Last Glories of the Italian School

Virginia Zucchi in the title role of Sieba

A page from Le Théâtre Illustré, with a wood engraving by Gaston Vuillier, a biographical sketch, and an excerpt from Gustave Claudin's review of Zucchi in Luigi Manzotti's ballet Sieba at the Eden-Théâtre, Paris, in 1883.  Born in Parma, Virginia Zucchi studied with Carlo Blasis and his student Giovanni Lepri, although she was never admitted to the school at La Scala.  She made her debut in Varese at the age of fifteen and danced throughout Italy, gradually making a name for herself, above all in ballets that demanded passion as well as technical command.  In 1874 she appeared for the first time at La Scala, then spent two years in Berlin, where Paul Taglioni staged La Fille Mal Gardée for her; this became one of her favorite ballets.  She had a long association with the ballets of Luigi Manzotti, starring both in the 1883 revival of Excelsior at La Scala and in the Paris production of Sieba at the Eden-Théâtre in Paris the same year.  Two years later she appeared at a summer theater in St. Petersburg, where her performances caused a sensation and led to an engagement with the Imperial Ballet.  Here she appeared in a revival of Marius Petipa's The Daughter of Pharaoh as well as in Esmeralda and La Fille Mal Gardée, giving these ballets a new lease on life and inspiring a young generation of Russian dancers and balletomanes.  Gift of Lillian Moore, Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

Virginia Zucchi en travesti

Photograph by Schemboche, Turin.  Inscribed by the ballerina with "sympathy and respect" to Caterina Beretta, Milan, 29 October 1888.  Walter Toscanini Collection of Research Materials in Dance, Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

Virginia Zucchi in peasant costume

Photograph by J. Antonopoulo, Odessa.  Walter Toscanini Collection of Research Materials in Dance, Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

Carlotta Zambelli as Zénaïde in Joseph Hansen's ballet L'Etoile (The Star)

Photo-reproduction of a painting by Pierre Carrier-Belleuse, [Paris, 189-?].  Born in Milan and trained at La Scala, Carlotta Zambelli was the last in the long line of Italian étoiles at the Paris Opéra.  She arrived in Paris in 1894 at the age of nineteen, succeeded her Milan-trained predecessor, Rosita Mauri, as étoile soon after, made her last stage appearance in 1927, and until 1955 taught both members of the company and students at the Paris Opéra school.  A dancer of elegance, precision, and musicality, Zambelli left her mark on many roles.  Writing in 1924 about a recent lecture-demonstration in which she had participated, the Russo-French critic André Levinson spoke of the "sparkling play" of her Swanilda and the radiance of her Sylvia.  Joseph Hansen, who served as ballet master of the Paris Opéra from 1887 to 1907, choreographed L'Etoile in 1897.  Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

Carlotta Brianza

Newspaper clipping about Carlotta Brianza with a biographical sketch in Italian and a lithograph of the dancer by Th. Mayerhofer, [1889?].  Born and trained in Milan, Carlotta Brianza made her debut at La Scala in Luigi Manzotti's Excelsior and in 1883 appeared as one of five "Star Premiere Danseuses" in the production of the ballet in New York by the Kiralfy Brothers.  Four years later she made her St. Petersburg debut at the Arcadia Theater in the same work, which led to a contract with the Imperial Theaters.  In 1890 she created the role of Aurora in Marius Petipa's The Sleeping Beauty, winning universal acclaim for her performance.  She returned to La Scala as prima ballerina in 1895, when she danced the title role in Sylvia; the following year she reprised her success as Aurora in the production of Beauty (as La Bella [nel bosco] dormente) staged by Giorgio Saracco.  Brianza danced regularly at the Empire Theatre, London, in addition to fulfilling engagements at the Vienna Opera, the Paris Opéra, and other theaters.  In London in 1921-1922 she played the role of Carabosse in the Ballets Russes production of The Sleeping Beauty (as The Sleeping Princess) that established the work as part of the Western ballet canon.  Cia Fornaroli Collection, Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

Riccardo Drigo

Color plate of a caricature by Nikolai and Sergei Legat from the portfolio Russkii balet v karikatura (Russian ballet in Caricature), [St. Petersburg, 1902-1905].  Born in Padua, Riccardo Drigo went to St. Petersburg in 1879 as conductor of the Italian Opera and in 1886 assumed the position of conductor and composer with the Imperial Ballet.  During the next three decades, he worked with the era's leading choreographers and conducted the premieres of The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, Raymonda, and numerous other works.  He also wrote several original ballet scores, including Le Talisman (1889), The Magic Flute (1893), and Harlequinade (1900).  He returned to Padua in 1920.  Gift of the estate of Laurent Novikoff, Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

Maestro Enrico Cecchetti

Lithograph by Randolph Schwabe, [London, ca. 1922].  Born in 1850 in a dressing room at the Teatro di Apollo in Rome, Enrico grew up in the theater.  His mother, Serafina Casagli, was a dancer, his father, Cesare Cecchetti, a dancer and choreographer.  At the age of five Enrico made his debut as a fairy in Giuseppe Rota's Il Giuocatore (The Gambler), and at seven he danced with the Domenico Ronzani company in Philadelphia.  He studied with Giovanni Lepri, a student of Carlo Blasis, who had a school in Florence, and began to dance professionally in performances organized by his family.  In 1870 Cecchetti made his debut at La Scala, then spent much of the following decade abroad, dancing in Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, and finally Russia.  In 1878 he married Giuseppina de Maria, who had also studied at the Lepri school.

