Five different programmes make up Rome Opera Ballet’s new season, 2019-2020.Benjamin Pech’s successful Swan Lake will be remounted to open the season. This will be followed by an evening dedicated to Jerome Robbins; a new work by José Carlos Martínez telling the tale of Lord Byron’s Il Corsaro (The Corsair); a triple bill featuring Suite en blanc, Serenade, and Pastor’s … [Read more...] about Rome Opera Ballet announces 2019-2020 season
Rome Opera Ballet
Dancing Times, May edition – including Gramilano’s Danza in Italia column reviewing world premieres of Winterreise and Carmen
Dancing Times’ May issue is out now, with a glorious cover featuring Margot Fonteyn – the only dancer to be given the title prima ballerina assoluta by The Royal Ballet – who was born 100 years ago on 18 May.The magazine celebrates the centenary of Fonteyn's birth with articles by The Royal Ballet’s director Kevin O’Hare, dance critic Alastair Macaulay, and the Royal Academy … [Read more...] about Dancing Times, May edition – including Gramilano’s Danza in Italia column reviewing world premieres of Winterreise and Carmen
Rome Opera Ballet’s Philip Glass triple bill thrills
The Philip Glass triple bill at Rome Opera Ballet showed off three very different choreographic styles to one composer’s music. Glass has a way of seducing the listener into his world —his music is guileful and hypnotising. The mainly minimalist component to his music results in there being a stronger connection with Vivaldi or Bach than Wagner or Strauss, so it is not … [Read more...] about Rome Opera Ballet’s Philip Glass triple bill thrills
Ballerina Jacquelin De Min dies at the age of 76
Ballerina Jacquelin De Min has died at the age of 76 at her home in Cannes after a long illness.She began dancing with the ballet company at the Opera House in Strasbourg when she was 16, and soon after with the Gran Ballet du Marquise De Cuevas, followed by the ballet companies in Nice and Geneva. In 1968 she became a Principal Dancer with the Gran Ballet Classique de … [Read more...] about Ballerina Jacquelin De Min dies at the age of 76
Rome Opera Ballet presents a Philip Glass Evening featuring a new work with Eleonora Abbagnato and Friedemann Vogel
Rome Opera Ballet presents a Philip Glass Evening, which opens 29 March 2019, and features a new work with the company’s director, Eleonora Abbagnato, and guest artist Friedemann Vogel.The programme offers Benjamin Millepied’s Hearts and Arrows, Jerome Robbins’s Glass Pieces, and Nuit Blanche, a new piece by Sébastien Bertaud with designs by Christian Dior Couture. Abbagnato … [Read more...] about Rome Opera Ballet presents a Philip Glass Evening featuring a new work with Eleonora Abbagnato and Friedemann Vogel
Ramasar and Salvi shine in Jiří Bubeníček’s new version of Carmen in Rome
Another Carmen? Well, yes, but there is a slightly different slant to this new production for the Rome Opera Ballet because Jiří Bubeníček has used Prosper Mérimée’s novella as his starting point, not Bizet’s opera. The ballet does, however, use Bizet’s music for the main part, which instantly removes originality from the score. Apart from a few interventions with musicians … [Read more...] about Ramasar and Salvi shine in Jiří Bubeníček’s new version of Carmen in Rome
Roberto Fascilla, former étoile at La Scala, dies at 82
Roberto Fascilla died yesterday morning, 23 January 2019, in Milan after a long illness.He entered the corps de ballet at Teatro alla Scala, before finishing its school, when he was just 13, and graduated from La Scala's dancing school in 1957. He became a Soloist in 1960, a Principal Dancer in 1963 and was an Etoile from 1969 to 1982. At La Scala he danced in more than 670 … [Read more...] about Roberto Fascilla, former étoile at La Scala, dies at 82
Eleonora Abbagnato is confirmed as Director of the Rome Opera Ballet until 2021
Rome Opera has announced that Eleonora Abbagnato, étoile of the Paris Opera Ballet and current Director of the Rome Opera Ballet, will remain in her post until 31 December 2021.Virginia Raggi, the city’s mayor and President of the Rome Opera Theatre Foundation, said,It is something of great pride for our city that we are able to confirm an étoile like Eleonora Abbagnato as … [Read more...] about Eleonora Abbagnato is confirmed as Director of the Rome Opera Ballet until 2021
The Sleeping Beauty with Marianela Nuñez and Vladislav Lantratov at the Rome Opera Ballet
Jean-Guillaume Bart, former Étoile at the Paris Opera Ballet, created his version of The Sleeping Beauty for the Yacobson Ballet Theatre in St Petersburg in 2016. His POB colleague Eleonora Abbagnato — currently both an Étoile in Paris as well as director of the Rome Opera Ballet — asked him to adapt it for Rome last year. Some of it works, some does not.He has opened up many … [Read more...] about The Sleeping Beauty with Marianela Nuñez and Vladislav Lantratov at the Rome Opera Ballet
James Hobley, Britain’s Got Talent’s autistic dancer, now 19 leaves ENB’s school to join Scottish Ballet
James Hobley, first known to the general public as a Britain’s Got Talent finalist in 2011, has graduated from English National Ballet School and has a contract to start his professional career with Scottish Ballet.I wrote about his story three years ago, because it is extraordinary and reads like a fable. Here is the beginning of that article about James becoming a … [Read more...] about James Hobley, Britain’s Got Talent’s autistic dancer, now 19 leaves ENB’s school to join Scottish Ballet