1 SEGERSTROM HALL July 28 – 30, 2017 Friday at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at 2 & 7:30 p.m. Sunday at 1 p.m. Preview talks one hour before performance 2016–17 DANCE SERIES Out of courtesy to the artists and your fellow patrons, please take a moment to turn off and refrain from using cellular phones, pagers, watch alarms and similar devices. The use of any audio or videorecording device or the taking of photographs (with or without flash) is strictly prohibited. Thank you. Media Partners: The Center applauds: Support for the Center’s International Dance Series provided by: Audrey Steele Burnand Endowed Fund for International Dance The Segerstrom Foundation Endowment for Great Performances Segerstrom Center for the Arts presents With special underwriting from: Harry and Diane Johnson Mr. and Mrs. George Schreyer TEATRO ALLA SCALA BALLET COMPANY Director Frédéric Olivieri ÉTOILE Roberto Bolle GUEST ARTISTS Misty Copeland Marianela Nuñez PRINCIPALS Nicoletta Manni, Claudio Coviello, Antonino Sutera SOLOISTS Mariafrancesca Garritano, Emanuela Montanari, Virna Toppi, Vittoria Valerio Marco Agostino, Federico Fresi, Massimo Garon CORPS DE BALLET Lara Agnolotti, Gaia Andreanò, Timofej Andrijashenko, Martina Arduino Stefania Ballone, Alessia Bandiera, Caterina Bianchi, Maria Chiara Bono Edoardo Caporaletti, Emanuele Cazzato, Giuseppe Conte, Massimo Dalla Mora Philippine De Sevin, Nicola Del Freo, Agnese Di Clemente, Duygu Erkut Azzurra Esposito, Camilla Esposito, Christian Fagetti, Licia Ferrigato, Chiara Fiandra Matteo Gavazzi, Denise Gazzo, Marta Gerani, Greta Giacon, Paola Giovenzana Charlotte La Motte Eugenio Lepera, Andreas Lochmann, Maria Celeste Losa Daniele Lucchetti , Antonella Luongo, Valerio Lunadei, Giulia Lunardi Walter Madau Andrea Pujatti, Fabio Saglibene, Karina Samoylenko, Luana Saullo Mattia Semperboni, Gianluca Schiavoni, Daniela Siegrist, Eva Stokic, Monica Vaglietti Alessandra Vassallo, Vanessa Vestita, Corinna Zambon, Giuseppina Zeverino Teatro alla Scala USA Tour under management of Ardani Artists, New York Sergei Danilian, President & CEO
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SEGERSTROM HALLJuly 28 – 30, 2017
Friday at 7:30 p.m.Saturday at 2 & 7:30 p.m.
Sunday at 1 p.m.
Preview talks one hour before performance
2016–17 DANCE SERIES
Out of courtesy to the artists and your fellow patrons, please take a moment to turn
off and refrain from using cellular phones, pagers, watch alarms and similar devices. The use of any audio or videorecording device or the taking of photographs (with or without
flash) is strictly prohibited. Thank you.
Media Partners:
The Center applauds:
Support for the Center’s International Dance Series provided by:
Audrey Steele Burnand Endowed Fund for International Dance
The Segerstrom Foundation Endowmentfor Great Performances
Segerstrom Center for the Arts presents
With special underwriting from: Harry and Diane Johnson
SOLOISTSMariafrancesca Garritano, Emanuela Montanari, Virna Toppi, Vittoria Valerio
Marco Agostino, Federico Fresi, Massimo Garon
CORPS DE BALLETLara Agnolotti, Gaia Andreanò, Timofej Andrijashenko, Martina Arduino Stefania Ballone, Alessia Bandiera, Caterina Bianchi, Maria Chiara Bono
Edoardo Caporaletti, Emanuele Cazzato, Giuseppe Conte, Massimo Dalla Mora Philippine De Sevin, Nicola Del Freo, Agnese Di Clemente, Duygu Erkut
Azzurra Esposito, Camilla Esposito, Christian Fagetti, Licia Ferrigato, Chiara Fiandra Matteo Gavazzi, Denise Gazzo, Marta Gerani, Greta Giacon, Paola Giovenzana Charlotte La Motte Eugenio Lepera, Andreas Lochmann, Maria Celeste Losa
Daniele Lucchetti , Antonella Luongo, Valerio Lunadei, Giulia Lunardi Walter Madau Andrea Pujatti, Fabio Saglibene, Karina Samoylenko, Luana Saullo
About the Program A tale of love, betrayal and redemption set amid joyous peasant celebrations and the pallid host of Wilis, as fasci-nating as they are ruthless: Giselle, the romantic ballet par excellence, continues to attract audiences with its contrast between a sunny world and a dark and terrible kingdom inhabited by spirits. The peasant girl Giselle and Prince Albrecht are two paradigmatic roles in the classical repertoire. As the choreography unfolds, the principals are required to vary the technical and expressive register from carefree jollity to despair, from easy-going self-assuredness to the awareness that life has no purpose without love. Giselle encompasses all the elements of the romantic ballet, La Scala’s Ballet Company will perform the unforgettable Coralli-Perrot choreography in the revival by Yvette Chauviré. Through her sophisticated interpretation of roles such as Giselle, she has celebrated the classical tradition in all its purity. In her version of Giselle, performed at La Scala for the first time in 1950, it was Chauviré herself who starred as the ill-fated peasant girl who dreamt of love and loved to dance. And all this is enriched by the Aleksandr Benois’ pro-duction in the Scala’s repertoire. Giselle, protagonist of the recent Scala seasons and international tours, is now staged as an homage to Yvette Chauviré herself, an extraordinary artist who recently died.
