Today is the 80th birthday of the Italian ballerina, Carla Fracci. She was born in Milan on 20 August 1936. To celebrate we asked fellow ballerinas, as well as actresses and designers she has worked with, for messages and best wishes on a very special day. with thanks to Merrill Ashley – Aurora Benelli – Rebecca Bianchi […]
Genesia Rosato
Genesia Rosato and Gary Avis on her retirement from The Royal Ballet
After 40 years with the Royal Ballet, Genesia Rosato is to retire. I’ve had a wonderful career and loved every minute of it! she said this afternoon. She’s had a lot to love. Genesia joined the company in 1976, invited by Kenneth MacMillan, and became a soloist in 1982. She became a Principal Character Artist in […]
50th Anniversary of MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet
The Royal Ballet 2015/16 Season opens this September with the return of Kenneth MacMillan’s landmark Romeo and Juliet, celebrating 50 years since its première at the Royal Opera House in 1965. It will be relayed live to cinemas on Tuesday 22 September 2015. Originally created on Lynn Seymour and Christopher Gable, it was, of course, Margot […]
Royal Ballet stalwart Derek Rencher dies at 82
Derek Rencher, one of the longest serving members of The Royal Ballet, has died at 82. Rencher was born in Birmingham on 6 June 1932. He joined the Sadler’s Wells Ballet in 1953 and was promoted to soloist in 1957, the year after the company was granted its Royal Charter, becoming The Royal Ballet, and […]
La Scala’s Don Q disaster – all four guest dancers pull out
Could it be that Rudolph Nureyev’s Carabosse is getting her revenge as his production of Sleeping Beauty is being dropped next season to be replaced by a version by Alexei Ratmansky? Whatever, there seems to be a curse on this Milanese Don Quixote! Svetlana Zakharova pulled out “due to personal reasons that prevent her leaving Moscow” (replaced […]
Fun and games with Carla Fracci, Genesia Rosato and George de la Peña
Jeux (Games) is the last work for orchestra written by Claude Debussy. It was composed for Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes with Vaslav Nijinsky’s choreography. Jeux was was not a success when premiered in 1913, but this was nothing compared to the reception Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring received just two weeks later! Herbert Ross’ 1980 biopic Nijinsky recreated several of his ballets, including Jeux which, as pictured […]
Critics round-up: Royal Ballet’s “Birthday Offering”, “A Month in the Country” and “Noces”
Monica Mason’s last pickings from the Royal Ballet repertoire before leaving her post as the company’s director included two works by the Royal Ballet’s founder choreographer, Frederick Ashton – Birthday Offering and A Month in the Country – and Bronislava Nijinska’s “extraordinary” Noces. It was Ashton who invited Nijinska to restage her masterpiece for the company in 1966 […]
Critics Round-up: Royal Ballet’s Sleeping Beauty
In 2006 Monica Mason decided to go back to the beginning with the Royal Ballet’s signature ballet, The Sleeping Beauty: consign the 2003 Makarova disaster (“dramatically shapeless and emotionally flat” said The Times) to the dustbins, and restore Oliver Messel’s 1946 production. That was the year that the Vic-Wells Ballet moved to the Royal Opera House. There has […]
