When the Bolshoi Ballet visited Milan in 1970, Italian ballerina Carla Fracci, with Teatro alla Scala’s director Antonio Ghiringhelli, went to the airport to welcome the company.

Here she is, with her son Francesco Menegatti, together with Russian ballet stars Maya Plisetskaya and Natalia Bessmertnova, in two previously unpublished photos.

Carla Fracci greets Maya Plisetskaya while Antonio Ghiringhelli looks on:

Natalia Bessmertnova watches as Maya Plisetskaya holds Carla Fracci’s baby Francesco:

… continue reading

Born in Vibo Valentia, Italy, Vito Mazzeo trained at La Scala Ballet School in Milan.

He danced with The Royal Ballet and Rome Opera Ballet before joining San Francisco Ballet as a soloist in 2010. Mazzeo was promoted to principal dancer in 2011.

Throughout his career he has performed lead roles in variety of classical works, including Prince Desiré in The Sleeping Beauty, Albrecht and Hilarion in Giselle, Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake, Basilio in Don Quixote, Birbanto in Le Corsaire, the Golden Slave in Scheherazade, and Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet. His repertory also includes principal roles in Ashton’s Birthday Offering and Rhapsody, Balanchine’s La Chatte and Stravinsky Violin Concerto, Chalmer’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Fokine’s Les Sylphides, and Nijinska’s Les Biches.

Since joining SF Ballet, Mazzeo has performed  includes a diverse range of principal roles in works such as MacMillan’s Winter Dreams, McGregor’s Chroma,  Wheeldon’s Number Nine, Forsythe’s Artifact Suite, Balanchine’s Symphony in C and The Four Temperaments. In addition, he created a principal role in Tomasson’s Trio.

In 2010, Mazzeo received the Premio Positano Leonide Massine Award for Best Italian Dancer, as well as the Danza & Danza Award for Best Dancer of the Year. He returned in Italy as a guest at the Rome Opera Ballet and Arena of Verona during  the summer season 2011.

Q&A

When did you start dan­cing?
At 9 years old.

Why did you start dan­cing?
I saw Carla Fracci dancing.

Which dan­cer inspired you most as a child?
Carla Fracci and Erik Bruhn for their great partnership.

Which dan­cer do you most admire?
Sylvie Guillem for the light that emanates when she dances; Massimo Murru for the very personal and natural way to portray different characters.

What’s your favour­ite role?
Colonel Vershinin in “Winter Dreams” by Sir Kenneth MacMillan.

What role have you never played but would like to?
Crown Prince Rudolf in “Mayerling” by Sir Kenneth MacMillan.

What’s your favour­ite bal­let to watch?
“Symphonic Variation” by Sir Frederick Ashton.

Who is your favour­ite cho­reo­grapher?
Too many, Ashton, MacMillan, Pistoni, Nureyev, Tudor etc…

Who is your favour­ite writer?
Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Who is your favour­ite dir­ector?
Visconti, De Sica and Sorrentino.

Who is your favour­ite actor?
Alida Valli, Silvana Mangano and Anna Magnani.

Who is your favour­ite singer?
Opera singer: Sutherland, Callas, Bartoli. Pop Singer: Caetano Veloso and Mina.

What is your favour­ite book?
One Hundred Years of Solitude.

What is your favour­ite film?
“Senso” by Visconti.

Which is your favour­ite city?
Rome.

What do you like most about your­self?
The courage to change.

What do you dis­like about your­self?
Too many things.

What was your proudest moment?
When I realized that what and who I love will stay with me forever.

When and where were you hap­pi­est?
In Rome.

What or who is the greatest love of your life?
The person I love.

What is your greatest fear?
To lose  the person I love.

If you could change one thing about your­self, what would it be?
Nothing.

What do you con­sider your greatest achieve­ment?
It still has to come.

What is your most treas­ured pos­ses­sion?
The ring that reminds me of the person I love and who I belong to.

What is your greatest extra­vag­ance?
My brain is very extravagant!

What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
The virtues of Catholicism.

On what occa­sion do you lie?
When I don’t want to hurt people.

If you hadn’t been a dan­cer what would you have liked to do?
Be an actor.

What is your most marked char­ac­ter­istic?
Craziness.

What quality do you most value in a friend?
Intelligence.

What qual­ity do you most value in a col­league?
Talent combined with intelligence.

Which his­tor­ical fig­ure do you most admire?
All the people who have made my country better than it was.

Which liv­ing per­son do you most admire?
Hans Küng, a theologian who speaks and report child abuse by priests of the Catholic Church.

What do you most dis­like?
People who are hiding something.

What gift would you most like to have?
To be a set and costume designer.

What’s your idea of per­fect hap­pi­ness?
Perfect happiness is boring.

How would you like to die?
On the balcony next to the Campidoglio watching the Roman Forum.