“The virtuosity of Giselle consists in making the technique invisible. I studied all possible choreographic evolvings, entranc-es and stage exits, and the ‘downtimes’—if they can be called like that—between the enchaînements, the floating of the arabesques and the breathing pose of the arms. When I was dancing, my obsession was to make people forget the carnality of the feet…always too human, to whom it was necessary to give the feeling of ‘the appearance of a breathe.’ ”
– Yvette Chauviré
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Yvette Chauviré in Giselle, Teatro alla Scala 1950. Photo by Erio Piccagliani
GiselleBallet in two acts by Jules-Henry Vernoy de Saint-Georges from Théophile Gautier
ChoreographyJean Coralli – Jules Perrot
Choreographic restaging Yvette Chauviré
MusicAdolphe Adam
Set and costumes designAleksandr BenoisElaborated by Angelo Sala and Cinzia Rosselli
The Mikhailovsky OrchestraConductor Patrick Fournillier
Production Teatro alla Scala
Synopsis
ACT I
The peasants of a Rhineland village are celebrating the vintage festival. A young nobleman, prince Albrecht, disguised under the name of Loys, pays court to a girl named Giselle, who accepts. But the gamekeeper Hilarion, who suspects Loys’ true identity and is jealous of him, awaits the propitious moment to get his revenge. Giselle is happy and pays no heed to the advice and warnings of her mother, who reminds her of the story of the Willi, the maidens who died before marriage and who, transformed into spirits, lure men whom they encounter by night and compel them to dance to death. Meanwhile a procession of nobles who have been hunting arrives at the village, in attendance upon the duke of Courland and his daughter Bathilde, who is engaged to Albrecht. Giselle confides to the young lady that she has fallen in love. She receives a wedding present, but Hilarion chooses this moment to appear, revealing that Albrecht and Loys are the same person. The prince cannot deny it. Giselle, who feels betrayed, in her most cherished and pure sen-timent, goes out of her mind. In a wild dance, she tries to kill herself with Albrecht’s sword, then she goes mad and dies of a broken heart.
ACT II
Some time has passed, and Albrecht, seized with remorse, returns to the village. Here the magic spell is cast by the Willi maidens, who, led by their imperious queen Myrtha, come out of their tombs by night. Albrecht finds Giselle again, but is condemned to dance until he dies, as is the gamekeeper Hilarion. In vain the prince begs Myrtha to forgive him: the law of the Willi maidens is inflexible. Giselle herself, however, saves him by help-ing him to resist and dancing with him until the sun rises, when the spell comes to an end. Albrecht finds himself in the village, alone with his remorse.
Misty Copeland, Giselle Born in Kansas City, Missouri and raised in San Pedro, California, Misty Copeland began her ballet studies at the age of 13 at the San Pedro City Ballet. At the age of 15 she won first place in the Music Center Spotlight Awards. She then began her studies at the Lauridsen Ballet Center. Copeland has studied at the San Francisco Ballet School and American Ballet Theatre’s Summer Intensive on full scholarship and was declared ABT’s National Coca-Cola Scholar in 2000. Copeland joined ABT’s Studio Company in September 2000, then joined American Ballet Theatre as a member of the corps de ballet in April 2001. She was appointed a Soloist in August 2007 and a Principal Dancer in August 2015. Her roles with the Company include Gamzatti, a Shade and the Lead D’Jampe in La Bayadère, a leading role in Birthday Offering, Milkmaid in The Bright Stream, the Fairy Autumn in Frederick Ashton’s Cinderella, Blossom in James Kudelka’s Cinderella, Swanilda and the Mazurka Lady in Coppélia, Gulnare and an Odalisque in Le Corsaire, Mercedes, Driad Queen, the lead gypsy and a flower girl in Don Quixote, Duo Concertant, the Masks in Christopher Wheeldon’s VIII, the Firebird in Alexei Ratmansky’s Firebird, Flower Girl in Gaîté Parisienne, Zulma and the peasant pas de deux in Giselle, Queen of Shemakhan in The Golden Cockerel, the Waltz in Les Sylphides, Lescaut’s Mistress in Manon, Clara the Princess, Columbine and one of The Nutcracker’s Sisters in Alexei Ratmansky’s The Nutcracker, Bianca in Othello, a Gypsy in Petrouchka, the Lead Polovtsian Girl in the Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor, the Saracen Dancer in Raymonda, Cowgirl in Rodeo, Juliet and a Harlot in Romeo and Juliet, Princess Florine in The Sleeping Beauty, Odette-Odile, the pas de trios, a cygnet and the Hungarian Princess in Swan Lake, the Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, leading roles in
