There was a buzz in the air at La Scala for the last in the short run of Rudolf Nureyev’s Don Quixote. Martina Arduino was to dance Kitri for the first time. Since Alexei Ratmansky pulled her out of the corps to be his Odette/Odile when she was 19, (just a year after graduating from La Scala’s ballet school), she has made several remarkable role debuts, but none has seemed so … [Read more...]
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 … [Read more...]
Emerging young talent at La Scala excel in Petit, Béjart and Preljocaj
The Ballet School of La Scala’s Academy have just finished a short run of their “end of year” show. For many, it will be their last appearance as students. An effective défilé by the school (and La Scala Ballet Company) director Frédéric Olivieri set to the march from Tannhäuser was followed by Roland Petit’s Gymnopédie. The piece is extracted from his 1986 work Ma Pavlova, … [Read more...]
La Scala ballet school’s Nutcracker in Milan is pure joy
Teatro Strehler in Milan has welcomed the young dancers from La Scala’s Ballet Academy to its stage during the Christmas period for several years. It’s a win-win situation where the theatre sells out its 900 seats for the nine-day run, and the kids get to dance, dance, dance. And dance they do. This isn’t a watered-down version with an end-of-term show feeling, but a full on, … [Read more...]
Luisa Spinatelli – celebrating the life of the Milanese opera and ballet designer
Luisa Spinatelli… taking tasteful to a higher dimension The Amici della Scala (Friends of La Scala), run by the indefatigable Anna Crespi, gathered together at the association’s spectacular headquarters, a short walk from La Scala, to celebrate one of Italy’s most important theatre designers. Luisa Spinatelli is one of a tight-knit core of Milanese artists, by birth or … [Read more...]