La Scala has bravely announced a full season for 2021-2022. This is the first ballet season organised by La Scala's new director of the Ballet Company, Manuel Legris. There are seven programmes, with a triple bill and a double bill, so ten titles, including new works, three debuts for La Scala, and five titles that are already in the repertoire.
At today's press conference, Legris said:
Thinking about my first season, I wanted to take into account the identity of La Scala Ballet, continuing a path that respects the history, the quality and the artistic value of the company in the balance between tradition and openness to the new voices that animate the international scene.
A great admirer of Rudolf Nureyev, Legris has decided to open the La Scala 2021-2022 ballet season, on 15 December 2021, with Nureyev's La Bayadére, which has previously only been performed by the Paris Opera Ballet, for which it was created in 1992. Svetlana Zakharova will dance in two performances in January, and the sets and costumes are by Luisa Spinatelli.
In January 2022, a triple-bill will see the world premiere of Solitude Sometimes, a new creation by Philippe Kratz, who Legris says is “a growing talent whom I appreciate for the originality and particularity of his artistic universe”. There will be the Italian debut of David Dawson's Anima Animus, created in 2018 for the San Francisco Ballet with music by Italian musician Ezio Bosso, who died last year at 48. Then there's the return to the stage of Bella Figura, Jiří Kylián jewel created in 1995 and presented for the first time at La Scala in 2009.
Other debuts are in June and July with an evening entirely by Wayne McGregor with music by Igor Stravinsky, with a national premiere and also a new work. AfteRite was created for American Ballet Theatre in 2018 – a new and original interpretation of Le Sacre du printemps – and the world premiere will revisit another milestone in the history of music and ballet: Les noces.
After eight years, George Balanchine's Jewels will return, Onegin will be back, with Roberto Bolle in four of the performances, and Legris' version of Sylvia, which opened the 2019-2020. Giselle, which is regularly performed by the company on international tours and in recent seasons, including a streamed version due to lockdown earlier this year with the presence of Carla Fracci.
Rounding off the current season, which has been subjected to numerous interruptions, will be (finally) Madina, a new work with choreography by Mauro Bigonzetti to a new composition by Fabio Vacchi; Roberto Bolle will star in several performances.
Legris said:
Great expectations, hopes and projects: it is with great joy that I present this program, with the thought of a new beginning, and of a new path that will continue together with the extraordinary artists of the Teatro alla Scala Ballet Company.
Ballet Season 2021-2022
La Bayadére
15 December 2021 – 8 January 2022
Ludwig Minkus
Teatro alla Scala new production
Choreography: Rudolf Nureyev
Staging: Rudolf Nureyev
Conductor: Kevin Rhodes
Orchestration: John Lanchbery
Sets and costumes: Luisa Spinatelli
Lights: Marco Filibeck
Étoile: Svetlana Zakharova (5, 8 January)
Dawson / Kratz / Kylián
From 25 to 31 January 2022
Anima Animus
Teatro alla Scala new production
Choreography: David Dawson
Music: Ezio Bosso
Sets: John Otto
Costumes: Yumiko Takeshima
Lights: James F Ingalls
Solitude Sometimes
Teatro alla Scala new production, World Premiere
Choreography: Philippe Kratz
Music: Thom Yorke e Radiohead
Sets: Carlo Cerri e Philippe Kratz
Lights: Carlo Cerri
Bella figura
Nederlands Dans Theater production
Choreography: Jiří Kylián
Music: Lukas Foss, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Alessandro Marcello, Antonio Vivaldi, Giuseppe Torelli
Sets: Jiří Kylián
Costumes: Joke Visser
Lights: Kees Tjebbes
Jewels
From 11 to 24 March 2022
Choreography: George Balanchine
© The George Balanchine Trust
Conductor: Paul Connelly
Sets: Peter Harvey
Costumes: Karinska
Emeralds: Gabriel Fauré, music
Rubies: Igor Stravinsky, music
Diamonds: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, music
Sylvia
From 11 to 26 May 2022
Léo Delibes
Teatro alla Scala and Wiener Staatsballett Coproduction
Choreography: Manuel Legris after Louis Mérante and others
Dramaturgy and libretto: Manuel Legris and Jean-François Vazelle from Jules Barbier and Baron Jacques de Reinach
Conductor: Kevin Rhodes
Sets and costumes: Luisa Spinatelli
Lights: Jacques Giovanangeli
AfteRite / Les noces
From 24 June to 7 July 2022
Igor Stravinsky
Conductor: Koen Kessels
AfteRite
Teatro alla Scala New production
Choreographer: Wayne McGregor
Vicki Mortimer, sets and costumes
Lights: Lucy Carter
Video: Ravi Deepres
Les Noces
Teatro alla Scala New production
World premiere
Choreographer: Wayne McGregor
Vicki Mortimer, sets and costumes
Lights: Jon Clark
Video: Ravi Deepres
Giselle
From 9 to 16 July 2022
Adolphe Adam
Choreography: Jean Coralli – Jules Perrot
Revived by: Yvette Chauviré
Conductor: Valery Ovsianikov
Sets and costumes: Aleksandr Benois, re-elaborated by Angelo Sala and Cinzia Rosselli
Lights: Marco Filibeck
Onegin
From 14 to 30 September 2022
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Choreography: John Cranko
Arrangement and orchestration: Kurt-Heinz Stolze
Conductor: Felix Korobov
Sets: Pier Luigi Samaritani
Costumes: Pier Luigi Samaritani and Roberta Guidi di Bagno
Lights: Steen Bjarke, revived by Agneta Valcu and Victor Valcu
Choreographic supervision: Reid Anderson
Copyright property: Dieter Graefe
Étoile Roberto Bolle (14, 17, 20, 23 September)
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.