Bach Partita, The Brahms-Haydn Variations, Monotones I and Symphonic Variations and roles in Airs, Amazed in Burning Dreams, Baker’s Dozen, Ballo della Regina, Birthday Offering, Black Tuesday, The Brahms-Haydn Variations, Brief Fling, Company B, Désir, Gong, Hereafter, In the Upper Room, Overgrown Path, Pretty Good Year, Private Light, Raymonda Divertissements, Sechs Tänze, Sinatra Suite, Sinfonietta, Thirteen Diversions, Within You Without You: A Tribute to George Harrison and workwithinwork. Copeland created His Loss in AfterEffect, the Spanish Dance in Ratmansky’s The Nutcracker, the Fairy Fleur de farine (Wheat flower) in Ratmansky’s The Sleeping Beauty and leading roles in C. to C. (Close to Chuck), Dumbarton, Glow – Stop, Her Notes, One of Three and With a Chance of Rain. In 2017, Copeland debuted the lead roles in Giselle, Don Quixote as Kitri, and Whipped Cream as Miss Praline. Copeland received the 2008 Leonore Annenberg Fellowship in the Arts and was named National Youth of the Year Ambassador for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America in 2013. In 2014, President Obama appointed Copeland to the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition. She is the winner of a 2014 Dance Magazine Award. Copeland is the author of the best-selling memoir, Life in Motion, the best-selling health and fitness book Ballerina Body, and the award-winning children’s book Firebird.
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About the artists
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Misty Copeland in Giselle.
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Marianela Nuñez in Giselle.
Marianela Nuñez, Giselle Argentine dancer Marianela Nuñez is a Principal of The Royal Ballet. She joined The Royal Ballet Upper School in 1997 and joined the Company in 1998, promoted to First Soloist in 2000 and to Principal in 2002 at age 20. She has performed all the leading roles in the classical, dramatic and con-temporary reper-tory, including in works by Frederick Ashton, George Balanchine, John Cranko, William Forsythe, Jiří Kylián, Kenneth MacMillan, Wayne McGregor, Ashley Page, Jerome Robbins, Liam Scarlett, Glen Tetley, Will Tuckett, Antony Tudor and Christopher Wheeldon. Many of her roles have been captured on DVD. Nuñez was born in Buenos Aires and began dancing at the age of three. When she was six she began training at the Teatro Colón Ballet School, joining the Teatro Colón company at age 14. She took on corps and soloist roles and toured internationally, both with the company and as a guest artist with Maximiliano Guerra. Nuñez’s awards include Best Female Dancer at the 2005 and 2012 Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards, Konex de Platino for Best Dancer of the Decade in Argentina in 2009 and the María Ruanova Award in 2011. She received the 2013 Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance, in recognition of her performances in Viscera and in roles created on her in Aeternum and ‘Diana and Actaeon’ (Metamorphosis: Titian 2012). She has appeared as a guest artist with companies including Vienna State Opera Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, La Scala, Milan, Ballet Estable del Teatro Colón, Ballet Argentino de La Plata and Australian Ballet, and in galas around the world.
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Nicoletta Manni, Giselle – Myrtha Born in 1991 near Lecce, at 13 she was admitted at the 4th course at the Ballet School of Teatro alla Scala Academy. In 2009, after graduating, she joined Berlin Staatsballett where she stayed for three seasons. During her studies at the Scala Ballet School she took part in dif-ferent productions such as: Raymonda (Petipa), Symphony in D (Jiří Kylián), Ouverture (Frédéric Olivieri), Serenade (George Balanchine), Sleeping Beauty (Mats Ek), Bal des Cadets (David Lichine), Napoli (August Bournoville), Class Ballet (Mikhail Messerer), also joining some productions at Teatro alla Scala (Merry Widow, chore-ography by Gheorghe Iancu; Le nozze di Figaro, choreography by Anna Maria Prina and Rudolf Nureyev’s The Nutcracker). With Berlin Staatsballett she performed in Les Sylphides; Swan Lake and The Nutcracker (Patrice Bart); Tchaikovsky (Boris Eifman), La Esmeralda (Marius Petipa and Yuri Burlaka); Caravaggio (Mauro Bigonzetti), Peer Gynt (Heinz Spoerli); Onegin and Romeo and Juliet (John Cranko); and also La Peri, La bayadère, Cenerentola and Spring. She won first Prize at the competition “Città di Lecce,” at “Levante danza festival” and “Premio Mab 2012:” in 2012 she gained the third position at the “Premio Roma Danza.” In spring 2013, she joined the Ballet Company of Teatro alla Scala and danced the role of Myrtha in Giselle for the first time. In Rudolf Nureyev’s Swan Lake (July 2013) she danced four big swans, and in October she made her debut in the role of Odette/Odile. In “Serata Ratmansky” she was in Russian Seasons (couple in blue) and Concerto DSCH (main couple). During 2013-2014 season, for Jewels (George Balanchine) she took the role in the Diamonds main couple and the solo-ist role in Rubies. She became a Principal dancer at Teatro alla Scala in 2014. In “Serata Petit” she was among the main performers of
