I fight in the world of dance: Carla Fracci has died. The etoile della Scala was 84 years old and had been fighting cancer for a long time. Carla Fracci was one of the most important dancers in the world who linked her career to La Scala in Milan. Queen of dance, Carla Fracci in her long career has brought her elegant talent to stages all over the world. The life of Carla Fracci
Of humble origins, his father Luigi Fracci was an Alpine sergeant major in Russia and his mother Rocca Santina was a worker at Innocenti in Milan (target of the British Bomber Command), he has a sister Marisa Fracci, also a ballet dancer, trained at the dance school of the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. With the beginning of the war Carla and her family evacuated their maternal grandmother Argelide to the Volongo countryside. Li Carla lives happily surrounded by nature, where she felt at ease with her, spending her days in the countryside and in the company of her cousins.
With the beginning of elementary school he moved to his aunt in Ca ‘Rigata di Gazoldo degli Ippoliti, to then return to Milan at the end of the war, where his father became an employee of the tram company as a conductor. Often her parents took her with them to her father’s transport company Leisure Club, and it was there that some friends of her parents noticed in her a keen sense of rhythm and convinced them to let her try the audition at the Teatro alla Scala. She passes the exam because interested in “her beautiful face”, but the first years were hard because Carla felt nostalgia for the open spaces in that rigid environment which was difficult to get used to despite the constant reproaches of the teacher, who considered her rich in skills but listless.A life for dance
Carla Fracci has studied at the Teatro alla Scala dance school with Vera Volkova and other choreographers since 1946, graduating in 1954. After two years she becomes a solo dancer, then principal dancer in 1958. She has been married since 1964 to the director Beppe Menegatti, with whom he had a son, Francesco.
In the late fifties and seventies she danced with some foreign companies, such as the London Festival Ballet, Sadler’s Wells Ballet, now known as the Royal Ballet, the Stuttgart Ballet and the Royal Swedish Ballet. Since 1967 she and she have been a guest dancer at the American Ballet Theater.
Her notoriety is linked to the interpretations of romantic and dramatic roles, such as Giselle, La Sylphide, Giulietta, Swanilda, Francesca da Rimini, Medea. You have danced with various dancers, including Rudolf Nureyev, Vladimir Vasiliev, Henning Kronstam, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Marinel Stefanescu, Alexander Godunov, Erik Bruhn, Gheorghe Iancu, Roberto Bolle. A film is made from Giselle danced with Bruhn in 1969. She has interpreted Medea, Concerto barocco, Les demoiselles de la nuit, Il gabbiano, Pelleas et Melisande, Il fiore di pietra. Her husband and director Beppe Menegatti is in charge of directing almost all the creations she interprets. Eugenio Montale I dedicate a poem to her, La danzatrice stanca, inserted in the Diary of ’71 and ’72, released in 1973. Carla Fracci, arrives the TV film starring Alessandra Mastronardi
It will be called “Carla” and will be the first film about the life of the dancer Carla Fracci. Filming has begun and the lead actress will be Alessandra Mastronardi.
At the end of the eighties she directs the corps de ballet of the San Carlo Theater in Naples. In the following years, her interpretations were varied: The afternoon of a faun, Onegin, The life of Maria, AMW The doll of Kokoschka, The Roman spring of Mrs. Stone, the latter with the direction of Beppe Menegatti to quote the main. From 1996 to 1997 she directed the corps de ballet of the Verona Arena. She has been a member of the Brera Academy of Fine Arts since 1994, she has been president of the environmental association Altritalia Ambiente since 1995 and in 2004 she is appointed FAO Goodwill Ambassador.
From November 2000 to July 2010 he directed the corps de ballet of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma. He follows the traditional repertoire and the one signed by Sergej Djagilev for the Ballets Russes (from La sagra della primavera in Millicent Hodson’s reconstruction in Sheherazade, The Firebird and Petruska in Andris Liepa’s versions). He combines this activity with the revival of lost ballets and new creations under the direction of Beppe Menegatti.
With the passing of Carla Fracci we say goodbye to a monument of international dance, Italian pride and a symbol of elegance and style.
