Goecke, Robbins and Bausch: Rome Opera Ballet salutes the Ballets Russes
Three works that marked the history of the Ballets Russes return to the Rome in new hands – Jerome Robbins’s Afternoon of a Faun, Marco Goecke’s Petruschka and Pina Bausch’s Le Sacre du printemps – with Andrew Litton conducting Debussy and Stravinsky.
Three choreographers, three ways into works that made the Ballets Russes famous. From 27 October to 8 November the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma presents Goecke / Robbins / Bausch, the second contemporary triple bill of its 2025/26 season, set to music by Debussy and Stravinsky.
The evening is a tribute to Sergei Diaghilev, whose Ballets Russes gave their first performances in Italy at the Teatro Costanzi, Rome’s opera house, in 1911.
Afternoon of a Faun returns after 22 years
Jerome Robbins‘s Afternoon of a Faun opens the evening. It was last performed by the company in 2004, at the Teatro Nazionale, but its history in Rome goes back much further: created for New York City Ballet in 1953, it reached the Opera as early as 1955, danced by Tanaquil Le Clercq and Jacques d’Amboise. Debussy’s music and the myth of the faun have returned to the theatre’s seasons many times since, in versions by Nijinsky, Roland Petit, Maurice Béjart and Amedeo Amodio.
Robbins moves Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune into a ballet studio. Two young dancers meet and watch each other as if in a mirror – the fourth wall becomes the imaginary glass in which they contemplate their own reflections, caught between attraction, sensuality and narcissism.
Principal Marianna Suriano dances the Nymph with Andrea D’Ottavio as the Faun; soloists Elena Bidini and Giacomo Castellana take over on 5, 7 and 8 November.
Goecke’s outsider puppet
Marco Goecke’s Petruschka follows. The German choreographer – twice named Choreographer of the Year by tanz magazine and a winner of the Nijinsky Award, among other honours – created it for Ballett Zürich in 2016, drawing on the balagan, the Russian fairground theatre.
His puppet, condemned to live on the margins, is explored in depth as an outsider suspended between reality and fiction. According to the theatre, Goecke gives that tension a modern twist, reflecting how uncertain the line is between what is performed and what is real.
Principal Federica Maine is the Ballerina and soloist Giacomo Castellana dances Petruschka, alternating with Luca Giovanetti on 5 and 7 November. Étoile Alessio Rezza is the Moor and principal Claudio Cocino the Magician.
Bausch’s Sacre comes indoors
The evening closes with Pina Bausch‘s Le Sacre du printemps, one of the decisive works in the career of a choreographer who redrew the boundary between dance and theatre. At the Caracalla Festival in 2025, marking 50 years since the piece was created, Rome Opera Ballet became the first Italian company to dance it. Now it reaches the Teatro Costanzi for the first time.
On a stage covered entirely in earth, a community ruled by fear is swept into a ritual dance that ends with the choice of the Chosen One, the young woman who must make the final sacrifice. Clémentine Deluy and Jorge Puerta Armenta have restaged Bausch’s original choreography with Eleonora Abbagnato and Damiano Ottavio Bigi.
The cast includes étoile Rebecca Bianchi with Beatrice Foddi, Virginia Giovanetti, Federica Azzone, Giovanni Perugini, Martina Quintiliani, Jacopo Giarda, Mattia Tortora, Sebastiano Marino, Alex Gattola, Mike Derrua, Giovanni Castelli and Alessandro Burini.
Dates and booking
Goecke / Robbins / Bausch opens at the Teatro Costanzi on Tuesday 27 October at 8pm, with further performances on 28 October, 5 and 6 November at 8pm, 7 November at 6pm and 8 November at 4.30pm.
Tickets are available at operaroma.it and from the box office during opening hours.
