Rome Opera Ballet's Giselle is dedicated to Carla Fracci and is the last ballet of the 2021-2022 season in the capital. It is the choreographic version she created in 2004 while she was director of the company from 2000 until 2010. It was with Giselle that Fracci made her debut in Giselle in 1964.
Fracci said, “Giselle is the romantic ballet par excellence, conveying melancholy, the melancholy of those who see themselves missing something they would like to keep… the melancholy for the ephemeral. Perhaps the audience loves it because we all have the desire to participate in this love saga with its deception, wickedness, and redemption.”
Maybe yes, maybe no.
Carla Fracci's version of Giselle has been revived by Julio Bocca, her last partner in this ballet, and Gillian Whittingham. The sets and costumes are by Anna Anni, who was Franco Zeffirelli's preferred costume designer (her fascinating career includes her professional debut in 1953 designing two plays for Orson Wells in Chicago). The lighting is by Jean-Michel Désiré.
The opening performance on Friday 21 October was filmed for television by Rai Cultura and will be broadcast on the Rai 5 channel on 8 December 2022.
The opening cast saw Susanna Salvi as Giselle and Rome's new principal dancer Michele Satriano as Albrecht. Alessandra Amato was the Queen of the Wilis.
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.