What is your motto?
“Non è tutto oro quello che luccica” [All that glitters is not gold]

Mara Galeazzi was born in Brescia and studied at La Scala, Milan. She joined The Royal Ballet in 1992 and was promoted to First Artist in 1995, Soloist at the end of the 1997/98 Season and Principal in September 2003.Roles in the classical repertory include the leading role in Fokine’s Firebird, Marie, Sugarplum Fairy and Rose Fairy in Nutcracker, Giselle (also under Carla Fracci’s direction) and Myrtha in Giselle, Medora in Le Corsaire, Gamzatti in Natalia Makarova’s La Bayadère, the leading role in Paquita divertissement, Aurora’s wedding pas de deux and Bluebird pas de deux in The Sleeping Beauty, the Act I Pas de Trois in Swan Lake, the Talisman pas de deux with Irek Mukhamedov and Rudolf Nureyev’s Raymonda Act III.

In the Frederick Ashton repertory she dances Lise in La fille mal gardée, Mrs Tittlemouse in Tales of Beatrix Potter, the solo La Chatte metamorphosée en femme (originally created for Merle Park), the Thaïs pas de deux (first danced on the 1995 Dance Bites tour), Voices of Spring, Diana in Sylvia, Julia in Wedding Bouquet (role created for Margot Fonteyn), Fairy Autumn in Cinderella, Moth in The Dream, the Jackson Variation in Birthday Offering, in Rhapsody, Symphonic Variations, the Pas de Trois in Les Rendezvous and Scènes de Ballet.In the Kenneth MacMillan repertory she dances Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Manon and Lescaut’s mistress in Manon, Mary Vetsera in Mayerling, Mathilde Kschessinska and the title role in Anastasia, Winter Dreams’ Farewell pas de deux with Irek Mukhamedov, the Chosen one in The Rite of the Spring, the Second Movement of Concerto, the Youngest Sister in Las Hermanas, the First Sister in My Brother, My Sisters, Gloria, Triad, Countess Marie Larisch in his Mayerling, Principal White Girl in Song of the Earth, The Woman in The Judas Tree, Images of Love and Danses concertantes.

She also dances Tatiana in Cranko’s Onegin, the Young Wife in Glen Tetley’s La Ronde, Voluntaries and Colombina in his Pierrot Lunaire, one of the three girls in Ashley Page’s Fearful Symmetries, David Bintley’s Consort Lessons, ‘Still Life’ at the Penguin Café, Hommage to the Queen (Queen of Earth), Christopher Wheeldon’s pas de deux Pavane pour une infante défunte, Wayne McGregor’s Chroma, Twyla Tharp’s Push Comes to Shove (dancing in the company premiére), Matthew Hart’s Dances with Death, George Balanchine’s Symphony in C, Agon, Ballet Imperial, Calliope in Apollo and Emeralds in Jewels, the Yellow Girl in Michael Corder’s Masquerade and Flora in William Tuckett’s The Turn of the Screw, the role of Aurora in De Valois’ Coppélia, Girl in Blue in Nijinska’s Les Biches, the pas de deux from Ashley Page’s Sleeping with Audrey, Celestial in Anthony Tudor’s Shadowplay and The Leaves are Fading, the Street Dancer and the Dryad Queen in Nureyev’s production of Don Quixote, Stephen Baynes’s Beyond Bach, William Forsythe’s In the middle, somewhat elevated, Mats Ek’s Carmen and Fokine’s Spectre de la Rose.

She has created roles in McGregor’s Intra, Tharp’s first work for the company Mr Worldly Wise (later dancing the pas de quatre), Wheeldon’s Souvenir (1996 Dance Bites Tour), Tuckett’s Puirt-A-Beul (1998 Dance Bites Tour), Page’s Two Part Invention (Part II), When We Stop Talking (1998 Dance Bites Tour) and Cheating, Lying, Stealing (Second Principal Couple), and Cathy Marston’s Tidelines (Principal Couple), Ashley Page’s This House Will Burn (2001), La Grêle in David Bintley’s Les Saisons (2003), Vanessa Fenton’s On Public Display (2004) and Eden.

Television performances include a live BBC broadcast from The Royal Opera House when she danced Aurora in Ninette de Valois’ Coppélia (February 2002), Ashton’s Thais pas de deux (November 2004), Voices of spring (April 2005) and Sylvia (December 2005). Her performance of Symphony in C was broadcasted live in many big squares all over the UK in June 2005. The director Philip Cox produced the documentary Facing Mara.

In May 2006 she is appointed ‘Best Italian Dancer Abroad’ (Danza & Danza Award). In November 2003 she received the nomination as Best Female Dancer at Critics’ Circle National Dance Award.
She appeared as guest artist with the Stuttgart Ballet, Carla Fracci’s Teatro dell’Opera in Rome and the Scottish Ballet. She also danced with Irek Mukhamedov, Carlos Acosta, Tetsuya Kumakawa and their companies.

In February 2005, after a Charity Gala in her home town of Brescia, Mara became an honorary member of Soroptimist International, a worldwide organization for women in management and the professions aimed at equality, development and peace. On the 7th March 2009 Mara was awarded the medal “Cavaliere Del Lavoro” (Knighthood) by the President of Italy.

Q&A

When did you start dan­cing?
When I was 6.

Why did you start dan­cing?
At first was for fun.

Which dan­cer inspired you most as a child?
Alessandra Ferri, Carla Fracci and Pina Baush.

Which dan­cer do you most admire?
I admire all dancers for their hard work and passion.

What’s your favour­ite role?
Kenneth MacMillan’s Anastasia.

