Corps de Ballet
Maitre de Ballet
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Ugo Ranieri
Corp de ballet director
Organic Ballet
Organic BalletHistory of Corps de Ballet
The Teatro di San Carlo has also, however, made a significant contribution to the Art of Dance.
Even before the new theatre was opened, King Charles' regulations on performances in Royal theatres included a rule limiting the number of «Intermezzi buffi» (short comic operas) that might be given between the acts of the serious operas, as had been the tradition, and replacing them with an «azione coreografica» (descriptive ballet) that would develop the themes of that night's opera.
When the San Carlo Theatre opened, this practice was maintained and broadened to include entire evenings dedicated to ballet, thus leading to the rapid development of a «Neapolitan school» of dancing, the fame of which spread all over Europe together with that of the theatre itself.
The first famous choreographer linked with the theatre was Gaetano Grossatesta, who was responsable for the three ballets performed at the opening ceremonies of the San Carlo Theatre on November 4th, 1737 (one before the first act of that night's opera, Achille in Sciro by Domenico Sarro, another during the interval and the third at the end of the opera).
Their titles were Marinai e Zingari (Sailors and Gypsies), Quattro Stagioni (Four Seasons) and Credenzieri (Spendthrifts). As was usually the case in those days, the choreographer was also the composer, and Grossatesta, who was active at the San Carlo for about thirty years, regularly composed all the music for his own ballets. Salvatore Viganò was the first to break this tradition, although he too was a composer as well as a ballet dancer and choreographer.
