2025-2026 OPERA AND BALLET SEASON
Petit / Wheeldon / Pastor Evening
BALLET
LA ROSE MALADE
Music Gustav Mahler
Choreography ROLAND PETIT
Costumes Yves Saint Laurent
Lighting Stefano Laselva
PERFORMERS
Eleonora Abbagnato and Giacomo Castellana
WITHIN THE GOLDEN HOUR
Music Ezio Bosso The Sky Seen from the Moon, Le Notti…, Of the Thunders Dance of the Tree, Worried, African Skies
Antonio Vivaldi Andante from the Violin Concerto in B-flat major, RV 583
Choreography CHRISTOPHER WHEELDON
Costumes Anna Biagiotti
Lighting Stefano Laselva
PERFORMERS
Waltz Federica Maine, Alessio Rezza
Slow Alessandra Amato, Walter Maimone /Claudio Cocino (Jan 10, 3 pm – Jan 13, 3 pm)
Vivaldi Sara Loro, Michele Satriano
Men’s Duet Simone Agrò, Mattia Tortora
Couples Flavia Stocchi, Giovanna Pisani, Eugenia Brezzi, Marta Marigliani, Simone Agrò, Giuseppe Depalo, Valerio Marisca, Mattia Tortora
LE COMBAT DES ANGES – PAS DE DEUX FROM PROUST, OU LES INTERMITTENCES DU CŒUR
Music Gabriel Fauré Élégie, Op.24 for cello and orchestra
Choreography ROLAND PETIT
Costumes Teatro dell’Opera di Roma
PERFORMERS
Morel Michele Satriano/ Claudio Cocino (Jan 10, 3 pm – Jan 13, 3 pm)
Saint Loup Simone Agrò
BOLERO
Music Maurice Ravel
Choreography KRZYSZTOF PASTOR
Restaging Simonetta Lisy
Sets and costumes Tatyana van Walsum
Lighting Stefano Laselva
PERFORMERS
Principal couple Marianna Suriano
Claudio Cocino / Giacomo Castellana (Jan 10, 3 pm – Jan 13, 3 pm)
A woman Arianna Tiberi
Two women Sara Loro, Gloria Malvaso
First man Valerio Marisca
Second man Gabriele Consoli
Three men Giuseppe Depalo, Alessandro Vinci, Mattia Tortora
Women Eugenia Brezzi, Giorgia Calenda, Annalisa Cianci, Beatrice Foddi, Erika Gaudenzi, Virginia Giovanetti, Sara Loro, Gloria Malvaso, Marta Marigliani, Cristina Mirigliano, Flavia Morgante, Giovanna Pisani, Flavia Stocchi / Chiara Teodori (Jan 10, 3 pm – Jan 13, 3 pm), Arianna Tiberi
Men Giovanni Castelli, Gabriele Consoli, Andrea D’Ottavio, Antonello Mastrangelo / Jacopo Giarda (Jan 10, 3 pm – Jan 13, 3 pm), Giuseppe Depalo, Domenico Gibaldo, Walter Maimone, Valerio Marisca, Andrea Forza / Emanuele Mulè (Jan 10, 3 pm – Jan 13, 3 pm), Giovanni Perugini, Massimiliano Rizzo, Mattia Tortora, Alessandro Vinci, Manuel Zappacosta
Conductor DAVID GARFORTH
Director of the Corps de Ballet and Étoile in La rose malade ELEONORA ABBAGNATO
Étoiles, Principal Dancers, Soloists and Corps de Ballet of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma
Production by Teatro dell’Opera di Roma
ORCHESTRA AND TECHNICAL STAFF OF THE FONDAZIONE TEATRO LIRICO GIUSEPPE VERDI DI TRIESTE
The celebrated Corps de Ballet of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma debuts at the Teatro Verdi in Trieste and across the region, under the leadership of international star Eleonora Abbagnato, both Director and Étoile on stage. For this important occasion, the Rome Opera presents a richly varied programme featuring four choreographies by three masters who have shaped the history of classical ballet worldwide: the great master of French dance Roland Petit; British star Christopher Wheeldon, a cornerstone of both the Royal Opera House and the New York City Ballet; and finally another twentieth-century legend, Polish choreographer Krzysztof Pastor.
An unmissable event unfolding to music of extraordinary beauty by Gustav Mahler, Ezio Bosso, Antonio Vivaldi, Gabriel Fauré and the iconic Bolero by Maurice Ravel.
Six performances, from 9 to 13 January, mark the opening of the new year at the Verdi Theatre with the debut in Trieste and the region of the Corps de Ballet of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, led by étoile Eleonora Abbagnato. For this important occasion, the capital’s opera house brings to Trieste one of its most successful and widely admired projects of recent years: the Trittico, comprising works by three choreographers who helped shape twentieth-century aesthetics. The programme opens with La Rose Malade, inspired by William Blake’s The Sick Rose from Songs of Innocence and set to the celebrated Adagietto from Gustav Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, with unforgettable costumes by Yves Saint Laurent. The pas de deux explores themes of love, death and overwhelming passion, performed by Eleonora Abbagnato herself alongside soloist Giacomo Castellana. Emblematic of the style of the great French master Roland Petit and created in 1973 for Russian star Maya Plisetskaya, the choreography was revived in Rome for the first time in 2015 at the Baths of Caracalla, to great critical and public acclaim.
