The man behind a fake “ancient” amphitheatre finishes behind bars
A hillside “archaeological site” with ancient Neolithic and Greco-Roman artefacts, impressive enough to charge a €40 entrance fee. Except it wasn’t ancient at all.
Italy
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Celebrated organist Gail Archer announces 2025 Ukrainian Relief Tour
American organist, music director, choral conductor and academic, Gail Archer, will tour a Concert for Ukrainian Relief from February until May 2025.
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Lindsay Kemp dies at 80
The English dancer, mime artist and choreographer Lindsay Kemp died this morning in Livorno (Leghorn) in Italy, where he had his home. He was 80. Kemp formed his own dance company in the early sixties and first attracted attention with an appearance at the Edinburgh Festival in 1968. Kemp’s stage performances included Pierrot In Turquoise, Flowers, Salome, Mr Punch’s Pantomime, A Midsummer Night’s…
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Pompeii will collapse entirely, says UNESCO commission
After two areas of Pompeii crumbled yesterday – part of the Temple of Venus and part of a tomb at the Nocera Gate – another part collapsed this morning: a 2 metre-high wall in via Nola. The new Culture Minister, Dario Franceschini, has called an urgent meeting for tomorrow morning. This morning’s collapse was of part…
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Museum of Musical Instruments in Reggio Calabria destroyed by arsonists
The Museum of Musical Instruments in Reggio Calabria in Italy, has been totally destroyed by fire after being torched by arsonists. Initial reports suggest that several instruments in particular were set alight, before the fire spread around the whole building. The museum, which is close to the seafront which faces Sicily, was founded 17 years…
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A new Mama Rose gets her turn in Italy’s first ever ‘Gypsy’
On 15 January, Milan will welcome a new Rose to the stage as Gyspy opens in Italy. Loretta Goggi has been a household name in Italy for half a century. She made her début in television as a girl and hasn’t been far from the small screen or stage since. Starting out as a child actress,…
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Italy’s new Titanic musical stays afloat
The world has a new Titanic musical. Italy‘s version is the work of Federico Bellone who wrote the book, lyrics and music, and is also the show’s director. It is inevitably derivative with references to the DiCaprio/Winslett blockbuster and the 1997 Broadway Tony-winning musical. It is also unfortunate that the main theme (yes, ‘Titanic’) sounds very much like…
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Cecilia Bartoli triumphs at La Scala amidst catcalls and boos
After nineteen years, Cecilia Bartoli‘s return to Milan‘s La Scala tonight was long overdue. Daniel Barenboim was the instigator of the event, the opening of the La Scala Philharmonic‘s season. An obviously tense Bartoli immediately illuminated the theatre with her smile, though her voice needed a little longer to give the audience what they were…
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Stage Entertainment musicals: bringing excellence to Italy
Italy has long been plagued with a lazy approach to putting on musicals. Looked on as easy money makers, the artistic and financial input is often skipped over for quicker gains. Mistake! Audiences were not happy getting ripped off by incompetent production teams providing cheap imitations of Broadway shows or Hollywood musicals. Not everything was bad, but a lot was….
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A new ballet company for Italy? Rome’s mayor announces a project for the Italian National Ballet
The Mayor of Rome, Gianni Alemanno, has announced, We are working on a project with Carla Fracci to create a National Ballet Company which can bring the Rome experience to a national level. The ‘Rome experience’ was the period of ten years that Fracci spent at the helm of the capital’s ballet company. Alemanno, who is by…
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So does Ute Lemper approve of Angela Merkel? Nein!
Ute Lemper is touring Europe with her cabaret programme which includes material by that most political of theatre writers, Bertolt Brecht. Lemper herself has always been outspoken about her views, upsetting much of the German establishment along the way. The mix of her native German tongue, with almost perfect English and French, might have made…
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Tonight Roberto Bolle and Friends alight at the 15,000-seater Roman Arena in Verona
Tonight Verona’s famous Arena is sold out. All 15,000 seats will be full to watch Roberto Bolle and his ‘friends’ dance in the open air. It is a magical place. Italy‘s Il Sole 24 Ore (the equivalent of the Financial Times, and the same colour) spoke to him. Unfortunately half of these interviews are always…
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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…
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La Famiglia: opera Italian-style with the Muti family
Riccardo Muti‘s daughter is about to make her directing début: Chiara Muti will direct Hindemith’s Sancta Susanna, which her father will conduct, for the Ravenna Festival. Oh yes, her mother, Cristina Mazzavillani is the Festival’s artistic director. Nice and cozy… keep it in the family. Chiara Muti isn’t new to the theatre. She emerged from…
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Sylvie Guillem on why she’s still ‘Mademoiselle Non’
Sylive Guillem will be in Venice tomorrow to receive from the Biennale the Leone d’oro (Golden Lion) for “having redesigned the form of the dancer, defying the laws of physics”. Valeria Crippa of the Corriere della Sera talked to her about aspects of her career. I could have ended up like a cork bobbing along on…
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Roberto Bolle: I conquered America… ABT, Black Swan and solitude
After Roberto Bolle‘s Romeo and Juliet with the American Ballet Theatre in New York, Italy‘s gossip magazine Chi sent their editor Alsonso Signorini to interview him, and photographer Fabrizio Cestari to snap the dancer in various iconic Big Apple locations. You are among the few Italians who have made it in America. Was it difficult?…
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Carla Fracci and Bocelli’s agent Caterina Caselli in a bizarre collection of photographs!
