Rome Opera Ballet announces 2021-2022 season

The Nutcracker opens on 19 December and runs until 2 January in a contemporary reinterpretation created by Giuliano Peparini for the Rome Opera Ballet in 2015. Company étoiles Alessandra Amato and Rebecca Bianchi star together with primi ballerini Susanna Salvi, Claudio Cocino and Alessio Rezza.

A triple bill runs from 25 February to 3 March with William Forsythe's 1992 work Herman Schmerman with the music of Thom Willems and costumes designed by Gianni Versace. The second piece of the evening is Walking Mad created by Swedish choreographer Johan Inger in 2001 and first staged in Rome in 2018, on the music of Ravel's Bolero and Pärt's Für Alina. The third piece is From Afar by Nicolas Blanc, with music by Ezio Bosso, sets by Andrea Miglio and costumes by Anna Biagiotti.

Le Corsaire is to be revived from 10 to 15 May in a version by José Carlos Martínez. Its opening performances were abruptly interrupted by the closure of the theatres in March 2020. The sets and costumes are by Fancesco Zito, and the production won Danza&Danza magazine's 2020 Award as “Classical Production of the Year”. Guest artists are Marianela Núñez and Vadim Muntagirov, Maia Makhateli and Kimin Kim.

In September 2022 there will be a celebration of one of the most creative and innovative choreographers of the international scene when from the 13th to the 18th the theatre will stage Serata Preljocaj with a revival of Annonciation that the Albanian-born French choreographer created in 1997. Angelin Preljocaj's Nuit Romaine, a new work for the company, sees a collaboration with Maria Grazia Chiuri's Haute Couture for the Maison Dior; Eleonora Abbagnato and Friedemann Vogel star, and the music is an eclectic mix of Vivaldi, Händel, Bach, Schubert, Rossini, Wagner and Ligeti.

The 2021-22 ballet season closes with Giselle, a tribute to one of the ballet's most famous interpreters, Carla Fracci. Fracci's own version of the ballet, that she mounted for Rome Opera in 2004, will be revived by Julio Bocca and Gillian Whittingham, and will be on stage from 21 to 27 October. Fracci made her debut at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome dancing Giselle in 1964 with Henning Kronstam. Alongside company dancers are Natalia Osipova and Cesar Corrales, with Kevin Rhodes conducting the Rome Opera Orchestra.

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.