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Gramilano

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Walter Madau

La Scala in città – Milan’s opera house offers five days of free events

20 September 2022 by Gramilano Leave a Comment

La Scala in città - corps de ballet at the Bagni Misteriosi, photo Brescia e Amisano,Teatro alla Scala

La Scala continues with its successful project to decentralise performances, scattering the orchestra, chorus, corps de ballet and its ballet school students in various locations around Milan – and it … [Read more...] about La Scala in città – Milan’s opera house offers five days of free events

In with the old – La Scala returns to Nureyev’s Sleeping Beauty

7 July 2019 by Gramilano 1 Comment

49 The Sleeping Beauty, with Polina Semionova and Timofej Andrijashenko

If there is a ballet that belongs to La Scala, it’s Rudolf Nureyev’s production of The Sleeping Beauty, created for the ballet company in 1966 with Carla Fracci and Nureyev in the main roles. It was … [Read more...] about In with the old – La Scala returns to Nureyev’s Sleeping Beauty

Lescaut almost steals the show among excellent performances in Manon at La Scala

28 October 2018 by Gramilano Leave a Comment

Emanuela Montanari As Manon, Photo By Brescia E Amisano (2)

I wonder how many reviews of Manon start by appraising the portrayal of Lescaut. A very important character of course, but certainly he has less plot points or stage time than Des Grieux and the … [Read more...] about Lescaut almost steals the show among excellent performances in Manon at La Scala

Heinz Spoerli’s Goldberg Variations are lovingly performed by La Scala’s excellent cast

1 February 2018 by Gramilano 1 Comment

Goldberg Variationen with Claudio Coviello, Antonino Sutera and Walter Madau, photo by Brescia e Amisano, Teatro alla Scala

Legend goes that Bach wrote his Goldberg Variations for the Russian ambassador to the electoral court of Saxony, Count Kaiserling. The Count suffered from insomnia and had Johann Gottlieb Goldberg on … [Read more...] about Heinz Spoerli’s Goldberg Variations are lovingly performed by La Scala’s excellent cast

Photo album: first look at Heinz Spoerli’s Goldberg Variations at La Scala

25 January 2018 by Gramilano Leave a Comment

Goldberg Variationen ph Brescia e Amisano Teatro alla Scala 002 K65A8091 x (64)

"Every time I listen to Bach I feel my heart jumps a beat. His music is for me an inexhaustible source of inspiration and has been since my early twenties, which was even before, in Düsseldorf, when I … [Read more...] about Photo album: first look at Heinz Spoerli’s Goldberg Variations at La Scala

La Scala’s fired ballerina, and eating-disorder author, Mary Garret on her first year back with the company

24 June 2017 by Gramilano 2 Comments

Back home

In 2016, Mary Garret walked through the artists’ entrance at La Scala, ready to take daily class again with the company that had fired her four years previously. The ballerina Mariafrancesca … [Read more...] about La Scala’s fired ballerina, and eating-disorder author, Mary Garret on her first year back with the company

Proscaenium’s Gran Gala with the best of Italy’s dancing talent

6 June 2017 by Gramilano Leave a Comment

Gran Gala

Gramilano has already written about Cincia Puricelli’s dancing school Proscaenium, which is based in Gallarate, a town near Milan’s Malpensa airport. An ordinary town, and on the surface an ordinary … [Read more...] about Proscaenium’s Gran Gala with the best of Italy’s dancing talent

Balanchine saves the day – a triple bill at La Scala: La Valse, Symphony in C and Scheherazade

30 April 2017 by Gramilano 8 Comments

Symphony in C (3)

An odd evening at La Scala saw Balanchine’s pure, sparkling choreography for Symphony in C sandwiched between two new contemporary creations on music which has already had phenomenally successful … [Read more...] about Balanchine saves the day – a triple bill at La Scala: La Valse, Symphony in C and Scheherazade

La Scala Ballet returns to Paris with Ratmansky’s Swan Lake

26 October 2016 by Gramilano Leave a Comment

Nicoletta Manni, Timofej Andrijashenko, and Christian Fagetti as Benno   photo by Brescia e Amisano, Teatro alla Scala 2016

After the success in Milan before the summer, La Scala now takes Alexei Ratmansky’s Swan Lake to Paris for six performances at the Palais des Congrès. The production was coproduced with the Opernhaus … [Read more...] about La Scala Ballet returns to Paris with Ratmansky’s Swan Lake

Martina Arduino in Ratmansky’s Swan Lake – a ballet star is born at La Scala?

