MILAN (AP) — Photographer Gérard Uféras was granted full entry to the La Scala ballet corps’ backstage over six years to provide a collection of emotional, candid portraits on the coronary heart of a brand new exhibition on the theater’s museum and a soon-to-be revealed e-book.
The opera home’s normal supervisor, Dominique Meyer, conceded Tuesday that an exhibition on ballet on the theater most related to opera was “uncommon.”
But the present titled “The Hidden Gaze, Dance Behind the Curtain” additionally emphasizes that ballet has been a part of the theater’s mission since its inception. A timeline within the exhibition’s first room recounts that La Scala’s inaugural efficiency of Antonio Salieri’s “L’Europa riconosciuta,” on Aug. 3, 1778, was accompanied by two ballets.
Manuel Legris, the pinnacle of La Scala’s ballet corps, stated that he gave Uféras “complete freedom” to roam backstage and rehearsal halls to “find these special moments.”
They embrace La Scala’s star principal dancer Nicoletta Manni caught in a backstage embrace together with her husband, principal dancer Timofej Andrijashenko, her face exhibiting full give up after giving all of it on stage. The fetching title {photograph} exhibits a younger ballerina in a white tutu from behind as she peeks from behind the scenes on the stage, recalling the work of French impressionist Edgar Degas.
Dancers are photographed from above the stage lights, collapsed with legs splayed backstage, backlit as they put together to make their entrance.
“Your work brings our artwork to life,” Legris instructed Uféras in a video that accompanies the exhibition.
The pictures — some in black and white, others in shade — are interspersed with white paper sculptures of ballet costumes by Caterina Crepax, from flowing Romantic-era skirts to extra up to date quick clothes. A dragonfly-inspired ballet gown was devoted to the late La Scala star and principal dancer Carla Fracci.
The exhibition in Teatro alla Scala’s museum runs from Wednesday via Sept. 14. The e-book accompanying the exhibition shall be revealed later this month.