Pink Floyd Ballet, and she made her debut in the main role in Le Jeune homme et la Mort. During the tour in Kazakhstan with Nureyev’s Don Quixote she danced the role of Kitri in the opening performance and also the Queen of Dryades: the same roles she performed at Teatro alla Scala and during the Ballet tour in Tokyo last season. She was Juliet in MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet. In Nacho Duato’s Nutcracker, opening title of the Ballet Season 2014-2015, she danced the role of Clara. She received the “Premio Danza&Danza” as Best Performer of the 2014 Season and she was also nominated “Dancer of the Year 2014” by the web magazine gior-naledelladanza.com. For Heinz Spoerli’s Cello Suites (at Teatro alla Scala in March 2015), she was among the main performers. She first per-formed the title role of Giselle in April 2015. Both Cello Suites and Giselle were performed in the opening performances of the Ballet Tour in China (August – September 2016). In the Gala for the 23rd International Ballet Festival in Lodz she performed Gran Pas Classique and the pas de deux from Don Quixote; in Excelsior, she performed the role of La Civiltà (the Civilization). For Alexei Ratmansky’s Sleeping Beauty she was the Lilac Fairy and Aurora. She was among the performers of the Gala des étoiles at Teatro alla Scala (October 30 & 31), in Don Quixote pas de deux with Ivan Vasiliev. The only Italian dancer to have received the nomination for the Prix Benois de
la Danse 2015, she performed on the Bol’šoj stage. In 2015 she was nominated “Promise” of ballet by the German magazine “Tanz,” and she premiered the role of Manon in Kenneth MacMillan L’histoire de Manon. For Cinderella (new production by Mauro Bigonzetti) she was the Fairy Godmother and the title role of Cinderella. For the new production by Massimiliano Volpini il giardino degli amanti she took the female main role debuting along-side Roberto Bolle; in Alexei Ratmansky’s Swan Lake she opened the performances in the role of Odette/Odile, also presented in Paris, Palais des Congrès opening the Scala ballet tour in November 2016. In Stravinskij Evening, with Zubin Mehta on the podium, she took part in Michail Fokin’s Petruška (the balle-rina). Inside the triple-bill with La Valse and Shéhérazade, she performed the main couple of Balanchine’s Symphony in C – second movement with Roberto Bolle, and, in other performances, also the main couple of the first movement. She is the main performer, together with Gabriele Corrado, in Progetto Händel, new production by Mauro Bigonzetti. In George Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream she premiered the role of Titania and the pas de deux of the second act divertissement.
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Nicoletta Manni in La Scala’s Giselle.
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Roberto Bolle, Albrecht Roberto Bolle trained at the School of the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, where he has been Étoile since 2004. He has danced in all the majors theatres around the world and with the most pres-tigious companies, including American Ballet Theatre, the Opera National de Paris, the Bolshoi Ballet, the Mariinsky – Kirov Ballet and the Royal Ballet. In June 2002 he performed at the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace. The event was broadcast worldwide by the BBC . In April 2004 he danced in front of Pope John Paul II in the churchyard of St. Peter’s Square in Rome for World Youth Day. In February 2006 he performed in the open-ing ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Turin, which was broadcast around the world. Starting in 2008 he has had enormous suc-cess with the Gala Roberto Bolle and Friends in places never before reached by any dancer: the churchyard of Milan Cathedral and Piazza Plebiscito in Naples. These were followed by thousands of people. He has performed in the magical setting of the Colosseum and the Baths of Caracalla in Rome, in the Temples Valley in Agrigento, at the Certosa of Capri, in the Boboli Gardens in Florence, at Torre del Lago Puccini and in Piazza San Marco in Venice. He had a resounding success and received critical acclaim of his debut at the Metropolitan Opera House in 2007 where he danced with Alessandra Ferri for her farewell to the stage. He was appointed Principal Dancer of American Ballet Theatre, an honor never before bestowed on an Italian dancer. Every year since then, he has been one of the stars of the ABT season. In 2013, the Roberto Bolle and Friends Gala was inserted in the project, sponsored by the Ital-ian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “2013, Year of Italian Culture in the United States” performed at New York City Center. Since 1999, he has served as Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF, participating in a series of large and significant initiatives, includ-
