Rome Opera Ballet announces 2019-2020 season

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.

Glass Pieces © Yasuko Kageyama

The Concert © Yasuko Kageyama

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.

Il Corsaro, Rome Opera Archive 01

Il Corsaro, Rome Opera Archive

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)

Suite en blanc with Eleonora Abbagnato © Yasuko Kageyama

Serenade © Yasuko Kageyama

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

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.