Q&A When did you start playing an instrument? I was 6 years old, and I started to study cello. Why did you start playing? My father is a cellist and my mother loves music, so that is why I started to study cello so young. Which musicians inspired you most when you were young? Stravinsky, Kleiber, Bernstein, Pink Floyd, Supertramp, Otis Redding. Which musicians … [Read more...] about Francesco Lanzillotta answers the Gramilano Questionnaire… Conductors’ Edition
Igor Stravinsky
Photo Album: first look at The Royal Ballet’s new triple bill
The Firebird / A Month in the Country / Symphony in C The curtain has just gone up on The Royal Ballet's latest triple bill and here are the first photos. The flash of a firebird, a family sent into a spin and a classical ballet explosion. Michel Fokine's The Firebird with Igor Stravinsky's music is a ground-breaking classic of the early 20th-century that draws on the story, … [Read more...] about Photo Album: first look at The Royal Ballet’s new triple bill
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...] about Serata Nureyev – An Evening for Nureyev at La Scala: full casting with Zakharova, Bolle, Nuñez, Louvet, Muntagirov
Picasso in Rome, with Diaghilev, Cocteau and Massine: The Ballets Russes and Parade
One hundred years ago, Pablo Picasso lived Rome for two months. It was his first trip to Italy. The Ballets Russes was in town and Picasso was eager to begin work on his designs for Parade, the ballet which would open on 18 May 1917 in Paris at the Théâtre du Châtelet. Two years previously, Picasso had found himself relatively alone in Paris. His mistress Eva Gouel had died … [Read more...] about Picasso in Rome, with Diaghilev, Cocteau and Massine: The Ballets Russes and Parade
Men in Motion at La Versiliana Festival: classics, premières and surprises
The latest incarnation of Ivan Putrov's Men in Motion comes to Italy's La Versiliana Festival. Men in Motion was first presented at Sadler's Wells in 2012 and has since been performed with great success in Moscow and at the Ravenna Festival, Italy. This version, first presented in London at the Coliseum in January of this year, devised by Putrov, is an exploration of the … [Read more...] about Men in Motion at La Versiliana Festival: classics, premières and surprises
100 years after the riot: The Rite of Spring by those who were there
One day, when I was finishing the last pages of The Firebird in St Petersburg [in 1910], I had a fleeting vision… I saw in my imagination a solemn pagan rite: sage elders, seated in a circle, watched a single girl dance herself to death. They were sacrificing her to propitiate the god of spring. On 29 May 1913 Igor Stravinsky's vision became reality when The Rite of Spring (Le … [Read more...] about 100 years after the riot: The Rite of Spring by those who were there
Alex Ross at the grave of Stravinsky
Yesterday I took a vaporetto out to San Michele, the cemetery island of Venice. It was seven-thirty on a Sunday morning, and my only fellow passengers were several elderly people whom I took to be widows and widowers, bearing flowers for their loved ones. I was preparing to pay my respects to Igor Stravinsky, who loved Venice and held the premieres of The Rake's Progress, … [Read more...] about Alex Ross at the grave of Stravinsky
Obermaier’s vision of the Rite of Spring at the Festival Hall
The Rite of Spring has been seen in countless versions since its explosive début onto the world stage almost 100 years ago. But the version Austrian director and choreographer Klaus Obermaier at the Royal Festival Hall in London is certainly one of the most extravagantly 'modern'. For a start, this presentation requires the audience to wear 3D glasses. The piece is called … [Read more...] about Obermaier’s vision of the Rite of Spring at the Festival Hall
Homage to Stravinsky with an addio to a transgender ballerina in Verona
The Verona Arena Ballet commissioned a Stravinsky evening from local-boy Renato Zanella, best known for his work in Stuttgart and Vienna. He chose Apollon Musagète and The Firebird - brave considering that the stage pictures and choreographic shapes are burned into every ballet-lover's memory. In fact it was impossible to remove George Balanchine's choreographic genius from … [Read more...] about Homage to Stravinsky with an addio to a transgender ballerina in Verona