[Photo Album] La Scala’s ballet company in docuseries and World Dance Day
La Scala’s dancers are featured in a new fly-on-the-wall documentary series filmed over the last six months. There’s also a ballet class for World Dance Day.
Antonino Sutera
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La Scala’s principal dancers to celebrate International Dance Day
International Dance Day is a global celebration of dance.
It has been celebrated each year since 1982 on 29 April, which is the anniversary of the birth of Jean-Georges Noverre (1727–1810), the creator of modern ballet. It was established by the Dance Committee of the International Theatre Institute (ITI), the main partner for the performing arts of UNESCO.
Although in lockdown, the Scala Opera Ballet company intends to celebrate it, albeit in a different way.
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In with the old – La Scala returns to Nureyev’s Sleeping Beauty
If there is a ballet that belongs to La Scala, it’s Rudolf Nureyev’s production of The Sleeping Beauty, created for the ballet company in 1966 with Carla Fracci and Nureyev in the main roles. It was performed 152 times until 2007, when Tchaikovsky‘s score fell silent for eight years until awoken by Alexei Ratmansky when…
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McGregor’s Woolf Works thrills and enthralls at La Scala
The La Scala Ballet usually fields a first cast, and several alternative casts, but not with Wayne McGregor’s Woolf Works – here it was very much a case of a first cast and a second cast. The first featured two guests from the original Royal Opera House production from 2015 – Alessandra Ferri and Federico…
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Don Quixote shows off first-rate dancing by La Scala’s clutch of 20-somethings
Rudolf Nureyev’s Don Quixote is a romp. From start to finish it zips along at a frenetic pace, with frenetic steps. That is, except the prologue — Don Quixote’s house — and a prolonged mime scene in the Act Three tavern scene. Unfortunately, for the revival at La Scala, these scenes seem to have been…
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Sneak peek of Don Quixote at La Scala – photos from today’s dress rehearsal
Rudolf Nureyev‘s Don Quixote returns again to La Scala with many of the company’s newer Principals and Soloists making role debuts. Tomorrow night’s cast – and that of this afternoon’s dress rehearsal – will see Timofej Andrijashenko dance Basilio for the first time, and he will be dancing with Nicoletta Manni who is a house…
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Le Corsaire docks at La Scala – many delights with a company on top form
Anna-Marie Holmes created her version of Le Corsaire for Boston ballet in 1997. A year later it arrived in New York when it was loaned out to the American Ballet Theatre. Italian dancer Giuseppe Picone played the romantic hero, Conrad, opposite Nina Ananiashvili as Medora. Holmes has mounted her version — and versions of her…
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Serata Nureyev – An Evening for Nureyev at La Scala: full casting with Zakharova, Bolle, Nuñez, Louvet, Muntagirov
24*, 25, 26, 29 May 2018 Serata Nureyev – An Evening for Nureyev Remembering the 80th Anniversary of Rudolf Nureyev’s birth, 25 years after his death with Corps de ballet of La Scala, Director Frédéric Olivieri Étoiles Svetlana Zakharova, Roberto Bolle Guest Artists Marianela Nuñez, Germain Louvet, Vadim Muntagirov Conductor David Coleman Orchestra of the La Scala Academy With the…
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Premiere of “Mahler 10”, Aszure Barton’s new dance piece for La Scala, reveals a small treasure
Aszure Barton has created a gem of a ballet for Milan‘s Teatro alla Scala. Mahler 10 uses the first movement of Gustav Mahler’s unfinished Tenth Symphony and above it, Barton fashions a small world with a community of people who play, cry and love with directness and simplicity. Although the music is Mahler’s, the atmosphere…
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Photo Album 2: Le Corsaire opens tonight at La Scala – here are some preview photos of this lavish new production
Italian designer Luisa Spinatelli has created scenes and designed 180 costumes for a new production of Le Corsaire at La Scala. [see PHOTO ALBUM 1 – LE CORSAIRE] Anne-Marie Holmes first staged the ballet for Boston in 1997, and it marked the first time that a non-Russian company had danced the piece. A year later she produced…
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Photo album: A first look at La Scala’s new production of Le Corsaire (opens 20 April)
Italian designer Luisa Spinatelli has created scenes and designed 180 costumes for a new production of Le Corsaire at La Scala. Anna-Marie Holmes, who has already staged the ballet at the American Ballet Theatre and English National Ballet, now brings a version to Milan, which opens on Friday 20 April. The ballet will be transmitted…
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Béjart’s Boléro returns to La Scala with Roberto Bolle and others debuting on the red table