What role have you never played but would like to?
Natalia in Frederick Ashton’s Month in the Country.

What’s your favour­ite bal­let to watch?
I could watch Romeo and Juliet forever.

Who is your favour­ite cho­reo­grapher?
I have several favourites: Kenneth MacMillan of course, but I love Glen Tetley, Frederick Ashton , John Cranko, Wayne McGregor, and all the choreographers that I’ve worked with in the past.

Who is your favour­ite writer?
I don’t have a favourite, but I like writers who have psychological insights.

Who is your favour­ite dir­ector?
[direttore d’orchestra - conductor] I don’t have a favourite, as long as the director understands the dancer.

Who is your favour­ite actor?
I have always loved Audrey Hepburn for her beauty and elegance.

Who is your favour­ite singer?
Maria Cal­las.

What is your favour­ite book?
Susanna Tamaro’s Vai dove ti porta il cuore.

What is your favour­ite film?
Cinema Paradiso.

Which is your favour­ite city?
Rome.

What do you like most about your­self?
I can’t think…

What do you dis­like about your­self?
My insecurity.

What was your proudest moment?
I’m never proud, but I can say that I’m proud of what I’ve achieved in my life.

When and where were you hap­pi­est?
When I got pregnant again after having lost my first baby.

What or who is the greatest love of your life?
My husband and my family.

What is your greatest fear?
Losing the people that I love the most.

If you could change one thing about your­self, what would it be?
I would love to be more intelligent, and be very rich so that I could give money to children in need.

What do you con­sider your greatest achieve­ment?
With my profession, that I’ve touched people’s hearts; with my life, that I found the greatest love, my husband.

What is your most treas­ured pos­ses­sion?
Love.

What is your greatest extra­vag­ance?
None.

What do you con­sider the most over­rated vir­tue?
Simplicity.

On what occa­sion do you lie?
I don’t like lies.

If you hadn’t been a dan­cer what would you have liked to do?
A nurse or a paediatrician.

What is your most marked char­ac­ter­istic?
Determination.

What quality do you most value in a friend?
Loyalty.

What qual­ity do you most value in a col­league?
Team work and understanding.

Which his­tor­ical fig­ure do you most admire?
To be honest… I don’t know.

Which liv­ing per­son do you most admire?
Nelson Mandela.

What do you most dis­like?
Unfairness.

What gift would you most like to have?
I would like to be a perfect mother.

What’s your idea of per­fect hap­pi­ness?
Good health and love in the world.

How would you like to die?
.….….….…..

What is your motto?
“It is nice to be important, but more important to be nice.”

Photo © Bill Cooper

Giuseppe Picone trained at the Ballet School of Teatro San Carlo in Naples and at twelve years old was chosen by Beppe Menegatti to dance the role of the young Nijinsky in the World Premiere of the ballet Nijinsky with Carla Fracci and Vladimir Vassiliev. He also trained at the Accademia Nazionale di Danza in Rome and was the recipient of the first prize at the Rieti and Positano competitions.Pierre Lacotte invited him to join the Ballet National de Nancy as soloist when he was sixteen, and he danced in the leading roles of Petruska (Fokine), La Sonnambula (Balanchine), Paquita (Petipa), L’ Ombre (Lacotte). In 1993 he joined the English National Ballet in London, where he danced until 1997. He then moved to the American Ballet Theatre in New York, his début being in Ben Stevenson’s Cinderella.

He has danced the leading roles of classical ballet: Giselle (Deane, Fracci, Jude, McKenzie), Swan Lake (Nureyev McKenzie, Dowell, Jude), Cinderella (Corder, Stevenson), Romeo and Juliet (Nureyev, MacMillan, Jude), The Nutcracker (Stevenson, Holmes, McKenzie, Amodio, Deane), La Bayadère (Makarova), Études (Lander), Onegin (Cranko), Gaîté parisienne (Franklin), Les Patineurs (Ashton),Variation for Four (Dolin), The Sleeping Beauty (Hynd, MacMillan, Wright), Raymonda (Gacio), Don Quixote (McKenzie), Il Corsaro (Holmes, Khomyakov).

He has also danced leading roles in many neoclassical, modern and contemporary works: Tchaikovsky Pas De Deux, Square Dance, Who Cares?, The Four Temperaments, Divertissement 15′  (Balanchine), Sinfonietta (Kylián), Spring and Fall (Neumeier), Gong (Morris), Black Tuesday (Taylor), Known by heart, Push come to shove, Brahms Haydn Variation (Tharp), L’Arlésienne (Petit), In the Middle Somewhat Elevated, Slingerland pas de deux (Forsythe), Symphonic Dance (Bigonzetti), Disposition (Selya), Homage à Miles Davis (Naisy), Te vojo bene assaje, Franca Florio, La Sonnambula (Cannito), I have a dream (Cannito e Merola), The Roman Spring  of Mrs Stone (Bouy), Bacco e Arianna (Franzutti), I due gentiluomini di Verona, David, Apollo e Dafne (Giannetti), La Lacrimosa (Tanesini), Viderunt Omnes (Martorana), Dibbuk, Dream about Japan (Ratmansky), Morte di un innocente, Spartacus, Amadeus Mozart, Alles Walzer, Thaïs, Apollon musagète (Zanella), the ballets in Aida and Macbeth (Iancu), Sahara, Bolero (Matteini), Narciso, Blue Moon (Garofoli).

