The Sovrintendente of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Carlo Fuortes, has announced the nomination of the composers Giorgio Battistelli and Alessio Vlad as the theatre’s artistic directors and has confirmed that Eleonora Abbagnato will become the director of the ballet company. Alessio Vlad will be responsible for opera programming and Giorgio Battistelli with organise theatre events […]
Eleonora Abbagnato
Eleonora Abbagnato becomes director of the Rome Opera Ballet
Eleonora Abbagnato is to become the new director of the Rome Opera Ballet. The official announcement from the Rome Opera’s sovrintendente is expected in the next few days. It is known that Rome’s mayor, Ignazio Marino, had championed her nomination, saying that she is “an intelligent and capable woman”. L’Opera di Roma has been adrift since Riccardo Muti […]
Paris Étoile Abbagnato welcomes Millepied and is glad to see Lefèvre go
He impressed us with his simple yet incisive approach during the rehearsals. He is a man who has a life outside dance; this is his true strength. Paris Opera Ballet Étoile Eleonora Abbagnato was talking about the new company director Benjamin Millepied. She was interviewed by the Italian Vanity Fair after Millepied’s new ballet for the POB, […]
From Lombardy to London: Interview with the Royal Ballet’s Valentino Zucchetti
Italian dancer Valentino Zucchetti is one of a large number of Italian dancers who go abroad to find work and realise their dreams. Italy has few ballet companies, and La Scala is the only one with an international profile, the others – Rome, Palermo, San Carlo – have few permanent dancers, drafting in extras to do […]
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 […]
Étoile Eleonora Abbagnato and footballer hubby Federico Balzaretti: It’s complicated!
The new Paris Opera Ballet étoile, Eleonora Abbagnato, is back in Italy for the first of six episodes of a television talent show, Amici, where she will captain a team of young singers and dancers. She also graces the cover of this week’s Grazia, alongside her footballer husband Federico Balzaretti, the AS Roma defender. Stefania Rossotti asked […]
Eleonora Abbagnato talks about becoming Paris’ new étoile
This week, Eleonora Abbagnato became the first Italian étoile at the Paris Opera Ballet for generations. The only other was Carlotta Zambelli who became one of the company’s stars at the end of the 19th century. Quite an achievement for the 34-year-old dancer from Palermo. Valeria Crippa of the Corriere della Sera spoke to her. […]
Eleonora Abbagnato is named “étoile” of the Paris Opera Ballet
Eleonora Abbagnato has been named “étoile” of the Paris Opera Ballet. Finally, one might add, and indeed the former director of the dance school of the Paris Opera, Claude Bessy, said just that. She was in the theatre with Abbagnato’s husband, footballer Federico Balzaretti, fullback at AS Roma, and many other members of the dancer’s family, except her […]
Who’s afraid of Brigitte Lefèvre? Well Eleonora Abbagnato for one! Drama at the Paris Opera Ballet
Brigitte Lefèvre, Director of Ballet at the Paris Opera since 1995, will turn 68 later this year. The Paris Opera Ballet obliges ballerinas to leave at 42 with their pension; like it or not, ètoile or corps member, you’re out. Lefèvre carries on, even though she is past the retirement age for French national institutions. Maybe concerned that […]
The dance drain: who will save ballet in Italy?
Italians are great dancers, but they don’t get much opportunity to demonstrate that in their homeland. The history of ballet is adorned with Italian talent: Giuseppina Bozzacchi was the first Swanhilda in Coppélia; three dazzling stars, Carlotta Grisi, Fanny Cerrito, and Marie Taglioni (also the first Sylphide) were celebrated by Perrot in his Pas de Quattre; Pierina Legnani was named Prima Ballerina Assoluta by Petipa […]
