Five couples, one Giselle: La Scala reopens its season with a TV broadcast
Stage, television and podcast events accompany the timeless ballet as it comes back to Milan after a four-year absence.
Teatro alla Scala’s ballet company opens its new season after the summer break with ten performances of Giselle between 1 and 23 October.
The production is the historic Coralli/Perrot choreography, staged at La Scala by Yvette Chauviré for the first time in 1950, with designs created specially by Alexandre Benois and preserved – and renewed – ever since without losing their identity. It is one of the company’s most performed and representative works, carried on countless international tours: to Oman, Brazil, China, France, the United States, Australia and Kuwait, most recently in 2024 at Shanghai’s Grand Theatre.
Giselle is one of La Scala’s most frequently staged ballets, allowing dancers to bring fresh maturity to roles they have danced before while giving a new generation the chance to take them on for the first time. The last La Scala run was in 2022, so it is time to return to Giselle‘s world again, and the timing is apt: later in the season the company will also perform Akram Khan‘s radical reinvention of the ballet, a version that, however transformed, still carries the essence of Giselle‘s music and its universal themes of empathy and forgiveness.
There are several related events: a ‘Prima delle prime’ talk given by Vito Lentini at Spazio Scala; television coverage from Rai Cultura; and an episode of the podcast ‘La vertigine’, made with Chora Media, which for the first time dedicates an instalment to ballet.
This revival brings five pairs of principals with some notable debuts among them.
Nicoletta Manni and Timofej Andrijashenko open the run on 1 October (dancing again on 9 October); their performance will be filmed by Rai Cultura and broadcast on Rai 5 on Thursday 8 October at 9.20pm, before being available on RaiPlay for a fortnight.
Martina Arduino returns to the role of Giselle on 5 and 17 October, partnered by Mattia Semperboni dancing his first Albrecht. On 7 and 22 October, the husband-and-wife team of Virna Toppi and Nicola Del Freo dance the roles together for the first time, while the well-established partnership of Vittoria Valerio and Claudio Coviello takes the stage on 13 and 19 October. A further debut comes on 21 and 23 October, when Alice Mariani and Navrin Turnbull – who have recently begun dancing together in several ballets – will also take the leading roles together for the first time.
Alongside Giselle and Albrecht, the role of Myrtha will be shared between Maria Celeste Losa, Caterina Bianchi (another debut), Martina Valentini and Chiara Ferrara, while Hilarion will be danced by Marco Agostino and Christian Fagetti.
On the podium, making his La Scala debut, is Mikhail Agrest, an American conductor based in Germany whose international career spans opera, the symphonic repertoire and ballet. He has conducted the Royal Ballet, the Bayerisches Staatsballett, New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Ballett Zürich and Stuttgart Ballet, where he was music director between 2020 and 2025.
Graham Spicer, aka ‘Gramilano’, is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. His articles have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the Danza in Italia column for Dancing Times magazine. Graham was the historical advisor on Codice Carla, the 2023 documentary on Italian ballerina Carla Fracci.
Graham also works as a dance photographer, and his photos have appeared in many books, theatre programmes, and magazines, including Dancing Times, Dance Spirit and Ballet2000, as well as all the major Italian newspapers.
He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.