When he danced in the American Ballet Theatre’s world première of Le Corsaire with Nina Ananiashvili he was nominated for the prestigious Prix Benois de la Danse. He was invited to participate in Nina Ananiashvili and Friends in Japan and at the International Ballet Star Gala in Taipei. He has been a guest artist at several important ballet companies such as the Royal Ballet, Boston Ballet, Bolshoi Theatre, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Wiener Staatsoper, Dutch National Ballet, Los Angeles Dance Theatre, Bucarest National Opera, Ballet Nacional de Cuba, Ballet National de Bordeaux, Slovene National Ballet, Macedonian Opera and Ballet, Teatro San Carlo di Napoli, Arena di Verona, Teatro Massimo di Palermo and at many international festivals and galas. He was invited by Renato Zanella to dance at the Vienna New Year’s Concert in 2005, becoming the first Italian to do so.

He is often a guest in Italian television including , Festa della Repubbica from Rome, the last night of the famous San Remo Festival in 2009, Premio Caruso from Sorrento and in 2010 he was the leading dancer in the Italian New Year’s Concert from the Teatro La Fenice in Venice.

John Clifford, Director of the Los Angeles Dance Theatre, created the role of Humphrey Bogart in the Dance Musical Casablanca.

In 2010 Giuseppe Picone was invited to take part in Vladimir Vasiliev: A Gala Tribute to a Dance Legend at the City Center Theatre in New York, and in Italy, Mario Piazza created the role of Mackie Messer in the Ballet Opera da tre soldi with the Ballet of the Arena of Verona.

He was the recipient of the Premio Positano in 1997 and 2002, Premio Caserta 1999, Premio Gino Tani, as well as Premio Danza and Danza as Best Dancer in 2002. He danced in Les Étoiles de Ballet2000 at  the Palais des Festivals in Cannes as one of Dancers of 2004, and he was awarded the Premio Anita Bucchi as best male dancer of the season 2005/2006, Premio Asti Danza 2007, International Prize Apulia Arte 2008, Prize MozArt Box 2008, Prize Ugo Dell’Ara 2010, MPS Danzainfiera Prize and Napoli Cultur Classic Prize 2011, Prize Aurel Millos 2011, Special Prize GD Awards 2011. Since 2004 he has been the artistic director of the Gran Galà Picone and The Giants of Ballet.

Q&A

When did you start dan­cing?
I started when I was 10 years old at the Teatro San Carlo ballet school in Naples.

Why did you start dan­cing?
My elder brother Raffaele took me to the audition and I fell in love with ballet immediately. Till then I had no idea of what ballet was.

Which dan­cer inspired you most as a child?
Absolutely: Rudolf Nureyev.

Which dan­cer do you most admire?
I admire and respect Julio Bocca.

What’s your favour­ite role?
Albrecht in Giselle.

What role have you never played but would like to?
Scheherazade is an amazing ballet!

What’s your favour­ite bal­let to watch?
When you like ballet you like to watch all of them.

Who is your favour­ite cho­reo­grapher?
Balanchine.

Who is your favour­ite writer?
I like Italian writers Oriana Fallaci and Fabio Volo.

Who is your favour­ite dir­ector?
[diret­tore d’orchestra - conductor] David Coleman — the best!!!

Who is your favour­ite actor?
Al Pacino, Jack Nicholson and Anna Magnani.

Who is your favour­ite singer?
Pavarotti and Michael Jackson. Lately I like Adele.

What is your favour­ite book?
Nureyev’s biography.

What is your favour­ite film?
Dangerous Liaisons, directed by Stephen Frears with Glenn Close, Michelle Pfeiffer and John Malkovich.

Which is your favour­ite city?
Roma… Caput Mundi.

What do you like most about your­self?
I like life.

What do you dis­like about your­self?
At times I’m too nice with people who don’t deserve it… big mistake!

What was your proudest moment?
I left home at 14 years old and my country at 16. It was very difficult, but my passion for ballet was strong and I’m very proud I did it.

When and where were you hap­pi­est?
When my six nephews were born.

What or who is the greatest love of your life?
My family, my love, my friends.

What is your greatest fear?
I’m scared to not be able to move anymore.

If you could change one thing about your­self, what would it be?
We should accept what we are and deal with it!!!

What do you con­sider your greatest achieve­ment?
To have satisfied my instincts as a dancer and still have a private and normal life outside ballet.

What is your most treas­ured pos­ses­sion?
My family.

What is your greatest extra­vag­ance?
I rarely go to sleep before 2am because I like to have fun. But when you have to get up at 8am for class… it’s hard.

What do you con­sider the most over­rated vir­tue?
Fake kindness and fake smiles.

On what occa­sion do you lie?
Only white lies to tease friends…

If you hadn’t been a dan­cer what would you have liked to do?
A stylist… I love clothes.

What is your most marked char­ac­ter­istic?
I’m patient.

What qual­ity do you most value in a friend?
Loyalty.

