Antonietta Dell'Era

Antonietta Dell'Era (10 February 1860 Milan — 22 June 1945 Berlin) was an Italian prima ballerina best known for originating the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy in Tchaikovsky's ballet, The Nutcracker (1892).[1][2]

Antonietta Dell'Era
Born(1860-02-10)10 February 1860
Milan, Italy
Died(1945-06-22)22 June 1945
Berlin, Germany

Dance career

1879 until 1909, Dell'Era had a successful career at the Berlin Opera,[3] praised by many critics and writers including author and poet Theodor Fontane.[4]

1886 and 1894, she danced in Russia, mainly in St. Petersberg, along with the "Italian Invasion" - an influx of talented Italian dancers to Russia that included Pierina Legnani,[5] Enrico Cecchetti, and Virginia Zucchi.[6][7]

Nutcracker

The St. Petersberg premiere of the Nutcracker sold out.[4][1] Peter Tchaikovsky,[8] the famous Russian composer, was commissioned by mastermind choreographer Marius Petipa to compose the ballet.[4] The Nutcracker Ballet was first presented at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, on December 17, 1892.[4][9] It was a double premiere together with Tchaikovsky's last opera, Iolanta,. Dell'Era received five curtain calls but the critical reception of the ballet was poor.[8][1] Her critical reception for her role as Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty had been better.[9]

Russian ballet dancer Nicolai Solyannikov thought that Dell'Era's dancing in Nutcracker was awful. "this coarse, ungraceful dancer is much to the German taste".[9]

Ballet reflects political and cultural changes, and dancers were influenced by rise of expressionism and opposition to the rigidity classic ballet during her era of dance.[3]

Ballerina Antonietta Dell'Era 1880 Berlin Ballet
Nutcracker1892

Legacy

Before her death in 1945, Dell'Era had expressed a wish that her estate should help dancers in need. The Dell'Era-Gedächtnis-Stiftung foundation was established after her death to provide dancers and their families with financial assistance towards living costs and expenses, such as medical costs, training and retraining.[10]

References
  1. Pritchard, Jane (January 2001). "Antoinette Dell'Era : the first Sugar Plum Fairy". Dancing Times. 3: 337, 339, 341. OCLC 49577215.
  2. Whitehill, Angela, 1938- (1990). The young professional's book of ballet. Noble, William. Pennington, NJ: Princeton Book Co. ISBN 0871271478. OCLC 22382029.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. Homans, Jennifer. (2011). Apollos angels: a history of ballet. London: Granta. ISBN 9781862079502. OCLC 696852557.
  4. The encyclopedia of dance & ballet. Clarke, Mary, 1923-2015,, Vaughan, David, 1924-2017. New York. 1977. ISBN 0399119558. OCLC 3410721.CS1 maint: others (link)
  5. Scholl, Tim, 1962- (1994). From Petipa to Balanchine : classical revival and the modernization of ballet. London: Routledge. ISBN 0415092221. OCLC 28182142.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. "DELL'ERA, Antonietta in "Dizionario Biografico"". www.treccani.it (in Italian). Archived from the original on 2019-07-11. Retrieved 2019-10-24.
  7. Kassing, Gayle. (2007). History of dance : an interactive arts approach. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. ISBN 9780736060356. OCLC 70660004.
  8. Bedinghaus, Treva (2 April 2017). "History of the Nutcracker Ballet". Liveabout. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
  9. Wiley, Roland John (1997-03-06). The life and ballets of Lev Ivanov : choreographer of The nutcracker and Swan lake. Oxford [England]. p. 144. ISBN 9780191657597. OCLC 880878305.
  10. "Dell'Era-Gedächtnis-Stiftung". Staatsballett Berlin. Retrieved 24 October 2019.

Further reading
  • Panwitz, Sebastian (2012). Antonietta Dell'Era (1861-1945). Primaballerina Berlins zur Zeit des Kaiserreichs. Berlin: Staatsballett Berlin.


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