The programme continues with Within the Golden Hour by British star choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, a leading international figure and a key figure of both the Royal Opera House and the New York City Ballet. Five pieces by Ezio Bosso—a close friend and collaborator of Christopher Wheeldon during his London years—form the core of this one-act ballet, created in 2008 for the San Francisco Ballet and soon a major classic at the Royal Opera House, which in 2020 dedicated a streaming performance to Bosso following his untimely passing. Wheeldon’s work—also featured this year in the season of the Opéra de Monte-Carlo—concludes with the Andante from Antonio Vivaldi’s Violin Concerto in B-flat major, RV 583, in an intense pas de deux that the choreographer himself describes as “a kind of synthesis between using the classical ballet technique and finding other dance forms to inspire a new, interesting way of looking at a ballet step”.
The programme then returns to the great Roland Petit with Le Combat des Anges, set to music by Gabriel Fauré. This celebrated pas de deux is taken from the 1974 ballet “Proust ou les Intermittences du cœur”, inspired by “À la recherche du temps perdu”and portrays the passionate and tragic relationship between Saint-Loup, the white angel, and Morel, the black angel.
The evening concludes with the celebrated Bolero by Maurice Ravel, in the hypnotic and enveloping choreography created in 2012 by contemporary icon Krzysztof Pastor, already successfully revived by the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma on the Caracalla summer stage. Here the traditional circle gives way to a rectangular space, and instead of the customary soloist, Pastor opts for a pas de deux. Once again, a couple stands at the centre of the dance vortex, bringing this Trittico to a close as a true study of partnership and movement.
Conducting the Verdi Orchestra is English conductor David Garforth, an internationally recognised specialist in dance conducting and a long-standing collaborator of many of today’s leading choreographers. He regularly appears at the Royal Opera House, the Opéra Garnier in Paris and Teatro alla Scala in Milan, has served as musical director for numerous BBC television productions, and is widely known to broader audiences for Notre-Dame de Paris.
The new year thus opens under the sign of a renewed relationship with Rome for the Teatro Verdi, which in these days hosts not only the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma but also marks the official appointment of its new Artistic Director, Valerio Vicari— a young leading figure on the Roman and Italian music scene, known for his work with the Orchestra RomaTre, of which he is founder and Artistic Director.
A Friday 9 January 2026, 8.00 pm
S Saturday 10 January 2026, 3.00 pm
B Saturday 10 January 2026, 8.00 pm
D Sunday 11 January 2026, 4.00 pm
E Tuesday 13 January 2026, 3.00 pm
C Tuesday 13 January 2026, 8.00 pm
History of the Corps de Ballet of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma
In 1928, when the Teatro Costanzi was acquired by the Municipality of Rome, the theatre was renovated and renamed Teatro Reale dell’Opera. At the same time, the Ballet School was established, not only to train young dancers but also to form a fully fledged Corps de Ballet. Already in the programme for the theatre’s opening performance, featuring Nerone by Arrigo Boito, the designation “Corps de Ballet of the Theatre School” appeared. The first directors were Ileana Leonidov for the female students and Dmitri Rostov for the male students. In 1931, they were succeeded by Italian master Nicola Guerra, dancer and choreographer, previously maître de ballet at the Royal Opera House in Budapest. The following year, a pair of masters took over the direction: Ettore Caorsi and Mara Dousse, the former an outstanding dancer and the latter a leading exponent of the Italian ballet school. At the same time, in the 1933/34 season, the figure of a “resident” choreographer appeared in the programme. Until 1938, he played a decisive role in fostering the professional development of the Corps de Ballet, bringing to it the full breadth of his international experience and stature. The choreographer, trained at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, was Boris Romanov. He paved the way for a company that would later achieve a clear and distinctive artistic identity, under the leadership of the charismatic Hungarian master Aurel Milloss. Under his leadership, from 1938 to 1945, the Corps de Ballet achieved innumerable successes. It was during this period that ballet at the Teatro Reale seemed to attain full artistic autonomy, integrating itself in complete harmony with the other art forms. From the post-war period to the present day, the Corps de Ballet of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma has been able to rely on masters and directors of international renown. In addition to Milloss himself, these include Anton Dolin, Erik Bruhn, Zarko Prebil, André Prokovsky, Maya Plisetskaya, Pierre Lacotte, Vladimir Vassiliev, Elisabetta Terabust, Giuseppe Carbone, Amedeo Amodio, Carla Fracci and Micha van Hoecke. The Corps de Ballet is currently directed by Eleonora Abbagnato. Throughout its history, the Company has staged the major ballets of the classical tradition as well as works by the most important Italian and international choreographers, from Marius Petipa to George Balanchine, from Michel Fokine to Frederick Ashton, as well as Roland Petit, Léonide Massine, Vaslav Nijinsky, John Cranko, Luigi Manzotti, August Bournonville, Amedeo Amodio, Antonio Gades, Micha van Hoecke, Angelin Preljocaj, Benjamin Millepied, William Forsythe and Christopher Wheeldon. It was the first Italian company to perform Le Sacre du printemps by Pina Bausch, at the Caracalla Festival 2025, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of its creation.