What qual­ity do you most value in a col­league?
A true friendship.

Which his­tor­ical fig­ure do you most admire?
Giuseppe Garibaldi.

Which liv­ing per­son do you most admire?
All people who volunteer.

What do you most dis­like?
Poverty, because it’s killed so many people.

What gift would you most like to have?
I’ve got it… a DOG!

What’s your idea of per­fect hap­pi­ness?
Family. Private Life. Ballet at its best.

How would you like to die?
Do you know I’m from Naples? That means I’m superstitious… so no comment.

What is your motto?
Live and let live.

For almost two years — that is, since the departure of Carla Fracci as a director - the Ballet of the Rome Opera seems to have fallen prey to evil spirits, or at least incompetent ones, who have drastically reduced the quantity and quality of performances. All under the orders of the famous conductor, notoriously despotic and a known enemy of dance. The new director of the ballet company, Micha van Hoecke, has no specific responsibilities for now. But the future is worrying.

So opens an article in Ballet2000 (known in Italy as Balletto Oggi) about the downhill slide of the Rome company. Dance journalist Donatella Bertozzi, holds no punches. She continues,

Over the last eighteen months the magical world of ballet has changed at the Rome Opera into a world of nightmares: three evil fairies - Superficiality, Incompetence and Ignorance - in cahoots with Carabosse, are opposed to Fortune and the Future of the sleeping beauty (dance, of course) and are mounting a siege on Rome’s Opera House, plotting to decree (finally!) the ruin of the ballet company. Shows cancelled, a steep fall in the number of ballets in the season (from almost a hundred to less than fifty), ballets scheduled in prestigious productions and then represented in unknown versions. “New” choreography for the repertory ballets turn out to be remakes of well-known historical versions (which anyone who has seen a bit of ballet in his life can recognize)… And finally, press relations reduced a minimum: being that no one is capable of running them with any competence, press conferences for ballet have been simply abolished.

Ouch! But the truth is often painful to hear.

For at least thirty years these spirits have been working away in the shadows - not only in Rome but all over Italy — to wipe out the Italian ballet tradition. It seems that they are on the verge of succeeding.

Except that for a decade (2000–2010) a seemingly powerful Lilac Fairy, disguised as Carla Fracci, managed to obtain excellent results (with, inevitably, a few flops), and a company that seemed doomed twenty years ago was reborn.

Fracci’s last season ballet scored a tie with the opera season: 18 titles a head, something unheard of in Italian theatres. It is probably not a coincidence that Fracci’s known lean to the left in politics led her to be ousted when the right took over Rome’s council.

And along came Muti.

Riccardo Muti was offered the artistic helm of the Opera House by the mayor of Rome, Gianni Alemanno. For some inexplicable reason, he was able to dictate who would lead the ballet company. Certainly not Fracci, with whom the conductor had had various spats with in Milan, and so at the end of July 2010 the ‘Duse of Dance’ left the theatre for good, and when the company returned after the summer break they found two-thirds of the season’s programme cancelled. Muti’s old friend Micha van Hoecke stepped into her shoes, though his position is still temporary.

The first season without Carla Fracci saw ballet performances halved, and one of her star dancers, Vito Mazzeo, left while the going was good, and became a principal dancer with the San Francisco Ballet. Swan Lake was grandly announced to be in a brand new version by Attilio Labis, but when it came to it the theatre presented the version that Fracci had given them. Three new creations became just one, and Markarova’s La Bayadère disappeared and was replaced with a version by the unknown Rafael Avnikjan.

Carla Fracci, just as she was about to leave her post, told the dancers that they must fight for their jobs, for the company and for ballet. Is it too late?

The anorexia scandal, started by Teatro alla Scala ballerina Mariafrancesca Garritano, which has had echoes worldwide, at first led to indignation by the public and fellow dancers alike when the theatre fired her for damaging the its reputation. Then the tide started to turn as various professionals — doctors, teachers — with the company and its school said that the accusations were unfounded. Then came various statements from colleagues which said that anorexia was extremely rare.

Now two heavyweight hitters have had their say. Zvetlana Zakharova, in Milan for Giselle which opens tonight, told the Corriere della Sera’s Valeria Crippa,

It is a fake scandal created by an unknown in search of publicity. Also at the Bolshoi there are those who try to profit from exaggerating a story. Anorexia in ballet? At the Bolshoi it doesn’t exist, if you’re not in form you won’t survive on stage: there is a natural selection among the students at the Bolshoi.”

And Carla Fracci in Italy’s Vanity Fair commented,

Maybe [Garritano] has some personal problems which don’t involve ballet. It depends a lot on who you are. Anyway there are other problems. Alcohol for example: in companies abroad especially, you hear of food being replaced by alcohol… beer, vodka, champagne. But also in this case, it is an exception, not the rule… Garritano should examine her conscience.”

Fracci however ended the interview by saying,

Firing her isn’t right… It is absurd, trivial, terrible to fire someone.”

Photo: from left, Fracci in Sleeping Beauty, Garritano in Swan Lake, Zakharova in Cinderella

In 1978, with Carla Fracci at the height of her fame, a book was produced with a collection of photographs by Dino Jarach. Fracci in the piazza, Fracci on stage, Fracci in the studio, Fracci on the beach… that sort of thing. In these photos she is in fact over forty though, like now, she looks much younger.

