La Scala honours Carla Fracci with the first annual gala

On Saturday 9 April 2022 La Scala will present Gala Fracci – First Edition. The director of La Scala's ballet company, Manuel Legris, has devised a wide-ranging programme that reflects the repertoire that Carla Fracci danced at the theatre and elsewhere during her long career.

The guest artists are all closely associated with the theatre: Alessandra Ferri, Marianela Nuñez, Olga Smirnova, Svetlana Zakharova and Roberto Bolle. Carsten Jung will join Ferri for an excerpt of Maurice Béjart's L'heure exquise that he created for Fracci and in which Ferri is currently touring.

To celebrate the career of Carla Fracci, Legris wishes for the gala to become a regular event each season, much as he did as director of the Vienna State Ballet with an annual gala celebrating the career of Rudolf Nureyev.

On hearing the news of Fracci's death at the end of May 2022, Legris said,

Her spirit remains with us, fills the rehearsal studios, the stage and our hearts, and so her energy continues as when she mesmerised and captivated us when she returned to embrace this theatre and its artists.

There is a great void which, at the same time, makes us feel fuller and richer knowing her story, which is part of the history of ballet, and privileged to have shared her art that is a life, a legendary model, and a source of inspiration for all generations of dancers.

First Part

Giselle

Act II: Myrtha and the Willis
Choreography Jean Coralli-Jules Perrot
Revived by Yvette Chauvirè
Music Adolphe Adam

Excelsior

Pas de deux Act I
Choreography Ugo Dell'Ara
Music Romualdo Marenco

Chéri

Pas de deux from Scene 2
Ballet by Roland Petit
Music Francis Poulenc

Romeo and Juliet

Pas de deux Act I
Choreography Rudolf Nureyev
Music Sergej Prokofiev

L'heure exquise

Extract
Choreography Maurice Béjart
Music Gustav Mahler
Alessandra Ferri – Carsten Jung

The Merry Widow

Pas de deux from Act III
Choreography Ronald Hynd
Music Franz Lehár
Marianela Nuñez – Roberto Bolle

The Nutcracker

Act II: Waltz of the Flowers and Grand pas de deux 
Choreography Rudolf Nureyev
Music Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Second part

La strada

ensemble and pas de deux
Choreography Mario Pistoni
Music Nino Rota

La Péri

Pas de deux
Choreography Jean Coralli
Revived by Loris Gai
Music Friedrich Burgmüller

Cachucha

Choreography Jean Coralli
Music Casimir Gide

The Sleeping Beauty

Rose Adage Act I
Choreography Rudolf Nureyev
Music Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Marianela Nuñez

Onegin

Pas de deux Act I Scene 2
Ballet by John Cranko
Music Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Arranged and orchestrated by Kurt-Heinz Stolze
Olga Smirnova – Roberto Bolle

The Dying Swan

Choreography Mikhail Fokin
Music Camille Saint-Saëns
Svetlana Zakharova

Symphony in C

IV Movement and Finale
Choreography George Balanchine
© School of American Ballet
Music Georges Bizet

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.