On Saturday 9 April, La Scala will present a gala dedicated to Carla Fracci who died on 27 May 2021. It is the first of what will be an annual event, an initiative of La Scala Ballet's director Manuel Legris. It is, not surprisingly, sold out.

Jump to PROGRAMME OF GALA FRACCI 2022

The theatre has written the statement that is translated below:

Carla Fracci is a pivotal figure in the history of dance and that of La Scala, but also a point of reference for the city of Milan and for all of Italian culture.

The fairy tale story of the tram driver's daughter who, with talent, obstinacy, and work, became one of the most famous ballerinas in the world has inspired generations of young people, and not only in the world of dance.

She entered the Ballet School of La Scala in 1946, where she studied with Esmée Bulnes and Vera Volkova, among others. Carla Fracci graduated in 1954 and in March 1955 she took part in the “Passo d'addio” – a graduation performance where Fracci was singled out to dance with one of the company's principal dancers – at the end of a performance of La sonnambula directed by Leonard Bernstein and starring Maria Callas.

On the last day of that year, she made her public debut replacing Violette Verdy in Prokofiev's Cinderella and began an ascent that saw her become prima ballerina in 1958. In the same year, John Cranko, after The Prince of the Pagodas, wanted her as Juliet for the premiere of his new production of Romeo and Juliet with La Scala on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, and subsequently invited her to the Royal Festival Hall, the beginning of an international career that visited the biggest stages and most important companies in the world, but in which La Scala retained a central role.

At La Scala, Carla Fracci danced with, among others, Mario Pistoni, Roberto Fascilla, Vladimir Vassiliev, Amedeo Amodio, Paolo Bortoluzzi, Mikhail Baryshnikov, George Iancu and, in more recent years, Massimo Murru and Roberto Bolle. Her most renowned partners were Erik Bruhn, who opened the doors to the United States, and Rudolf Nureyev, with whom she formed a legendary partnership.

Fracci was the chosen interpreter of the great romantic ballets and new versions of the classics created by Nureyev, and she had many new choreographies created on her at La Scala, from Sebastian by Luciana Novaro to La strada by Nino Rota and Mario Pistoni, Pelléas et Mélisande and Images d'Ida Rubinstein by Beppe Menegatti, to Roland Petit's Chéri (which she danced for the last time with La Scala on tour in 1999 alongside Massimo Murru), and a charismatic interpreter of the ballets included in the opening works of the season: from Guglielmo Tell to Vespri Siciliani and La Vestale, as well as the protagonist of the revival of Excelsior under the direction of Pippo Crivelli. It was precisely in the part of Luce in Excelsior that Carla Fracci last performed on La Scala's stage on 31 December 1999, before performing it for the last time on tour with La Scala in December 2000.

In January 2021, Carla Fracci returned to La Scala at the invitation of Ballet Director Manuel Legris to work with its dancers for a revival of Giselle (Nicoletta Manni with Timofej Andrijashenko and Martina Arduino with Claudio Coviello) in two masterclasses broadcast on the theatre's social channels and filmed as part of the docuseries “Corpo di Ballo” broadcast on RaiPlay and Rai5.

Gala Fracci

First Part

Giselle

Choreography Jean Coralli-Jules Perrot, Yvette Chauvirè
Music Adolphe Adam
From Act II: Myrtha and the Willis
Alice Mariani
Caterina Bianchi, Agnese Di Clemente
and the Corps de Ballet of the Teatro alla Scala

Excelsior

Choreography Ugo Dell'Ara
Music Romualdo Marenco
Pas de deux from Act II
Camilla Cerulli, Mattia Semperboni

Chéri

Ballet by Roland Petit
Music Francis Poulenc
Pas de deux from the Scene II
Emanuela Montanari, Nicola Del Freo

Romeo and Juliet

Choreography Rudolf Nureyev
Music Sergei Prokofiev
Pas de deux from Act I
Vittoria Valerio, Marco Agostino

The Merry Widow

Choreography Ronald Hynd
Courtesy of The Australian Ballet
Music by Franz Lehár
Pas de deux from Act III
Marianela Nuñez, Roberto Bolle

The Nutcracker

Choreography and staging  Rudolf Nureyev
Music Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
From Act II: Waltz of the Flowers and Grand pas de deux
Corps de Ballet of the Teatro alla Scala
Nicoletta Manni, Timofej Andrijashenko

Second Part

La strada

Choreography Mario Pistoni
Music Nino Rota
Ensemble: Caterina Bianchi Gioacchino Starace and the Corps de Ballet of Teatro alla Scala
Pas de deux: Antonella Albano, Massimo Garon

La Péri

Choreography Jean Coralli, Loris Gai
Music Friedrich Burgmüller
Pas de deux: Martina Arduino, Marco Agostino

Cachucha

Choreography by Jean Coralli
Music Friedrich Burgmüller
Arrangement by Gàbor Kerènyi
Caterina Bianchi

L'heure exquise

Variations on a theme by Samuel Beckett (Oh, les beaux jours)
Idea and choreography Maurice Béjart
Music Gustav Mahler
Excerpt danced by Alessandra Ferri, Carsten Jung

The Sleeping Beauty

Choreography and staging Rudolf Nureyev
Music Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Rose Adage – from Act I
Agnese di Clemente
Gabriele Corrado, Christian Fagetti, Edoardo Caporaletti , Mattia Semperboni

Onegin

Ballet in three acts by John Cranko
Music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Arrangement and orchestration by Kurt-Heinz Stolze
Pas de deux from Act I, scene II
Marianela Nuñez, Roberto Bolle

Symphony in C

Choreography George Balanchine © School of American Ballet
Music Georges Bizet
Fourth movement and finale
Maria Celeste Losa, Nicola Del Freo
Alice Mariani, Timofej Andrijashenko
Nicoletta Manni, Marco Agostino
Vittoria Valerio, Christian Fagetti
and the Corps de Ballet of the Teatro alla Scala

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.