[Mar. 2023] The topic of ballet continues.
In March, we saw “Giulietta e Romeo” at the Teatro Lirico in Milan, Italy.
It was our first time to visit this theatre.
It is located near the metro station, Missori.
If you go by metro, take the yellow line (M3) and Missori is next to the Duomo station.
A long time ago, when I was learning Italian (although I failed to master it), I used to use Missori station, but I didn’t know there was a theatre at all.
Is it because the entrance is not so conspicuous unlike La Scala?
I did some research and found out that it closed in 1998 and reopened in 2021 while maintaining its original form.
So it was under renovation when I was there.
The theatre itself has a modern design, and I thought it was a Mussolini-era building, but it has a long history and was opened in 1779 as Teatro alla Canobbiana.
Initially, it was on par with the world-famous Teatro alla Scala, and while La Scala was for the nobility, this opera house was meant for the general public.
At the end of the 19th century, it passed into the hands of an entrepreneur, and after changing its name to Teatro Lirico, it became the property of the City of Milan in 1926.
By the way, apparently, Mussolini gave one of his first speeches in 1921 and his last speech in 1944 here.
To be honest, it was an ordinary theatre that could not be said to be on the same level as La Scala in scale and luxury.
They were raising money with the intention of wanting young people to come to the theatre, perhaps continuing the tradition of performing for the general public.
Now, the all-important ballet, as you can see from the title “Giulietta e Romeo”, is a new version of Romeo and Juliet.
It was a performance of a company called Balletto di Roma.
I’ve never heard of this company before, but it seems that the purpose of this group is to introduce to the world, domestically and internationally, traditional works that have been remade under the direction of an up-and-coming Italian directors.
So, in this Romeo and Juliet, the music (Prokofiev : recorded) and the story were the same, but the dance was very different from the one I am familiar with and it was quite contemporary.
Only Juliet wore pointe shoes.
This choreography had a lot of spinning and looked difficult.
I think the level of the dancers was high.
In this version, at the end, before Romeo commits suicide, he witnesses Juliet’s awakening.
Although it was unusual dance, that ending made me feel the tears welling up.
We had good seats relatively close to the stage, but it was reasonably priced at about €44 per person.
I want to keep an eye out for theatre information and see these high-level performances without fail.
