Open-air Performance in Music and Vision 5 Luglio

Open-air Performance A triptych of ballet on tour, with dancing in the monumental Roman ruins, experienced by GIUSEPPE PENNISI It is not generally known that Rome has a vast audience for ballet. The Teatro dell'Opera and Milan's Teatro alla Scala are Italy's only opera houses with fully fledged ballet companies in a position to compete internationally; this July La Scala Ballet is on tour in Kazakhstan, an oil country featuring a luxurious newly-built opera house. In Rome, there is also a private theatre offering ballet performances by touring private companies. Over the summer, several ballet festivals are organized in courtyards of baroque palaces and at Roman monuments. The Summer season of the Rome Opera House is in the spectacular Terme di Caracalla (Baths of Caracalla) with seats for 4,500. This summer, the season includes a Ballet Festival from 27 June until 25 July 2014. Tokyo Ballet at the Baths of Caracalla in Rome. Photo © 2014 Luciano Romano. Click on the image for higher resolution It began with two special performances by the Tokyo Ballet, the legal inheritor of the choreography of Maurice Béjart (1927-2007), one of the twentieth century's most important choreographers. He proposed a special line of extreme elegance by borrowing certain ideas from American ballet and merging them with French and Russian traditions. The Tokyo Ballet has over one hundred dancers and has performed in 152 towns of thirty countries (for a total of 740 performances whilst on tour). Although the company has often previously visited Milan, Venice and Florence, these were the first performances in Rome as a part of tour also encompassing Austria and Germany. Tokyo Ballet's 'Danses Grecques' at the Baths of Caracalla in Rome. Photo © 2014 Luciano Romano. Click on the image for higher resolution The tour program is a triptych. The first part includes Mikis Theodorakis' Danses Grecques. Although the origin is folkloristic popular dancing, the choreography delves into the deep roots of Hellenic culture and its interpolation with other cultures to reach a style both classical and modern. The second part starts with a short Don Juan based on a score composed by Frédéric Chopin when he was seventeen, and with some echoes of Mozart's opera. Elegance and grace dominate the choreography. Finally, Le sacre du printemps by Igor Stravinsky seen as a hymn to the union of man and woman and a dance of life and death. The photos show how the open-air performance in the spectacular ruins adds charm to the ballet. On 28 June, the audience was enthralled. Tokyo Ballet's 'Le sacre du printemps' at the Baths of Caracalla in Rome. Photo © 2014 Luciano Romano. Click on the image for higher resolution The second bill of this festival fare is a new production of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake unveiled at the Teatro dell'Opera during the Christmas Season to replace that seen almost every year from 2003 to 2011 [Read Perfect Settings, 3 January 2014]. Swan Lake is generally thought to be a children's show; this is one of the determinants for its frequent performances during the holiday season. Tchaikovsky's 'Swan Lake' at the Baths of Caracalla in Rome. Photo © 2014 Francesco Squeglia. Click on the image for higher resolution In my view, this is quite a wrong perception because it was composed during one of the worst periods of the composer's life, when he attempted to conceal his sexual orientation with a marriage which was short and ended tragically. In the score, the juxtaposition between B-flat/D/F and B/F-sharp/C expresses not only the confrontation between good and evil but also the composer's inner intimate torment. In this production with Maurice Bart as choreographer and set designer [seen 3 July 2014], the setting is brown and grey and the lake is under a dark sky. Tchaikovsky's 'Swan Lake' at the Baths of Caracalla in Rome. Photo © 2014 Francesco Squeglia. Click on the image for higher resolution The protagonists were quite good: in the various performances, Iana Salenko, Alessandra Amato and Ludmilla Pagliero take the role of Odile/Odette, and Giuseppe Picone and Paulo Arrais that of the Prince. The large number of dancers in minor roles and the corps de ballet were effective. The conductor Nik Andriy Kabaretti handled the score well. The audience enjoyed it. The third item in the triptych is Roberto Bolle and friends on 25 July 2014. Copyright © 5 July 2014 Giuseppe Pennisi, Rome, Italy TEATRO DELL'OPERA ROME IGOR STRAVINSKY RITE OF SPRING FRYDERYCK CHOPIN DON JUAN PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY SWAN LAKE BALLET ITALY  << M&V home       Concert reviews        Carmen >>