Dance, Pushkin-Bolle, Onegin staged at La Scala

The ballet season reopens at La Scala with one of the masterpieces of 20th century choreographic literature. Onegin, protagonists Roberto Bolle and Marianela Nunez, star of the Royal Ballet in London, (tonight at the opening of performances and then on 17, 20 and 23 September). A perfect example of ‘dance drama’, Pushkin’s work has always been considered a real ‘national poem’ studied at school, the verses memorized by students, one of John Cranko’s most loved and performed ballets (in billboard at Piermarini until 26 September). Roberto Bolle returns to take on the shady role of Onegin, a young aristocrat bored by life who lets slip what he will recognize too late as true, great love. Nine performances, with different cast, in which Marco Agostino and Nicoletta Manni, Gabriele Corrado and Alice Mariani, Timofej Andrijashenko and Martina Arduino, Nicola del Freo and Vittoria Valerio will alternate. A great love story of poignant unhappiness, Onegin, between two steps, ensemble dances, aristocratic dances in sumptuous palaces, duels to death, repressed and confessed passions (too late) on Tchaikovsky’s pieces and compositions arranged and re-orchestrated by Kurt-Heinz Stolze.