who last November notched up 300 performances of the Goldberg Variations, has played it many times also for performances of this work.

Goldberg Variationen ph Brescia e Amisano Teatro alla Scala 002 K65A8091 x (2) — Goldberg Variationen ph Brescia e Amisano Teatro alla Scala

Goldberg Variationen ph Brescia e Amisano Teatro alla Scala 002 K65A8091 x (1) — Goldberg Variationen ph Brescia e Amisano Teatro alla Scala

Thirty-five dancers from La Scala’s company will be onstage and the cast features Claudio Coviello, Nicoletta Manni, Antonino Sutera, Marco Agostino, Antonella Albano, Francesca Podini, Virna Toppi, Vittoria Valerio, Timofej Andrijashenko, Martina Arduino, Nicola Del Freo, Walter Madau, Gioacchino Starace.

Goldberg Variationen Antonino Sutera Claudio Coviello ph Brescia e Amisano Teatro alla Scala 002 K65A8091 x (20) — Goldberg Variationen Antonino Sutera Claudio Coviello photo by Brescia e Amisano Teatro alla Scala

25 January – 22 March 2018

Johann Sebastian Bach

Goldberg-Variationen

Choreography Heinz Spoerli
Sets and costumes Keso Dekker
Lighting Martin Gebhardt
Piano Alexey Botvinov

Gramilano Editor

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.