On Christmas Eve (Saturday 23 December at 9pm) the Teatro di Pisa opens its Dance season with the sparkling Viennese atmosphere of the world premiere of Alles Walzer, the brilliant new ballet choreographed by Renato Zanella to the music of Johann Strauss (Father and Son) and Gustav Mahler performed by the Bazzini Consort orchestra. It stars the first dancers of the Ljubljana Opera House, Ana Klašnja and Kenta Yamamoto, together with twelve dancers from the Daniele Cipriani Company. The costumes are by Anna Biagiotti, the lighting design by Alessandro Caso.
Alles Walzer is the first of three titles in the Pisa Theatre Dance Season, which continues on Friday 1 March with Giulia Staccioli's Kataklò and on 6 April with Carmen by Amedeo Amodio.
Tickets are on sale at the Botteghino del Teatro in Pisa, by phone (050.941188) and at https://www.vivaticket.com/it
With Alles Walzer (which after Pisa will be repeated at the Teatro Argentina in Rome on 31/12 and 1/1/24) Renato Zanella, internationally successful choreographer and theatre director, signs a contemporary creation that reminds us of the history of Viennese dances. Today artistic director of the Ljubljana Opera Ballet, he was for ten years director of the Vienna State Opera ballet and choreographer of the most beautiful editions of the Vienna New Year's Concert in the world.
Rich in this experience was born Alles Walzer, the title of which picks up on the traditional invitation to dance ('Everybody dance the waltz!') issued by the Viennese master of ceremonies at the start of the evening's first waltz. Alles Walzer is a lively roundup of dances and nice touches: the Strauss waltzes and polkas, their dynamics, humour and light-heartedness, enhance the speed and virtuosity of the dancers in a performance created here not for the opulent imperial palaces, but for a theatrical stage.
The evening begins with a dedication to Giuseppe Verdi by Strauss Figlio himself with melodies from the opera Un Ballo in Maschera, a tribute to the Venetian masked balls that were the inspiration for the Viennese ball tradition. This will be followed by the best-known melodies of the Strauss family, such as The Emperor's Waltz, Voices of Spring and Viennese Blood, to name but a few.
A surprise finale with a touch of lyricism, on the splendid Adagio from the Fifth Symphony by another great Central European composer, Gustav Mahler. Choreographed by Zanella as a very slow waltz, the Adagio marks the end of an era, at the same time consecrating its immortality in the collective imagination. There will also be the famous Radetzky March, which sends the audience into raptures when it is played during the New Year's Concert from the Musikverein in the Austrian capital.
