The Scala Ballet and the start of the new season

Even before the Opéra national de Paris encountered Rudolf Nureyev's choreographic re-elaboration of the original choreography of 'Sleeping Beauty', in 1966 the La Scala ballet dancers had the opportunity to grasp the intuitions and the primordial aesthetic framework that the indomitable ballet star imagined for Tchaikovsky's ballet. For three performances, in fact, Rudolf Nureyev and Carla Fracci showed on stage at La Scala that first choreographic idea that the Milanese public came to appreciate almost continuously until the last performances in June 2019.

Today, sixty years after that premiere, it is precisely this version that opened the Piermarini's dance and ballet season between December and January in the sumptuous staging by Oscar winner Franca Squarciapino created in 1993. Thirteen well-received performances plus the customary Anteprima Giovani, the inaugural evening dedicated to Giorgio Armani, four debuts, the appointment of Navrin Turnbull as first dancer and the excellent performance of the "troupe" have thus consciously corroborated the intention of preserving "the perfect fulfilment of symphonic dance", as Rudy liked to define this timeless fairy tale in dance.

Martina Arduino, Mattia Semperboni (ph Brescia e Amisano Teatro alla Scala)

This commitment, which La Scala continues to advocate, is aimed at preserving the identity of a peculiar repertoire that is so essential to the company, and which was also revived on the occasion of the recent tour in China. In fact, the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, alternating with the "William Forsythe Evening - The Blake Works", revived the version of "Don Quixote" that entered the Milanese theatre's repertoire in 1980 when Rudolf Nureyev danced it with Carla Fracci.

Vittoria Valerio Nicola Del Freo. (foto Brescia e Amisano Teatro alla Scala)

Two historic names that our country's top ballet and dance company also recalls on the occasion of the fifth edition of the Gala dedicated to the Lady of Dance staged on 31 January and 3 February. An occasion that finally allowed the Milanese ballet company to regain the welcome custom of gathering first-class international guests. On the evening of the premiere on the Piermarini stage was Maia Makhateli - Principal of the Dutch National Ballet - who, after her recent success at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo in the brand new "Swan Lake" designed by Jean-Sébastien Colau, we saw again at La Scala in excellent form in the grand pas de deux of the third act of "Don Quixote" alongside the virtuoso Patricio Revé, formerly principal dancer of the Queensland Ballet and the National Ballet of Cuba and from next season among the principals of the top company from across the Channel. A pleasant return to the Piermarini is that of Jacopo Tissi, Principal of the Dutch National Ballet, here engaged with the sumptuous aesthetics of the "Sleeping Beauty" in the Rudolf Nureyev version and re-proposed with his very elegant port de bras together with a nonchalant and refined Alice Mariani, prima ballerina of the theatre. Mention must also be made of Martina Arduino and Mattia Semperboni, who brought back to the stage the much-appreciated grand pas de deux of the "Corsair" with gusto; flattering was the welcome given to the pas de deux of the first act of "Onegin" dusted off by Nicoletta Manni and Timofej Andrijashenko. A brief look at Dante's 'Commedia' in the first part of the evening, with the short excerpt from 'Francesca da Rimini' - a 1965 creation with libretto by Beppe Menegatti and choreography by Mario Pistoni - brought back to life with the afflatus of Vittoria Valerio, Nicola Del Freo and Gabriele Corrado.

If with Roberto Bolle the hypnotic investigation of the well-known erotic ritual of Maurice Ravel's "Boléro" in Maurice Béjart's choreography was recovered, an absolute novelty for La Scala was the proposal to draw on the reinterpretation imagined by Akram Khan for "Giselle" with the pas de deux of the second act staged for the first time with Camilla Cerulli and Marco Agostino. Vivid approval for this annual La Scala recollection dedicated to the unforgettable 'étoile' who knew how to balance the eloquent candour of the elevation of the soul with the solemn sensitivity of the body.