In these photos — Fracci at home with friend — there is a singer, ten years younger than Fracci, who had become a household name in Italy during the sixties: Caterina Caselli. At this point of her life she was moving behind the microphone and becoming a talent scout. She helped to build the career of Paolo Conti among others, and her agency blossomed when she discovered the young Andrea Bocelli. Since being signed by Caselli, Bocelli has gone on to sell more than 65 million albums.

In these photos however, that was still to come, and it is amusing to watch her expression as she looks adoringly at Fracci’s feet!

This great snap, from a reception at the Rome Film Festival in 2009, shows the two leading-ladies cracking up with laughter. Any ideas what somebody might have said or done? Suggestions please… this needs a good caption!… continue reading

In 1987 a two-part television programme called The Ballerinas featured Carla Fracci, with some of the top male dancers of the period, in a series of reconstructions putting various ballets and their interpretors in an historical context. Fracci was an amazingly youthful 51 when she danced these extracts.

Dance Magazine critic John Gruen wrote:

The nineteenth century clings to Carla Fracci like an invisible mantle — her aura, her look, her demeanor suggest everyone’s conception of the romantic ballerina. How fitting that this great poetic artist should portray some of her most fabled predecessors — the very ballerinas that, like Fracci, were the embodiment of romantic fragility and lyric classicism.

In The Ballerinas, a sumptuously produced two-part ballet drama, Fracci places her rare artistry in the service of dance history as she recreates roles first premiered by such luminous ballerinas as Marie Taglioni, Emma Livry, Carlotta Grisi, Fanny Elssler, Giuseppina Bozzacchi, Carlotta Brianza, Matilde Kschessinska, Anna Pavlova, Tamara Karsavina and Olga Spessitzeva. Indeed, not only does Fracci offer superbly danced excerpts from such classics as La Sylphide, Giselle, Coppelia and The Sleeping Beauty, among others, but enacts salient moments in each ballerina’s life as a versatile dramatic actress.

Thus, The Ballerinas is more than a ballet film, but a series of vivid and historically accurate vignettes, given added impact by the presence of Peter Ustinov who appears in Part I, as the great French poet, writer and ballet critic Theophile Gautier and, in Part II, as the fiery ballet impresario, the Russian, Sergei Diaghilev. Moreover, in the dance sequences, Fracci appears in partnership with some of today’s most illustrious male dancers, among them, Vladimir Vasiliev, Peter Schaufuss, Michael Denard, Richard Cragun and Charles Jude.

Engrossing, instructive, lavish and thoroughly entertaining, The Ballerinas is a must for all ballet lovers.

Here are the links to the 8 YouTube videos:

LA SYLPHIDE, 1832: Carla Fracci, Marie Taglioni; Peter Schaufuss, Joseph Mazilier.

LE PAPILLON, 1860: Carla Fracci, Emma Livry; Michael Denard, Louis Merante.

GISELLE, 1841: Carla Fracci, Carlotta Grisi; Vladimir Vasiliev, Lucien Petipa.

LA CACHUCHA, from Il Diavolo Zoppo, 1836: Carla Fracci, Fanny Elssler.

SLEEPING BEAUTY, 1890: Carla Fracci, Carlotta Brianza; Richard Cragun, Pavel A. Gerdt.

ESMERALDA, 1907-1908: Carla Fracci, Matilde Kschessinska; Stephen Jeffries, Nicolas Legat.

LES SYLPHIDES, 1909: Carla Fracci, Anna Pavlova; Charles Jude, Vaslav Nijinski.

SLEEPING BEAUTY Rose Adagio: Carla Fracci, Olga Spessitzeva.

An unpublished photograph of Carla Fracci and Rudolf Nureyev in Giselle at Milan’s Teatro alla Scala in 1974… continue reading

Italians are great dancers, but they don’t get much opportunity to demonstrate that in their homeland.

The history of ballet is adorned with Italian talent: Giuseppina Bozzacchi was the first Swanhilda in Coppélia;  three dazzling stars, Carlotta Grisi, Fanny Cerrito, and Marie Taglioni (also the first Sylphide) were celebrated by Perrot in his Pas de Quattre; Pierina Legnani was named Prima Ballerina Assoluta by Petipa at the Mariinsky and was the first ballerina to perform 32 fouettés; Petipa created La Esmeralda pas de six for Virginia Zucchi,  and so on.

Although they didn’t come as thick and fast in the 20th century, Italia’s living legend Carla Fracci certainly made her mark internationally, as did Elisabetta Terrabust and Liliana Cosi, and London’s Royal Ballet is surely grateful for the presence of Alessandra Ferri, Viviana Durante and Mara Galeazzi.

Enrico Cecchetti, more famous now for his method, was a great virtuoso dancer, and became a principal at the Mariinsky in 1887. Paolo Bortoluzzi was a principal with the American Ballet Theatre until 1981, and Roberto Bolle is currently a principal with the company. Massimo Murru and Giuseppe Picone are on the international circuit, and Federico Bonelli is yet another Italian to join the ranks of the Royal Ballet. In the Paris Opera Ballet we find Alessio Carbone and Eleonora Abbagnato, and young whippersnapper Vito Mazzeo has recently become a principal at San Francisco Ballet.

