Production of the ballet “Cinderella”

Bracco Foundation in 2015 produced “Cinderella”, a new ballet that revisits a famous title in the repertoire, danced by the La Scala Theatre Academy School of Ballet to music by Sergei Prokofiev with choreography by the Director of the School, Frédéric Olivieri.

The performance opened the programme of the Piccolo Teatro during the 2015 Expo in Città in Milan, and was later performed both in north Italy and abroad.

The production involved students and former students of all departments of the the La Scala Theatre Academy: tailors, scenographers, wig makers, make-up artists, hairdressers and photographers.

Diana Bracco, president of the Bracco Foundation which since 2012 has been at the side of the Academy as Founding Partner, said: “favouring cultural growth and at the same time offering young people the opportunity to develop their talents is fully in line with the mission of the Foundation which was created to train, promote and spread expressions of culture, science and art also as ways of improving the quality of life and social cohesion.”

Various musical scores have been used since the 19th century to create innumerable versions of this title, inspired by the fable of Perrault. Frederic Olivieri chose the score by Prokofiev and the libretto by Nicolai Volkov, dated 1941-’44, maintaining a fairytale and romantic style that fits well with the young age of the performers.

Compared with the first version of the ballet, by Rostislav Zakharov for the Moscow Bolshoi in 1945, the Cinderella performed at the Strehler had certain differences: in two and not three acts, the Prince appears in two scenes in the first act and the character dances during his voyage seeking out Cinderella are limited to the Spanish and Arab dancers.

The score follows the tradition of the time, with a variety of classical and popular dances, pas de deux, variations, waltzes and mazurkas.

The character of the various personalities is portrayed through musical themes that follow the action narrated in the story: Cinderella is portrayed by three different themes, the first underlining the sense of oppression and solitude, the second hope for a more rosy future and the third falling in love and the joy of discovered serenity.

A curiosity: as a homage to the theme of the universal exhibition, a priority in Milan in 2015, the students, assembling objects portraying fruit and vegetables, compose a face that recalls one of the most famous works of Arcimboldo.