ing trips made in 2006 to the south of Sudan and in November 2010 to the Central African Republic, to bring direct evidence of the tragic situation of the people of those countries. In 2009 he was appointed a “Youg Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum of Davos. In 2010, he met two great directors: Peter Greenaway, who asked him to interpret the symbol of Italian art in his installation “Italy of cities”—designed for the Italian pavilion at Expo Shanghai 2010—and Robert Wilson, who devot-ed to him one of his Voom portrait, “Perchance to Dream” in an impressive multimedia installa-tion, inaugurated in New York in November. In 2012 the prestigious title of Knight of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic was bestowed upon him by the President of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, because of merit acquired to the country in the cultural field.In 2014 he was awarded the UNESCO Gold Medal, conferred in Paris, for the universal cultural value of his artistic work: “reward for his contribution to the promotion of the ideas of UNESCO through dance as a living cultural expression and vector for dialogue.” In 2014 Bolle was chosen as the star of the new ENI campaign “Rethink Energy” for which he made a spot directed by Fabrizio Ferri. The relationship with the energy company ENI supports the Étoile in a series of artistic and cul-tural initiatives in Italy and abroad. In April of 2015 Rizzoli released the book Voyage into Beauty with beautiful pictures that portray him with some of the symbols of the
Italian artistic heritage. In particular, the photos by Fabrizio Ferri depict the statuesque dancer in the ruins of Pompei, in the frame of Roman frescoes, a symbol of the greatness of Italian his-tory and the need to preserve its memory. In photos by Luciano Romano in Piazza San Marco in Agrigento, from the Colosseum to the Baths of Caracalla, the harmony of gestures and the balance between the dancer and the places evoke a profound reflection on “art and the exceptional nature of Italian heritage.” In 2015 Roberto Bolle debuted as a cinema director participating in the choral project Milan 2015 documentary film produced by Lumière & Co. of Lionello Cerri, on the subject of Christian Mainardi and divided into six episodes with as many directors: Roberto Bolle, Walter Veltroni, Silvio Soldini, Giorgio Dritti, Elio of “Elio e Le Storie Tese” and Cristiana Capotondi. The film, successfully presented at the Venice Film Festi-val, has been released in theaters in October 2015 and in videos seen on Sky and RAI Cinema. In 2016 he was a guest at the popular San-remo Italian Song Festival, performing a new choreography by Mauro Bigonzetti on We Will Rock You by Queen. In October 2016, Raiuno, the main Italian TV channel, devoted to him a prime time Sat-urday evening show event Roberto Bolle – La mia Danza Libera. In November Italian cin-emas released Roberto Bolle – L’arte della danza, a documentary film adapted from 2015 summer tour Roberto Bolle and Friends.
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Roberto Bolle in La Scala’s Giselle.
Claudio Coviello, Albrecht Born in Potenza in 1991, Coviello moved to Rome in 2002, starting his studies at the Ballet School of Teatro dell’Opera. Graduated in 2009 he also joined the perfectioning course with Pablo Moret, principal at the Ballet National de Cuba. In 2009 he placed second in the International Competition “Premio Italia” (juniors); in 2010 first at the International Competition in Spoleto (seniors), both in the “classical” and “contemporary” branches, and nominated Best Dancer of the competi-tion. The then director of the Ballet Company of Teatro dell’Opera in Rome, Carla Fracci, invited him to join some performances. Also, with the Ballet School of the Opera in Rome, in 2010, he danced Graduation Ball by David Lichine and Coppélia (Franz). In 2010 he joined the Teatro alla Scala Ballet Company production Trittico Novecento; in the same year he received a scholarship for one year at the Boston Ballet School and he was selected (the only Italian) at the audition for the Ballet Company of the Paris Opera. From August 2010 Coviello joined the Ballet Company of Teatro alla Scala: his first performances have been in Onegin (Ballet Season 2009-2010), in the Scala tour in Turkey and in Nureyev’s Swan Lake. During the Gala des étoiles he performed Le spectre de la rose and in October 2011 the role of Béranger in Raymonda (Petipa-Glazunov). During the tour at the Bolshoi Theatre (December 2011) he took the role of Oberon for Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In 2012 he was on stage at la Scala for Giselle, as Albrecht (role that he also presented during the tour in Hong Kong and then in China in 2016) and he was amongst the main roles in Alexei Ratmansky’s Concerto DSCH; in the same year he danced for the first time the role of Lenskij in John Cranko’s Onegin and, in the restaging of Raymonda (October 2012), the role of Jean de Brienne. In that year he also received the “Danza&Danza”
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Claudio Coviello in La Scala’s Giselle.
