Five different programmes make up Rome Opera Ballet's new season, 2019-2020.
Benjamin Pech's successful Swan Lake will be remounted to open the season. This will be followed by an evening dedicated to Jerome Robbins; a new work by José Carlos Martínez telling the tale of Lord Byron's Il Corsaro (The Corsair); a triple bill featuring Suite en blanc, Serenade, and Pastor's Bolero; Roland Petit's Notre-Dame de Paris; and in the open-air for the summer of 2020 will be Derek Deane's Strictly Gershwin.
Rome Opera Ballet's étoile Rebecca Bianchi, and principal dancers Susanna Salvi, Claudio Cocino and Alessio Rezza are joined by company director and Paris Opera Ballet étoile Eleonora Abbagnato together with Amandine Albisson, Germain Louvet, Anna Tsygankova, Daniel Camargo, Zachary Catazaro, Olesya Novikova, Leonid Sarafanov, Isaac Hernández, Friedemann Vogel and Adamzhan Bakhtiyar.
31 December 2019 – 8 January 2020
Swan Lake
Choreography by Benjamin Pech
Sets – Aldo Butui
Lighting – Vinicio Cheli
Conductors – Nir Kabaretti and Carlo Donadio.
With Amandine Albisson and Germain Louvet (Paris Opera Ballet), Anna Tsygankova (Dutch National Ballet) and Daniel Camargo.
30 January 2020 – 5 February
Serata Robbins
Choreography by Jerome Robbins
Glass pieces (1983)
Sets – Robbins with Ronald Bates
Costumes – Ben Benson
Lighting – Jennifer Tipton
In the Night (1970)
Costumes – Anthony Dowell
Lighting – Jennifer Tipton
With Eleonora Abbagnato and Zachary Catazaro
The Concert, The Perils of Everybody (1956)
Sets – Saul Steinberg and Edward Gorey
Costumes – Irene Sharaff
Lighting – Jennifer Tipton
Conductor – Carlo Donadio.
Preview 28 February; 1 – 8 March
Il Corsaro
Choreography by José Carlos Martínez (new creation)
Sets – Francesco Zito
Lighting – Vinicio Cheli
Conductor – Alexei Baklan
With Olesya Novikova (Mariinsky), Leonid Sarafanov (Michailovsky), Isaac Hernández (English National Ballet)
Preview 5 May; 6 – 10 May
Triple Bill
Suite en blanc (1943)
Choreography by Serge Lifar
With Eleonora Abbagnato
Serenade (1934)
Choreography by George Balanchine
Costumes – Barbara Karinska
Bolero (2012)
Choreography by Krzysztof Pastor
Sets and costumes – Tatyana Van Walsum
Lighting – Bert Dalhuysen
Conductor – Façal Karoui
With Eleonora Abbagnato and Friedemann Vogel (Stuttgart Ballet)
Preview 23 September; 24 September – 1 October
Notre-Dame de Paris
Choreography by Roland Petit
Sets – René Allio
Costumes – Yves Saint-Laurent
Conductor – Louis Lohraseb
With Adamzhan Bakhtiyar (Astana Opera Ballet)
Summer season at Caracalla Baths
Strictly Gershwin
Choreography by Derek Deane
Conductor – Gareth Valentine
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.