In 1978, with Carla Fracci at the height of her fame, a book was produced with a collection of photographs by Dino Jarach. Fracci in the piazza, Fracci on stage, Fracci in the studio, Fracci on the beach… that sort of thing. In these photos she is in fact over forty though, like now, she…
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Italy’s queen of song, Mina, salutes ‘angel’ Whitney Houston
Italian music legend Mina has saluted late soul-pop superstar Whitney Houston as an “angel” who invented a new way of singing. The reclusive star who writes a weekly column for Italy‘s Vanity Fair said, I want to keep her in my memory as I see her: tall, beautiful, talented beyond measure. I don’t know much…
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Why Mario Monti Is the Most Important Man in Europe (and on the cover of Time magazine)
At first glance, it seems impossible that the fate of the world economy rests in Mario Monti’s hands – says Time magazine. The Prime Minister of Italy has the aura of a gentlemanly grandfather — the polite demeanor, the soft voice, the smiling eyes — not the tough taskmaster Italy so desperately needs to escape…
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Vito Mazzeo answers the Gramilano Questionnaire… Dancers’ Edition
Q&A When did you start dancing? At 9 years old. Why did you start dancing? I saw Carla Fracci dancing. Which dancer inspired you most as a child? Carla Fracci and Erik Bruhn for their great partnership. Which dancer do you most admire? Sylvie Guillem for the light that emanates when she dances; Massimo Murru…
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Vatican museums hit new record in 2011: more than 5 million visitors
The Vatican Museums broke their own record for visitor numbers to any site in Italy in 2011, attracting more than five million people for the first time, Director Antonio Paolucci said Tuesday. “By December 31, at midnight, 5,078,004 people had entered the pope’s museums,” Paolucci told Vatican daily l’Osservatore Romano. Paolucci said the figure was…
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Alberto Pretto answers the Gramilano Questionnaire… Dancers’ Edition
Q&A When did you start dancing? At the age of 14. It had been hard to convince my dad to take me to my first ballet class! Why did you start dancing? I always wanted to dance since I was little. Dance has always been a part of me. Which dancer inspired you most as…
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Roberto Bolle reveals what’s in his fridge…
In Italy‘s Corriere della Sera supplement, Io Donna, Roberto Bolle is one of several celebrities to open his fridge door for the cameras in an article about “We are what we eat”. He talked to Carlo Furgeri Gilbert: I have two, but my favourite is the chrome 1950s one in my New York house. On the right is…
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Priscilla struts into Milan in her high-heels… and will survive!
in italiano by Stefania Clerici “True colors are beautiful, like a rainbow” sang Cyndi Lauper in the 80s…and true, spectacular and multi-coloured are the sets, lights, costumes and music of the musical “Priscilla, la regina del deserto” (Priscilla Queen of the Desert – The Musical) which opened in Italy last Wednesday, December 14, at Teatro…
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Being groomed for stardom: Italian ballerina Petra Conti
23 year-old Petra Conti is a dancer at La Scala in Milan, who is being slowly brought before the public by director (ex-director of the Mariinsky) Makhar Vaziev. He first saw her when she spent a year in St Petersburg at the Mariinsky to polish her technique. After the 2008-2009 season with the Bavarian State…
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Unseen photos: Rudolf Nureyev warming up at the Macerata Festival in 1980
A glimpse of Rudolf Nureyev at the barre before a performance at the Macerata Festical in Italy in 1980.
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UNESCO agrees to help Italy restore Pompeii
The United Nations cultural agency UNESCO and the Italian government have agreed to join forces to restore rain-damaged Pompeii. UNESCO said it would work with Italy over the next nine months to rebuild villas and other parts of the famed Roman site that have collapsed over the last year. Under the deal, UNESCO will provide…
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Carla Fracci to receive Milan’s prestigious Carlo Porta award
On Monday, Italy‘s dancing legend, Carla Fracci, will receive one of Milan‘s most prestigious awards, the Carlo Porta. Porta, born at the end of the 18th Century, is Milan’s most famous poet, and he wrote in the Milanese dialect, which is still kept alive in parts of the Lombardy province. The award is given to…
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La Scala’s Raymonda “is a true banquet: pomp, circumstance, and an entire world on stage”, says the Financial Times
The Financial Times visited Milan’s historic theatre to witness Sergei Vikharev‘s reconstruction of Raymonda – a production which is sending ripples of interest and excitement around the ballet community. This blog alone, and its associated YouTube channel, has received thousands of extra visits to read about Raymonda, pushing the associated posts to the top of the most viewed…
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Pippo Delbono, Marie-Agnès Gillot and Bobò – the étoile in the asylum
In just under two hours Pippo Delbono takes his audience on a rollercoaster ride from Dante to Pasolini, from a solo violin to a Verdi chorus, from contemporary dance to pointe shoes, from the elegance of an opera crowd to the squalor of an asylum. And here we touch on the heart of this piece…
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