JOHANN STRAUSS / ROLAND PETIT

La Chauve-Souris

LIVE RECORDING FROM THE TEATRO ALLA SCALA, MILAN, 2003

Bella ALESSANDRA FERRI

Johann MASSIMO MURRU

Ulrich LUIGI BONINO

ORCHESTRA AND BALLET OF THE TEATRO ALLA SCALA

Conducted by KEVIN RHODES

Choreographed by ROLAND PETIT

Roland Petit’s “Fledermaus à la française”, La Chauve-souris, was originally created for the Ballet National de Marseille in 1979 with Petit’s wife Zizi Jeanmaire partnered by Denis Ganio and Luigi Bonino as the mastermind of the nocturnal escapades.

The action was transferred from the operetta’s Vienna to the Paris of Vaudeville theatres, which was the original source of Johann Strauss’s celebrated operetta.

Directed by Luigi Bonino, Petit’s assistant of many years, who also dances the role of Ulrich, it features two more dancing stars from the “Petit school” in the principal roles: Massimo Murru, the male star dancer of La Scala’s company, for whom Petit had written several ballets and Allessandra Ferri, who counts among the finest ballerinas of today. Awarded with the coveted title of “Prima Ballerina Assoluta” at La Scala, she was once described by Roland Petit as the only rightful successor to legendary Zizi Jeanmaire.

“Clever, surprising ideas about movement and staging flow from his imagination, even in a resolutely minor work such as this. Moreover, after hours and hours of Lacotte‘s dutiful approximations of the past, it‘s great to see genuinely creative choreography again – new-minted ballet with plenty of precedent but essentially intent on making history rather than becoming a footnote to it.” Los Angeles Times

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1, DTS 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

Running Time: 93 mins

FSK: 0

Price Code: 153

Region Code: 0

Arthaus Musik DVD 107265