Scala, how bad Bolle is in the ballet on terrorism

There is dance, video but there is also a very important new music by Fabio Vacchi, singing with soloists and choirs. In short, it is a total and current show, about terrorism (or the liberation struggle?) That unites many languages ​​”Madina” new production of La Scala staged last night and scheduled until 14 October. Equally important on a visual level is the choreography by Mauro Bigonzetti. Another novelty is that Roberto Bolle plays the bad Kamzan, son of Sultan, “a little brigand, a little nightingale”, destined for death, and has grown a beard. Both things go well and make him authoritative, out of the usual prince charming / good guy pattern.

On the background video you can see bombed-out houses, set on fire. The plot is complex and challenging. The libretto was developed by Emanuelle de Villepin starting from her own novel: “The girl who did not want to die”. The setting is left vague, but it is not easy to identify the many situations of clashes of today, for example the Middle East. Madina’s fate is sealed when, returning home with her friend Zarema, she witnesses her friend’s rape by occupying soldiers. The complex unfolding of the story leads her to become a kamikaze, forced by her family to repair the lost honor. In the end Madina chooses not to kill because she does not intend to die and alone in the proscenium she gets rid of the explosive belt. She will be sentenced to prison.

So far the story, briefly. The music, which is not our job to judge, nevertheless keeps us constantly in tension, and often makes use of a drum set in a proscenium box. Michele Gamba directs.

A fixed scene, with large steel columns on the left, takes us gradually between guerrilla camps and Parisian newsrooms, discussions on terrorism between Olga (Madina’s Western aunt) and Louis, editor-in-chief, skeptical about considering the story.

Bigonzetti’s arduous task of making the story visually in dance. He uses his style that combines the contemporary with the classic without neglecting acrobatic movements. A good solo for Bolle. Totally convincing, Bigonzetti, almost a ransom (but in reality he doesn’t need it) compared to his “Cinderella” from Verona who lost her skirt instead of the shoe.

Interpreters aware of the importance of the operation and ready to give the best of themselves. In addition to Bolle, Antonella Albano is Madina, Martina Arduino Olga, Gioacchino Starace Louis, Gabriele Corrado Sultan. To Anna-Doris Capitelli, Chuan Wang and Fabrizio Falco the vocal part

A commendable productive effort that is staged now after being postponed due to Covid.

However, the words of the great Russian American choreographer George Balanchine resound in the distance: “In ballet there must be neither mother-in-law nor daughter-in-law”.