Prize as best emerging artists for the 2011 season. In December 2012, he became solo-ist. He performed in the cast of Sasha Waltz’s Roméo et Juliette and during the restaging of Roland Petit’s Notre-Dame de Paris, he danced the main role of Quasimodo. In July 2013, in the opening performances of Nureyev’s Swan Lake, he was Siegfried for the first time, danc-ing with Natalia Osipova. In September 2013, he was nominated “Dancer of the Year” by the jury of the 41st edition of “Positano premia la danza – Léonide Massine;” in the Scala tour in Japan, he danced the role of Romeo and, in November, at Teatro alla Scala, the role of Des Grieux in MacMillan’s L’histoire de Manon. In December 2013 he was made a princi-
pal dancer of Teatro alla Scala. Nominated “Dancer of the Year” by the online maga-zine giornaledelladanza.com; in “Serata Ratmansky” he was in the cast for Russian Seasons; and he was again in Le Spectre de la Rose, a triple-bill including La Rose Malade and Cavalleria Rusticana, conducted by Daniel Harding. For George Balanchine’s Jewels he was among the main couples of Emeralds and in the main couple of Rubies. He was the only Italian nominated in the 2014 edition of the Benois Prize, and he danced on the Bolshoi stage for the gala ceremony. In “Serata Petit” he was in Pink Floyd Ballet and took the main role in Le Jeune homme et la Mort. During the tour
in Kazakhstan, he was Basilio in Nureyev’s Don Quixote, dancing it again during the Scala performances and during the Japan Tour in September 2016. He danced the role of Nutcracker/Prince in Nacho Duato’s Nutcracker, the opening work of the Ballet sea-son 2104-2015, and was in Heinz Spoerli’s Cello Suites (ballet that he also performed during the China tour in August/September 2016). In the Gala for the 23rd International Ballet Festival in Lodz he performed Le Spectre de la rose and pas de deux from Giselle. For Alexei Ratmansky’s The Sleeping Beauty he debuted in the role of the Blue Bird and later danced Prince Désiré. He is among the performers of the Gala des étoiles at Teatro alla Scala (and October 30 & 31, 2015), with a pas de deux from L’histoire de Manon with Melissa Hamilton. For Cinderella (new production by Mauro Bigonzetti) he took a role in the four friends of the Prince. For the new production by Massimiliano Volpini il giardino degli amanti, he performed the role of Don Giovanni; in Alexei Ratmansky’s Swan Lake he is Siegfried, a role that he presented again in Paris, Palais des Congrès during the Scala ballet tour in November 2016. He performs the main couple of the third movement of George Balanchine’s Symphony in C, inside a triple-bill which included also La Valse and Shéhérazade.
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Virna Toppi Myrtha
Antonino Sutera Peasant pas de deux
Vittoria Valerio Peasant pas de deux
Federico Fresi Peasant pas de deux
Denise Gazzo Peasant pas de deux
Nicola del Freo Peasant pas de deux
Alessandra Vassallo Peasant pas de deux
Marco AgostinoHilarion
Massimo GaronHilarion
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Frédéric Olivieri, Ballet Director Born in Nice, Olivieri graduated from the Music and Dance Conservatoire of that city. In 1977 he won the First Prize in Prix de Lausanne, entitling him to enter the Ballet School of the Paris Opéra. In 1978 he joined the Paris Opéra Ballet Company under the direction of Violette Verdy and later of Rosella Hightower. He was appointed soloist in 1981, when Rudolf Nureyev was in charge of artistic direction of the Parisian com-plex. At the Paris Opéra Theatre he danced the most important roles in the classical and contemporary repertoire, working with sev-eral guest choreographers, including Maurice Béjart, John Neumeier, Kenneth MacMillan, Alwin Nikolais, Alvin Ailey, Paul Taylor, Glen Tetley, and Roland Petit. In 1985 he took part in the creation of the Ballets de Monte-Carlo as Leading Dancer under the direction of Pierre Lacotte and Ghislaine Thesmar. After a few months in the presence of HRH Princess Caroline of Monaco, he was awarded the title Étoile. With Ballets de Monte-Carlo since 1993, he has interpreted all the most important roles in the classical, neoclassical and contem-porary repertoire, and has starred in creations expressly dedicated to him by choreographers like Uwe Scholz, Jean Christophe Maillot, John Neumeier, and Roland Petit. In 1986 he received the Leonide Massine Prize and in 1992 Prince Ranieri of Monaco awarded him with the title of Knight of the Order of Cultural Merits. In 1993 he became Principal of the Hamburg Ballet Company directed by the cho-reographer John Neumeier, where he ended his brilliant career as a dancer. In 1996 he began a new professional experience at Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, where, until 1998, he held the position of Maître de Ballet and assistant choreographer of the MaggioDanza troupe, for which he created the choreography of Claudio Monteverdi’s Orfeo directed by Luca Ronconi, and the choreography of Aida by Giuseppe Verdi, directed by Mariani. He subsequently
became Maître de Ballet at Zürcher Ballett directed by Heinz Spoerli. In 2000 he was appointed Artistic Director of MaggioDanza at Teatro Comunale Fiorentino. From September of that same year, he was principal Maître de Ballet of the Ballet Company of Teatro alla Scala. In 2002 he was appointed Director of the Ballet Company a position he held until 2007. During his management, the bal-let repertoire of La Scala was expanded and renewed with new productions such as Swan Lake by Vladimir Bourmeister, La Dame aux Camélias by John Neumeier, A Midsummer Night’s Dream by George Balanchine, The Cage by Jerome Robbins, Symphony of Psalms and Petite Mort by Jiří Kylián, Marguerite and Armand by Frederick Ashton, Annonciation and La Stravaganza by Angelin Preljocaj, and Polyphonia by Christopher Wheeldon. Not to mention works of some of the most renowned Italian choreographers, including Mauro Bigonzetti, Fabrizio Monteverde and Jacopo Godani and his close collaboration with the great choreographers Maurice Béjart and Roland Petit. During his tenure, Teatro alla Scala Ballet Company presented this repertoire on the greatest stages of the world on numer-ous international tours. Since 2003 he has been Director of the Dance Department of Teatro alla Scala Academy and in October 2006 he also became Director of the historic La Scala Ballet School. During his management he has given his pupils the opportunity to attend master classes with internationally renowned danc-ers and choreographers. Moreover, he has enriched the School’s repertoire with impor-tant choreographies such as Napoli by August Bournonville, Serenade, Who cares?, Theme and Variations, and Tarantella by George Balanchine, Sleeping Beauty by Mats Ek, Gaîté parisienne suite and La luna by Maurice Béjart, The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude by William Forsythe, Symphony in D, Evening Songs and Un ballo by Jiří Kylián, The Unsung by José Limón, Gymnopédie by Roland Petit, and Larmes Blanches and La Stravaganza by Angelin Preljocaj. He has also choreographed new editions of celebrated titles from the rep-ertoire for the School, such as The Nutcracker set to music by Tchaikovsky, and Cinderella to music by Prokofiev. In July 2005 he was awarded the title
Knight of Arts and Letters by the French Ministry of Culture.
