Ballet Music of Italy

Italian supports to ballet are less known and appreciated than in other places of classical music. Italy, particularly Milan, was the European center of court choreography as early as the 15^th century in the form of such things as ritual masked balls. The early choreographers and composers of ballets include Fabrizo Caroso and Cesare Negri, the pattern of ballet is called spectacles all’italiana imported to France from Italy caught on, and the first ballet performed in France in 1581, ballet comique de la Royn, was composed by an Italian, Baltazarini di Belgioioso, better known by the French version known as Balthasar de Beaujoyeulx. Early ballet was followed by considerable instrumentation, with the playing of horns, dulcimers, bagpipes, trombones and kettle drums etc. Although the music has not survived, there is assumption that dancers themselves may have played instruments onstage, then, in the wake of the French Revolution, Italy again became a center of ballet, largely through the efforts of Salvatore Vigano, a choreographer who worked with some of the most important composers of the day. He was made the balletmaster of La Scala in the year 1812. The best-known instance of Italian ballet from the 19^th century is possibly Excelsior, with music by Romualdo Merenco and choreography by Luigi Manzotti. This was composed in 1881 and it is a lavish tribute to the scientific and industrial progress of the 19^th century, this is still performed and was staged as currently in the year 2002.

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Presently, major Italian opera theatres maintains ballets companies, they exists to provide incidental and traditional dancing in several operas like Aida or La Traviata. These dance companies usually maintain a different ballet season and perform the standard list of classical ballet, little of which is Italian. The Italian equivalent of the Russian Bolshoi Ballet and similar companies that exist only to perform ballet, independent of a parent opera theater is La Scala Ballet, which is directed by Frederic Olivieri. Since the year 1979 there has existed in Italy a recent dance company, the Aterballetto, based in Reggio Emilia, the company performs all over the world under the leadership of choreographer Mauro Bigonzetti.