14 July 2016 by Gramilano 15 Comments

If you visit NASA’s website, they define a protostar as the “hot core at the heart of the collapsing cloud that will one day become a star”. 19-year-old Martina Arduino, who graduated from La … [Read more...] about Martina Arduino in Ratmansky’s Swan Lake – a ballet star is born at La Scala?

Sarah Lamb makes her début at La Scala with Claudio Coviello in Manon

21 November 2015 by Gramilano 11 Comments

La Scala sometimes lets down its audience by casting a ‘local’ dancer when the star has cancelled. I apologise if I'm upsetting some of the company, but this is often a deluding experience resulting … [Read more...] about Sarah Lamb makes her début at La Scala with Claudio Coviello in Manon

Cello Suites at La Scala: the good news and the bad news…

16 March 2015 by Gramilano Leave a Comment

First the good news… The La Scala ballet company is in formidable shape. Makhar Vaziev and his team have nurtured many interesting talents and a piece to show off some of their qualities is surely … [Read more...] about Cello Suites at La Scala: the good news and the bad news…

Nutcracker-lite at La Scala – très chic Casse-noisette from Geneva

31 December 2014 by Gramilano 11 Comments

What a disappointment was La Scala's new Nutcracker. A shimmering front-cloth announced "Lo schiaccianoci" as though written in the stars, Tchaikovsky's bewitching overture started and there was that … [Read more...] about Nutcracker-lite at La Scala – très chic Casse-noisette from Geneva

A magical Natalia Osipova with Claudio Coviello in Romeo and Juliet

16 October 2014 by Gramilano 2 Comments

Natalia Osipova took my breath away with her extraordinary portrayal of Juliet in Kenneth MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet at Teatro della Scala. The whole company shone, the soloists were excellent, and … [Read more...] about A magical Natalia Osipova with Claudio Coviello in Romeo and Juliet

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NEWS

Pam Tanowitz’s Secret Things, her second world premiere for The Royal Ballet this season

Prix de Lausanne 2023 – the full lineup

Principal dancer Jared Angle to give final performance with NYCB

The Australian Ballet will tour to the Royal Opera House in August 2023

Les Étoiles – the starry Rome gala at the end of January, now with two programmes

Alexei Ratmansky joins New York City Ballet as Artist in Residence

Ballet dancer Denis Vieira dies in Cyprus at 31

Bruno Vescovo, former principal dancer with the La Scala Ballet, has died at 73

In Memoriam 2022: Singers, Dancers, Actors, Writers, Directors

Sergei Polunin’s Rasputin show in Milan is cancelled

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Yasmine Naghdi in rehearsal for Tarantella, The Royal Ballet © 2017 ROH. Photograph by Bill Cooper

[Interview] The Royal Ballet’s Yasmine Naghdi: a time to reflect

Gregory Kunde as Otello, photo by Matthias Baus, Teatro alla Scala 2015

Top opera singers discuss how they choose and prepare new roles

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António Casalinho – Introducing the 17-year-old Portuguese Dancer

How to stage a ballet… Maina Gielgud explains

Lawrence Brownlee, © Shervin Lainez

Interview with tenor Lawrence Brownlee on being a black man in America: Cycles of My Being

Thomas Hampson by Jiyang Chen

Thomas Hampson answers the Gramilano Questionnaire… Singers’ Edition

GRAHAM SPICER

Writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano’) about dance, opera, music and photography for people who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like. I was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. My scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times. I write the ‘Danza in Italia’ column for Dancing Times magazine.

You can find me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, or follow my Facebook page.

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