Patrick Fournillier, Conductor He was Assistant Conductor of the Orchestre National de Lille and then became Music Direc-tor of the Sinfonietta de Picardie. He has been Music Director of the Opéra de Saint-Étienne since 1988, and in 1990 he co-founded the Biennale Mas-senet, whose Music Director he was until 2006, contributing to the rediscovery of numerous works by the composer, including Esclarmon-de, Cléopâtre, Rome, Hérodiade, the ballet Cigale and the oratorio La Vierge. At the Opéra de Saint-Etienne he conducted great works of the Italian and French reperto-ire, such as Un ballo in maschera, Otello, Rigo-letto, La traviata, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Norma, Carmen, Dialogues des carmélites. From 1996 to 2001 he was Music Director of the Symphonic Orchestra Arturo Toscanini of Parma. He is regularly invited to conduct the most important international orchestras and those of the most renowned theatres, such as the Orchestre Philharmonique de RadioFrance, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Baye-rische Staatsoper, the Orchestre National de Belgique, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala, the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, the Metropolitan Orchestra in New York. In 1989 he was chosen to conduct the gala concert for the re-opening of the Opéra Comique with the Orchestre de l’Opéra de Paris. In 1991 Riccardo Muti invited him to conduct Auber’s La muette de Portici at the Ravenna Festival. Then he conducted Manon at the Staatsoper in Berlin and at the Opéra de Nice, Medea at the Martina Franca Festival, Pagliacci at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Lakmé at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, La sonnambula and La bohème at the Opera in Rome, and also the China National Symphony Orchestra in Beijing.
In 2009 he conducted Cyrano de Bergerac at the Théâtre du Châtelet with Plácido Domingo, then Carmen at the Arena in Verona, Tosca at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, Le nozze di Figaro at the Washington Opera, Les contes d’Hoffmann at the San Francisco Opera. He conducted Carmen in the first season of the new Royal Opera Muscat in Oman in 2011, and Chabrier’s L’Étoile at the National Dutch Opera in 2014. He conducted, among others, Don Giovanni, La Damnation de Faust and Carmen at the Dresden Semperoper; Iphigénie en Tauride, Turandot and Thaïs in Valencia; Hamlet and Louise at the Opera du Rhin in Strasbourg; La traviata in Ravenna; Lucia di Lammermoor and Carmen in Stuttgart; Rigoletto at the Teatro Regio in Turin; Manon Lescaut in Warsaw and Dresden; Aida in Amsterdam and Mannheim; Don Pasquale in Oslo. He is very interested in creations by con-temporary composers and has conducted works by André Jolivet, Henri Dutilleux, François-Bernard Mâche, Luciano Berio, besides Antoine Duhamel’s Quatre-Vingt-Treize for the bicen-tennial of the French Revolution. He debuted at La Scala in 1994 with the ballet L’histoire de Manon. He later directed Il rosso e il nero (1995), Gounod’s Faust (1997), again L’histoire de Manon (1998), Ondine (2000), Alfano’s Cyrano de Bergerac (2008) and also Giselle on tour with the Teatro alla Scala in Paris in January – February 2015. In 2015 and 2016 he conducted, among others, Carmen at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Aida in Warsaw, Rigoletto in Bogo-ta, Thaïs at the Salzburg Festival, and Giselle on tour with La Scala in China in September 2016. In 2017, he conducted Romeo and Juliet in Milan, Carmen in Helsinki and Hamburg, Thaïs in Barcelona, and concerts at the Bogotà International Music Festival, in Naples, War-saw and Milan. Amongst his forthcoming projects: the Finland Festival in Helsinki, La traviata in Seoul, a concert at La Scala with LaVerdi Orchestra, Manon in San Francisco, Pelléas et Mélisande in Warsaw.