Maurice Béjart’s Boléro returns to La Scala in March, with Roberto Bolle dancing the La Mélodie for the first time. The 15-minute work was last seen in the theatre in 2003 when Sylvie Guillem danced the central role. Béjart Ballet Lausanne’s ‘experts’ Elisabet Ros and Julien Favreau will be featured too, as well as three…
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Heinz Spoerli’s Goldberg Variations are lovingly performed by La Scala’s excellent cast
Legend goes that Bach wrote his Goldberg Variations for the Russian ambassador to the electoral court of Saxony, Count Kaiserling. The Count suffered from insomnia and had Johann Gottlieb Goldberg on hand to play for him during his sleepless nights. Bach wrote these pieces for the nocturnal recitals of the young Goldberg, a German virtuoso…
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Photo album: first look at Heinz Spoerli’s Goldberg Variations at La Scala
“Every time I listen to Bach I feel my heart jumps a beat. His music is for me an inexhaustible source of inspiration and has been since my early twenties, which was even before, in Düsseldorf, when I choreographed a piece to the Goldberg Variations, which many critics considered, at the beginning of the nineties,…
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Zakharova, Bolle and Manni are excellent Principals in La Dame aux Camélias, but Andrijashenko steals the show at La Scala
Svetlana Zakharova and Roberto Bolle have both danced the lead roles in John Neumeier’s La Dame aux Camélias, but never together. La Scala united its two Étoiles for the opening of its ballet season. Usually a new production marks the event, but there is nothing new about Jürgen Rose’s slightly dusty sets, though his costumes…
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La Scala brings Misty Copeland, Marianela Núñez and Roberto Bolle to California in Giselle
La Scala‘s ballet company is in California, warming up for tomorrow’s opening night of Giselle at the Segerstrom Center. The company’s resident principal dancers will only be seen at the Saturday matinee, though for the three evening performances Roberto Bolle will play Albrecht and, although he is a guest artist at Milan‘s opera house, he…
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Balanchine’s Dream sprinkles its magic fairy dust over La Scala for the last time
In the ‘60s, A Midsummer Night’s Dream was all the rage: Benjamin Britten‘s opera premiered in 1960, Balanchine’s ballet opened in 1962, Ashton’s The Dream came along in 1964, and Peter Hall’s film (with future Dames Diana Rigg, Helen Mirren, and Judi Dench, among the cast) was in 1968. It was no passing fad. Both…
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Balanchine saves the day – a triple bill at La Scala: La Valse, Symphony in C and Scheherazade
An odd evening at La Scala saw Balanchine’s pure, sparkling choreography for Symphony in C sandwiched between two new contemporary creations on music which has already had phenomenally successful choreographies set to it: Ravel’s La Valse (Nijinska, Lifar, Balanchine, Ashton) and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade (Fokine). This new La Valse was choreographed by Stefania Ballone and Marco…
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First look at La valse – Symphony in C – Shéhérazade, opening tonight at La Scala
The new triple bill which opens at La Scala this evening is unique indeed! It features a new version of Ravel’s La valse by three choreographers, all dancers with the company. Stranger still is that Frederick Ashton’s choreography for La valse was created for La Scala in January of 1958, with Vera Colombo, Mario Pistoni,…
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Petrushka and Le sacre du printemps strike a triumphant note at La Scala
Starting on a positive note: the Stravinsky Evening at La Scala, with Petrushka and Le sacre du printemps, was an unmitigated success, thoroughly enjoyable and received a long, standing ovation from the first night crowd. Now the niggle: why is it that people think that it’s ok to talk during overtures and interludes? If no…
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First look: Stravinsky ballet evening at La Scala conducted by Zubin Mehta
Zubin Mehta will be conducting La Scala‘s orchestra for a Stravinsky double-bill with the theatre’s ballet company: Petrushka and The Rite of Spring. Michel Fokine‘s choreography and Alexandre Benois’ costumes and sets were created for the original production in 1911 at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. This original version was last seen at La…
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La Scala’s orchestra, chorus and ballet company embark on a month-long tour
La Scala’s orchestra, chorus and ballet company have flown out of Milan for a month on tour which will see them in Korea, China, Japan and Russia. Tomorrow night at the Lotte Hall in Seoul, Myung-Whun Chung will conduct a concert performance of Simon Boccanegra with Simone Piazzola, Carmen Giannattasio, Fabio Sartori and Dmitry Belosselskiy….
