Rome Opera Tickets

Teatro dell’Opera di Roma’s ballet brings a special performance to life: Rossini Cards by modern choreographer Mauro Bigonzetti. The abstract ballet performance does not have a traditional plot. Instead, it conjures up a series of scenes, images, and situations that let the audience’s imagination take flight on the wings of Gioachino Rossini’s inspiring melodies. The result is an evening of music, movement, and a little bit of magic that leave you with a sense of fairy-tale appeal. Bigonzetti’s well-known modern dance performance Rossini Cards debuted in Reggio Emilia, Northern Italy, in 2004. It has enjoyed numerous revivals ever since. This season, Teatro Costanzi in Rome is hosting this special homage to one of Italian opera’s greatest masters.

Even though it lacks a plot in the usual sense, Rossini Cards still has an underlying concept – surprisingly, a culinary one. The ‘cards’ in the title refer to different recipes, which appear at the beginning of each dance sequence and set the mood and general theme. With this theme, Bigonzetti pays his respects not only to Rossini’s musical genius but also to his well-documented gourmet tendencies. It is not often that we get to experience the lives and passions of classical composers outside their main craft. However, in Rossini Cards we get both the composer and the food lover rolled into one inspiring modern dance performance.

To provide as detailed a picture of his classical music hero, Mauro Bigonzetti draws on Rossini’s whole catalogue. Overtures, arias, piano pieces – it is a seemingly never-ending roster of great musical moments, paired perfectly with the composer’s favourite recipes. The choreography is complex and layered. On top, there is much that audiences would find amusing and almost slapstick, but on second look, the larger themes of intimacy, trust, self-fulfilment, and personal growth come to the surface. Rossini Cards at Teatro Costanzi in Rome celebrates the great composer with the stellar choreography by Mauro Bigonzetti.