Excelsior

Excerpts from Luca Comerio's 1913 film of Luigi Manzotti's film Excelsior, with Armando Berruccini as The Spirit of Darkness, Eugenia Villa as The Spirit of Light, and Vittorina Galimberti in the ballerina role of Civilization.  This restoration by Scuola Nazionale di Cinema and the Cineteca Nazionale, with an added piano soundtrack of the music by Romualdo Marenco, depicts the first two scenes of Manzotti's ballet, first presented at La Scala in 1881.  A paean to progress and modern technology, the ballet was revived innumerable times at La Scala and other Italian theaters in the decades following its premiere.

In the 1880s Cecchetti returned to La Scala, where he appeared in all the major creations of Luigi Manzotti.  He performed leading roles in Amor in 1886 and in Rolla and Narenta in 1887, starred in the English revival of Excelsior in 1885, and in 1887, with Giovannina Limido as ballerina and his wife as principal mime, he led a company to St. Petersburg with a repertory that included another Manzotti ballet, Sieba, and a shortened version of Excelsior.  The season led to a contract with the Imperial Theaters.  During the next fifteen years Cecchetti worked regularly for the Maryinsky, staging numerous revivals, collaborating with Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov on the choreography of new ballets such as Cinderella (1893), and revealing his versatile talents as a performer, above all in The Sleeping Beauty (1890), in which he created--and choreographed--the Blue Bird pas de deux and also played the role of Carabosse.  From 1892 to 1902 he taught at the Imperial Ballet School, where he was developed a new generation of male dancers and worked privately with ballerinas such as Olga Preobrajenska and Anna Pavlova, developing the brilliance of their technique.

In 1910 Cecchetti joined Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes both as a teacher and a mime.  He created memorable roles in founding works of ballet modernism, such as the Old Showman in Petrouchka (1911) and the Doctor in Pulcinella (1920), while also reprising his old role of Carabosse in Diaghilev's revival of The Sleeping Princess (1921).  In London, where the Ballets Russes found temporary haven in 1918, Cecchetti opened his Academy of Dancing, which quickly became a magnet for British dancers.  During his years in Russia, he had developed a number of ideas about teaching.  Working with the author/bookseller Cyril W. Beaumont and the Ballets Russes dancer Stanislas Idzikowsky, he now codified his "method," which became a cornerstone of modern British ballet.  In 1925, at the age of seventy-five, Cecchetti returned to Italy at the invitation of Arturo Toscanini to direct the ballet school at La Scala.  When he died three years later, he left the direction of the academy to Cia Fornaroli, his former student and La Scala's prima ballerina.  In this portrait of the "Maestro" from the early 1920s, the exercises for the day are posted behind him.  Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

Daily Barre Exercises

Manuscript posters in French with the Monday and Tuesday barre exercises used by Enrico Cecchetti in his classes, [192-?].  Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

Cesare Cecchetti, Enrico Cecchetti's father

Carte de visite.  Photograph by Freifer & Schultze, Berlin.  Walter Toscanini Collection of Research Materials in Dance, Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

Pia Cecchetti, Enrico's Cecchetti's sister

Carte de visite inscribed to Caterina Beretta, Vienna, 22 April 1867.  Photograph by F. Tarantola & Co.  Walter Toscanini Collection of Research Materials in Dance, Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

Russian caricature of Enrico Cecchetti

Photograph by Paolo Bacher, St. Petersburg.  Walter Toscanini Collection of Research Materials in Dance, Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

Olga Preobrajenska in a fur-trimmed tutu

Photograph by Varischi, Articolo & Col, Milan.  Inscribed in French to Franco Fano, the Milan agent, impresario, and cosmopolitan editor of Il mondo artistico (The Artistic World), 1905.  One of Imperial Russia's foremost ballerinas, Olga Preobrajenska studied intensively with Cecchetti.  She danced several times at La Scala beginning in 1904, and in 1921 became the director of the La Scala school, only the second foreigner to head this exemplary Italian institution.  Despite her gifts as a teacher, she held the position for only one year.  Settling in Paris, she opened her celebrated studio where she trained a generation of virtuoso ballerinas.  Walter Toscanini Collection of Research Materials in Dance, Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

Enrico Cecchetti as the Chief Eunuch in the Ballets Russes production of Schéhérazade

Photograph.  Walter Toscanini Collection of Research Materials in Dance, Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

Enrico and Giuseppina Cecchetti with members of the Diaghilev company in Monte Carlo, mid-1920s