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Strike action hits opening night of Manon at La Scala
The first night of Kenneth MacMillan‘s Manon at La Scala tomorrow night will be affected by strike action. The CGIL union has announced the strike, but the theatre has said that the performance will go ahead with reduced scenery and lighting… a bit of a bummer if you’ve forked out €150 for your seat. The…
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Nicoletta Manni’s a fine Kitri in a fine company
Well it’s an ill wind… Natalia Osipova‘s last minute cancellation as Kitri at La Scala left the way open for Nicoletta Manni, newly appointed principal dancer with the company, to show the Osipova fans what she could do. And what she did she did very well, very well indeed. Manni is a strong dancer with a…
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La Scala Ballet School’s director for 32 years on “Teaching Dance”
versione italiana Anna Maria Prina was the director of the La Scala Theatre Ballet School for thirty-two years, producing artists such as Mara Galeazzi, Massimo Murru, Roberto Bolle, Mick Zeni, Renata Caldarini, Alessio Carbone, Vito Mazzeo, Marco Pierin and Paola Cantalupo, among many, many others. I asked her what the requisites are to become a dance teacher: Teaching is an art,…
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Alexei Ratmansky’s Opera is here to stay
Alexei Ratmansky always manages to fascinate. His work is immersed in ballet tradition, yet is never obvious and never fails to surprise. The surprise doesn’t come from executing a familiar step in an unusual way, but rather by preserving the movement within an unfamiliar context. In Ratmansky’s world, as in life, there are no logical…
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The music of Italy’s n°1 rocker returns to La Scala
Vasco Rossi is one of the most famous Italian rockers. The singer-songwriter has hit sixty, but continues to sell out stadiums. His most famous song, Vita spericolata (Daredevil Life) sums up his own approach to life, and in true rock style he’s regularly finished up in clinics to detox. A strange choice for ballet music? Well, of…
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Ivan Vasiliev’s injury gives unknown Claudio Coviello a chance to shine
While it wasn’t exactly a case of ‘A Star is Born’, 21-year-old Claudio Coviello was certainly given a golden opportunity when Ivan Vasiliev couldn’t go on at La Scala last night. Coviello had learnt the role of Quasimodo in Roland Petit‘s Notre-Dame de Paris for just a single matinée performance. The evening spots were taken…
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Leonid Sarafanov and Olesia Novikova are the true stars at La Scala’s Gala des Étoiles
The greatest applause during last night’s gala at La Scala was reserved for Leonid Sarafanov and Olesya Novikova in the Tchaikovsky Pas de deux. As the applause faded a voice called out “these are étoiles”, reflecting a common-held view in the foyer that a Gala of Étoiles should reflect the label on the packet, and feature a greater proportion of…
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Swan Lake crash-lands at La Scala
Unfortunately no swans actually crashed on stage, which might have livened things up a little – only expectations came crashing down. Daniel Barenboim brought little magic to the pit and, moreover, watched the orchestra more than the stage – it gave the four (excellent) cygnets quite a turn when he accelerated during the danse des petits…
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