So all’s well then. Well no. Ballet seems to be slowly dying in Italy.

Italian balletomanes enviously flick through the programmes of The Royal Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, and the Mariinsky and Bolshoi Ballets with their high-octane star dancers, or gaze longingly at the mouth-watering guest rosters in New York. Not that the guests don’t arrive in Italy: Svetlana Zakharova has just danced in Rome and is a regular at Teatro alla Scala in Milan, who have also signed up Natalia Osipova for three ballets next season. Paris Opera’s Dorothèe Gilbert, and Stuttgart Ballet’s Marijn Rademaker will guest in Rome for Romeo and Juliet after the summer, and Stuttgart’s Friedemann Vogel and the Mariinsky’s Olesia Novikova will return to La Scala for La Raymonda. The key issue isn’t who is dancing, but how many opportunities there are to dance. Performance numbers are miserly, and quantity is clearly linked to quality in the classical repertory: the Bayadère can’t hope to have 32 perfect shadows if the corps dances it only six times in a season.

Here’s an idea of numbers. Rome Opera Ballet gave 45 performances during the 2011–2012 season, and that includes the open air summer performances; La Scala has 48 performances in Milan this season, plus 6 in Moscow and 14 in Brazil. The Royal Ballet gave 26 performances in December 2011 alone, and the American Ballet Theatre gives 56 performances during its annual 2-month residency at the Metropolitan Opera House.

Italy’s chequered history (it is a country younger than the United States) has lead to it being divided into many small ‘kingdoms’ with many mid-sized cities — Verona, Venice, Palermo etc — but only Rome and Milan have more than 1 million inhabitants. Rome’s 2½ million is dwarfed by New York and London’s 8 million. Less people, less performances right? Well look at Cuba! Ok, it’s a complicated equation, yet it is possible to get these companies dancing more.

When Carla Fracci was director of the Rome troupe they performed 67 times in Rome during the 2008 season, and there was also a small touring schedule. I don’t have the figures to say whether these performances were packed or not, but the dancers were certainly dancing. In that season the repertory ballets, Raymonda and Le Corsaire were given 9 performances each; this season Coppélia and Giselle had only 5, though it’s true that the up-coming Romeo and Juliet will be presented 15 times.

Now things can only get worse as city councils start tightening their belts and government grants are cut. Various dance festivals and minor companies have already fallen by the wayside, and corps numbers in Florence, Verona and Naples reduced. That leaves only the Rome and Milan companies capable of presenting a repertoire ballet. It would need a flick of  President Giorgio Napolitano’s magic fairy wand to resolve the situation in an Italy fighting desperately for its economic life, but maybe only Lilac Fairies have those.

So the dance drain will continue as dancers who want to spend their short career actually on-stage escape abroad. And the poor Italian ballet fan will be left dreaming of the oft-told tales from far-off shores of ballet calendars as long as the Bayadère’s scarf, full of dancing stars who glitter like Aurora’s crown.

Photos:
top from left, Alessandra Ferri; Carla Fracci; Carlotta Grisi, Fanny Cerrito, and Marie Taglioni with  Lucille Grahn in the Pas de quattre; Viviana Durante.
bottom from left, Enrico Cecchetti coaching Anna Pavlova; Paolo Bortoluzzi, Roberto Bolle, Vito Mazzeo.

Jeux (Games) is the last work for orchestra written by Claude Debussy. It was composed for Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes with Vaslav Nijinsky’s choreography. Jeux was was not a success when premiered in 1913, but this was nothing compared to the reception Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring received just two weeks later!

Herbert Ross’ 1980 biopic Nijinsky recreated several of his ballets, including Jeux which, as pictured above, featured Carla Fracci (left), the Royal Ballet’s Genesia Rosato, and George de la Peña as Nijinsky.… continue reading

Carla Fracci, frequent partner of the American ballet star Richard Cragun, who died yesterday at 67, remembers the dancer with the words of English poet W H Auden:

Dear Richard,

I honour your passing with these great words by Auden:

“The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.”

Goodbye, with love,

Carla Fracci
Rome, Italy 

… continue reading

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The Mayor of Rome, Gianni Alemanno, has announced,

We are working on a project with Carla Fracci to create a National Ballet Company which can bring the Rome experience to a national level.

The ‘Rome experience’ was the period of ten years that Fracci spent at the helm of the capital’s ballet company.

Alemanno, who is by default the president of the board of directors of the Fondazione del Teatro dell’Opera, the governing body of the Rome Opera and Ballet companies, was famously harangued by Fracci in a public outburst by the étoile in the stalls of the Rome Opera Theatre. That was two years ago during a meeting of  the various trade unions opposing economic reforms. Nerves were raw, and Fracci prodded the Mayor in the chest accusing him of refusing her requests for a meeting during the previous two years.

They’re back on speaking terms now, and Carla Fracci’s long-held dream of forming a national ballet company is close to being realised. Yesterday she declared,

I am happy that the Mayor has declared that he is in agreement with the project to form an independent national company, which would have Rome as its base. This is a glorious day for Italian dance.