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The present day Ballet Company of Teatro alla Scala boasts a glorious past whose roots go back centuries to the 1778 inauguration of the world’s most celebrated musical theatre. Illustrious choreographers, such as Jean-Georges Noverre, Gasparo Angiolini, Salvatore Viganò, were to exert great influence on dance in Europe, even before the founding in 1813 of the Imperial Dance Academy of La Scala. From here Carlo Blasis, the illustrious dancer, teacher and theorist brought Ballet into the romantic period, contributing to the technical innovation of its style. In Russia, Enrico Cecchetti, propagated the teaching of the Italian academic technique and, by way of Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, which he had joined, elevated its status in this new era. Dance at La Scala entered the twentieth century also with renowned choreographers linked to the Ballets Russes, like Mikhail Fokine and Leonide Massine. From the free and expressionist dance of Middle-Europe of the ’30s and ’40s, came, above all, Aurel Milloss. Arturo Toscanini gave him the task of reuniting the lost threads of the Scala company after the Second World War. For his repertoire, he not only chose great musicians, renowned set designers and painters, but also illustrious guests such as George Balanchine. In the ’50s and ’60s, La Scala became a stage open to the best names of the then artistic panorama. Roland Petit made his début in 1963, Maurice Béjart in the ’70s, and many guest stars were added like Rudolf Nureyev, beginning in 1965 a very close collaboration with the Milanese theatre. Recent years have seen La Scala Ballet expand its visibility at home and abroad, with debut performances at the Paris Opera, Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre, the Mariinsky (Kirov) Theatre, and in the USA, Germany, Turkey, Brazil, Spain, Mexico and China, to name just a few. Thanks to the unfailing expressive, technical and interpretative appeal of La Scala’s étoiles Svetlana Zakharova, Roberto Bolle, Massimo Murru, guest artists, principals, newly appointed soloists, and the many corps de ballet members frequently selected for major roles, Makhar Vaziev’s direction (from 2009 since 2015) resolutely embraces a set of precise artistic standards. The aim is to reinvigorate the twentieth century’s most refreshing and influential
ballet repertoire as a “tradition of the new” in the ballet world, reviving the necessary classics, providing young choreographers with creative opportunities, and drawing celebrated musical directors to the ballet rostrum, both as an element of added appeal and also as an unmistakable sign of the musical excellence that befits La Scala, not only in its operatic performances but also in its dance productions. Under his direction, the Company’s chain of command has grown in every respect. Today’s principals include Nicoletta Manni and Claudio Coviello, and soloists include Massimo Garon and Marco Agostino, Virna Toppi, Vittoria Valerio,
Federico Fresi, and very young dancers trained at the Ballet School are emerging from the ranks of the Company: among them Alessandra Vassallo and Christian Fagetti, and many new dancers such as Lusymay Di Stefano, Denise Gazzo, Timofej Andrijashenko, Nicola Del Freo and Martina Arduino, who have debuted in main roles, fulfilling the Company’s brief to recognise and cast burgeoning talent. The successor of Makhar Vaziev, Mauro Bigonzetti, had to withdraw the ballet direction due to a health problem; from October 2016 the direction of the Company has been entrusted to Frédéric Olivieri.
Teatro alla Scala Ballet Company
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Teatro alla ScalaTHE PARTICIPANTS AT THE TOURDIRECTION AND STAFF
General Manager: Maria Di FredaDirector of the Ballet Company: Frédéric Olivieri General Management: Andrea VitaliniProduction Department: Nadia FerrignoTechnical Department: Elio BresciaStage Manager: Andrea BoiLogistics Responsible: Antonio CunsoloTransport Responsible: Francesco PuleràBallet Company Coordinator: Marco Berrichillo Ballet Company Supervisor: Filippo RussoPress Office for the Ballet Company: Carla VigevaniWeb Office: Silvia FarinaPrincipal Ballet Mistress: Laura ContardiBallet Master and Professeur: Massimo Murru Music Coaches: Fabio Ghidotti, Alberto NanettiDoctor: Rosa Maria ConvertiPhysiotherapist: Catia Rizzello
TECHNICAL STAFF
Stagehands Responsible: Luca FaustoStagehand: Vittorio ColellaLighting Designer: Valerio Tiberi Electricians Responsible: Alessandro MoniciElectricians: Nicolas Josè Braile, Morgan La IosaSound Engineer: Nicola UrruPropmen Responsible: Luciano Di NicuoloWardrobe Responsible: Patrizia D’AnzuoniWardrobe Department: Antonio IavazzoHair and make-up Responsible: Tiziana Libardo Hair and make-up Department: Michele TianoShoemaker: Alfio Pappalardo
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BOARD OF DIRECTORSChairman Giuseppe Sala, Mayor of Milan
Members Giovanni Bazoli, Cristina Cappellini, Claudio Descalzi, Alberto Meomartini, Francesco Micheli, Aldo Poli, Giorgio Squinzi, Margherita Zambon
Alexander PereiraGeneral Manager and Artistic Director
Riccardo ChaillyMusical Director
Maria Di FredaGeneral Director
BOARD OF AUDITORS
Chairman Tammaro Maiello
Regular Members Fabio Giuliani Nunzia Vecchione Alternate Member Manuela Simonetti
ARDANI ARTISTS STAFF FOR TOUR
Sergei Danilian, President & CEOGaia Gina Danilian Ardani, Vice-PresidentElizaveta Alymova, Stage InterpreterEmanuele Cesare, Stage Interpreter
