La Scala exhibition celebrates the theater's ballet corps with candid behind-the-scenes photos Photographer Gérard Uféras was granted full access to the La Scala ballet corps' backstage over six years to produce a series of emotional, candid portraits at the heart of a new exhibition at the theater’s museum and a soon-to-be published book.
They include La Scala’s star principal dancer Nicoletta Manni caught in a backstage embrace with her husband, principal dancer Timofej Andrijashenko, her face showing complete surrender after giving it all on stage.
Manuel Legris, the head of La Scala’s ballet corps, said that he gave Uféras “complete freedom” to roam backstage and rehearsal halls to “find these special moments.”.
A timeline in the exhibition's first room recounts that La Scala’s inaugural performance of Antonio Salieri’s “L’Europa riconosciuta," on Aug. 3, 1778, was accompanied by two ballets.
A dragonfly-inspired ballet dress was dedicated to the late La Scala star and principal dancer Carla Fracci.