… continue reading

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In 1974 at Milan’s Teatro alla Scala the 37-year-old Carla Fracci danced a series of 20 performances of John Field’s Swan Lake with three different partners: Rudolf Nureyev, Roberto Fascilla and Richard Cragun.

Cragun, who died last month at 67, was the star of the Stuttgart Ballet company, and he charmed the Milanese audience with his noble bearing and physical beauty.

A true prince.

Photos: Carla Fracci and Richard Cragun in Swan Lake, Teatro alla Scala 1974 — collection of Carlo Orlandi… continue reading

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David Beckham has his underwear collection, singer Jessica Simpson has a wildly popular fashion label, and Italian ballerina Carla Fracci has her perfume collection.

Yesterday, in Milan’s chic 10 Corso Como, the seventh fragrance in the collection was launched: Aurora, named after one of the étoile’s favourite roles. In fact all the collection’s perfumes are named after roles she has played: Medea, Salomé, Odette, Giselle, Hamlet (yes Hamlet!) and the role she plays best, Carla Fracci, which was the first in the series to be launched.

Of course there’s nothing new about celebrity perfumes. Elizabeth Taylor was the first off the mark with Passion, and her 1991 White Diamonds is still one of the most popular on the market. Lady Gaga has a fragrance, Rihanna and Beyoncé too, Jennifer Aniston and Antonio Banderas have one, even little Justin Bieber has his own scent. The list is long, but almost exclusively consists of singers and actors, with a bit of Paris Hilton thrown in here and there. Ballerinas are nowhere to be seen.

Ballet dancers are certainly off the radar as far as the mass media are concerned, and that is perhaps part of the appeal for Mario Usellini, the president of Carla Fracci Parfums, who developed the line with her.… continue reading

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Ferruccio Soleri (class of 1929) was the original Arlecchino in Giorgio Strehler’s legendary production of Goldoni’s masterpiece Servant of Two Masters (Arlecchino servitore di due padroni) for Milan’s Piccolo Teatro. And he still is. He will be playing the role for the 53rd season this year, and on tour in Argentina.

Here he is pictured with long-time friend and colleague Carla Fracci (I wouldn’t reveal a lady’s age, but the two have 159 years between them!) whose Giselle with the American Ballet Theatre remains a touchstone in filmed ballet performances.

… continue reading

The post Two Italian living legends together: Ferruccio Soleri, the greatest Arlecchino, and Carla Fracci, the greatest Giselle appeared first on gramilano.

Carla Fracci will appear at London’s Italian Cultural Institute in London on October 3. The ICI is the official Italian governmental body dedicated to promoting Italian language and culture in England and Wales.

The Institute arranges a vast array of cultural events, and their encounters with Italian protagonists is impressive with film director Nanni Moretti, actress and model Monica Bellucci, writer Umberto Eco, Daniele Molmenti after his gold medal win with slalom canoeing at the London 2012 Olympics, and many more.

Now ballet gets its turn as Fracci, along with her husband, director Beppe Menegatti, go to London to take about their life and work.

More details can be had by contacting the Institute on 020 7235 1461.… continue reading

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Q&A

When did you first go to the theatre?
To see Rigoletto at the Teatro Comunale in Florence on 10 October 1939 for my tenth birthday, with Gino Bechi, Ferruccio Tagliavini, Lina Aimaro and the young Giulietta Simionato as Madelena.

Why did you want to work in the theatre?
In Florence we give out presents for the Epiphany. When I was six there was a wonderful gift for my brother, a model theatre, but I though “This is mine!” It was large, more than a metre wide with 32 different sets. We had to use it for firewood during the war.

Which performers do you remember most from your childhood?
Charlie Chaplin, Eduardo De Filippo, Titina De Filippo, and Jean-Louis Barrault.

Which performance do you remember most from your childhood?
Puss in Boots at Florence’s Teatro della Pergola, in which the 10-year-old Franco Zeffirelli played the Marquis of Carabas.

Which director do you most admire?
Peter Brook.

What theatrical piece that you directed are you most proud of?
The Italian première of Samuel Beckett’s Play (“Commedia”) in 1964, and the first staging of Isac Babel’s Maria; also a production of The Tempest at the Forte di Belvedere in Florence.

What theatre piece would you have liked to direct?
An unrealised dream was to create a ballet based on André Gide’s sublime book La symphonie pastorale with Carla Fracci and Erik Bruhn using, obviously, the music of Beethoven’s symphony, together with Lizst piano transcriptions.… [continue reading]

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The La Scala Theatre Ballet School was formed 200 years ago, and its students are celebrating with a week of shows at Milan’s Teatro Strehler. At last night’s opening performance Carla Fracci, maybe the school’s most famous student, was present, and the young ballet dancers were thrilled.

After an Overture (a version of Etudes/Class Concert), the students performed the Paquita wedding suite with an excellent dancer (one to watch!) called Jacopo Tissi, and Béjart’s Gaîté parisienne with a vivacious Angelo Greco as the “young Béjart” and an energetic Gianmarco Romano as Offenbach. Lots of promising young dancers were obviously enjoying themselves, and we were too!

more photos… [continue reading]

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