ROBERTO BOLLE ~ Excelsior

Music ~ Romualdo Marenco Choreography ~ Ugo Dell’Ara This performance was 2002. A quote borrowed from Gramilano ~ “Excelsior is a ‘concept’ ballet – light triumphs over darkness – and it features dancers representing Peace, Invention, Perseverance, Courage, Concord and so on. Luigi Manzotti created the ballet in Milan in 1881 putting hundreds of dancers on stage, together with elephants, trumpeters, children, the works, accompanied by Romualdo Marenco’s bombastic score. It was a time when the Italian population was euphoric as they’d only recently become, well… Italians. Italian Unification had occurred only a decade or so earlier and it was a time to celebrate. And what better way than with a big, brash ballet extravaganza! It shows man’s progress, through science, [the abolition of slavery] towards a better future: transportation, electricity, engineering. Excelsior was extraordinarily successful in Milan and went on to tour the major Italian cities, followed by trips to London, Vienna and St Petersburg. The French loved it so much that it ran for months in Paris.“ Obscurantism - Ricardo Massimi Enlightenment - Marta Romagna Civilization - Isabel Seabra The Slave - Roberto Bolle The Corps de ballet - Teatro alla Scala