Photograph.  Among the dancers surrounding the Cecchettis are Alexandra Danilova, Ninette de Valois, Lydia Sokolova, Alice Nikitina, Felia Doubrovska, Anton Dolin, Serge Lifar, and Alicia Markova.  Walter Toscanini Collection of Research Materials in Dance, Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

Enrico Cecchetti with members of the Anna Pavlova company on one of her world tours

Photograph.  Pavlova had a long and close relationship with Cecchetti, first as a student and then as a colleague.  She is shown here kneeling in front of Cecchetti on one of her company's many tours.  Walter Toscanini Collection of Research Materials in Dance, Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

Enrico and Giuseppina Cecchetti with their La Scala students, after the annual examination performance, 1927

Photograph.  Walter Toscanini Collection of Research Materials in Dance, Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

Cia Fornaroli (second from left) presenting a bouquet of flowers to Anna Pavlova after her debut at the Teatro Lirico, as Enrico Cecchetti and Dithy (Edith) Tarling of the Opéra-Comique look on, 1928

Photo by Crimella, Milan.  Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

Luigi Albertieri, "Il Mio Maestro Cecchetti," The Dance Magazine, February 1929

Adopted and trained by Enrico Cecchetti, Luigi Albertieri appeared with his mentor in the London premiere of Luigi Manzotti's Excelsior (1895) and subsequently went with him to Russia.  Striking out on his own, Albertieri settled in London, where he danced at the Empire Theatre, choreographed several works for Covent Garden, and produced the Drury Lane Christmas pantomimes.  In 1910 Albertieri began a fourteen-year association with the Metropolitan Opera as a ballet master and choreographer.  He staged numerous opera divertissements and ballets such as Coppélia and The Fairy Doll.  A respected teacher, he opened a school in New York in 1915 and in 1923 published The Art of Terpsichore.  Walter Toscanini Collection of Research Materials in Dance, Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing Examination Syllabi

Walter Toscanini Collection of Research Materials in Dance, Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

The Cecchetti Method of Training in Classical Ballet

Pamphlet by Cyril W. Beaumont.  Walter Toscanini Collection of Research Materials in Dance, Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

Stenocoreografia di Saint-Léon (Saint-Léon's Stenochoreography)

Bound manuscript of Enrico Cecchetti's translation into Italian of Arthur Saint-Léon's Sténochorégraphie, [early 1890s?].  In 1852 the French choreographer Arthur Saint-Léon published La Sténochorégraphie, a manual on the system of notation that he had developed.  His system was written on six-line staves above the music.  The top line (called the shoulder line) indicated movements of the body and arms, while the five lower lines represented the movements of the legs and feet.  In developing this system, Saint-Léon hoped to give dancers a theoretical preparation and training in the use of a  notational system right from the start of study, as occurred in music.  Cecchetti's translation, which appears to date to from the early 1890s, when he was working at the Imperial Ballet, St. Petersburg, was never published.  Cia Fornaroli Collection, Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

Giuseppe Bonfiglio

Photo by Protti & Zanini, Milan.  Trained at La Scala, Giuseppe Bonfiglio first danced at the Metropolitan Opera in 1897 and in 1915 became Rosina Galli's partner, a relationship that continued for twenty years.  Walter Toscanini Collection of Research Materials in Dance, Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

"The Metropolitan Opera House.  New York's Home of Ballet," The Dancing Times, December 1922

Clipping, with photos of the exterior and interior of the "old Met."  Walter Toscanini Collection of Research Materials in Dance, Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

"Vincenzo Celli," Il Teatro, [late 1920s]

Clipping.  Born in Salerno but raised in Chicago, Vincenzo Celli fell in love with ballet in 1916 when he saw Vaslav Nijinsky perform with the Ballets Russes in Chicago during World War I.  Leaving for New York, he met Adolph Bolm, who cast him in his productions of Le Coq d'Or (1918) at the Metropolitan Opera and in The Birthday of the Infanta (1919) at the Chicago Lyric Opera.  In the early 1920s Celli went to Italy, where he studied with Raffaele Grassi (Rosina Galli's teacher) and made his Italian debut in a revival of Excelsior at Milan's Teatro dal Verme, which led to a contract with La Scala.  During his sixteen years as "primo ballerino," Celli formed an exciting partnership with Cia Fornaroli, appearing with her in ballets such as Petrouchka (1927) and Legend of Joseph (1928).  He also worked intensively with Enrico Cecchetti, under whose tutelage he developed into an acclaimed virtuoso.  He also began to choreograph, creating ballets for dozens of operas before he decided to leave Italy where his position was endangered because he refused to join the Fascist party.  Eventually settling in New York, he opened a studio and soon gained an outstanding reputation as a teacher.  His classes adhered strictly to the Cecchetti system, which he regarded as the foundation of a complete dance education.  He is the author of a monograph on Cecchetti published in 1946 by Dance Index.  Walter Toscanini Collection of Research Materials in Dance, Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

Vincenzo Celli, "Enrico Cecchetti," Dance Index, July 1946

Walter Toscanini Collection of Research Materials in Dance, Jerome Robbins Dance Division.