Bursting with upfront energy, Milan’s La Scala contemporary mashup is lively and punchy on emotive moments.
MILAN, ITALY – The second programme of La Scala’s Ballet Season veers towards the contemporary spectrum of dance, with the signatures of Philippe Kratz in the revival of Solitude Sometimes, music by Thom Yorke and Radiohead, choreographer Angelin Preljocaj and Patrick de Bana, with the premiere of a new Carmen.
Rebirth, life’s cycle and the individual’s resilience are central in Solitude Sometimes: amidst the electronic sounds of Thom Yorke and Radiohead, Philippe Kratz signs his first creation for the La Scala Ballet Company in 2023.
Andrea Risso and Alessandra Vassallo
He immerses himself in Egyptian mythology for an ascent towards the light, taking his cue from the tale of the Amduat and the descent into the underworld of the sun god who purified and rose to the surface to give birth to a new day. An abstract work in its essence but populated with symbolic figures that find on stage the protagonists of the premiere, but also artists now making their debut in Kratz’s style.
On the touching mystery of the Virgin Mary’s Annunciation, Angelin Preljocaj focuses on the relationship between spirit and body, inner and outer space, and the upheaval of the Angel’s apparition in Mary’s intimate universe.
Claudio Coviello, Navrin Turnbull and Christian Fagetti
Created in 1995 and winner of the ‘Bessie Award’ two years later, it was given to an Italian repertoire for the first time in 2002, at La Scala. After more than twenty years, the return of Annonciation will bring the new generation of artists to measure themselves against a work that is among the most emblematic of its repertoire and stylistic signature.
For his first work stitched on the La Scala Company and its étoiles, de Bana delves into the mythology, culture, scents and icons of Spain filtered through his personal experience, to revive the essence of Carmen, on a musical fabric based on Rodion Ščedrin’s Carmen Suite and transporting the audience to its gypsy roots.
Nicoletta Manni and Christian Fagetti
In this, Roberto Bolle, Nicoletta Manni and Maria Celeste Losa are rare, distinct talents: the energy, tension and passion they bring to their dancing never fail to obliterate everything around them, illuminating an entire world on their terms.
All in all, it’s a triumph of visual intrigue, where everything is precise yet unforced—as if the dancers’ bodies happen to be the vessels of their physical forces. So much happens in the space of not knowing, and that’s what makes for such a compelling aftermath.
by Chidozie Obasi