The End of a wonderful Season: Ballett-Gala, Vienna State Ballet (Wiener Staatsballett), June 29th, 2026

Ballett-Gala, Vienna State Ballet (Wiener Staatsballett): June 29th, 2026

To be quite open with you, I adored Alessandra Ferri’s idea of „changing“ the concept of the „old Nureyev Gala“ into a closer dedication to choreographers and Ballet Personalities, which in the last 5 years had just little to do with Nureyev and his work – to which, I must admit, I am not a „fan“. This was just due to the former ballet director's complete lack of knowledge, interest and understanding of how a repertoire company works.

This year’s Gala was a dedication to (my adored and very respected) Sir Frederick Ashton.

We will close an eye and not write about the intricacies and (perhaps) misunderstandings that led us to the final „product“ yesterday evening and not discuss its subjectivities in terms of „connections“ from other choreographers’ work to the body of Ashton’s work.

For all of you who know my work, the sentence „Rules are made to be broken and, especially, mine by me“ is nearly commonplace. This time, as with every Gala, I must contradict this statement and be quite strict with my „own“ rules.

I never write a critique about a Gala. For me, as basic as it sounds, it would be like writing a sort of „Sport ranking“ that assigns points, figures, numbers, and opinions to a (relatively large) number of dancers and choreographies that were put together to create an event.

Here and there, and by way of exception, I will give a few personal opinions, which should be taken into consideration.

The programme featured a selection of works, with highlights including Frederick Ashton's Rhapsody (Cassandra Trenary and Antonio Casalinho), with the terribly melodramatic melodies and tones of the Rachmaninoff’s reconstruntion of the Paganini theme, Voices of Spring (Laura Fernandez Gromova and Arne Vandervelde), La Fille mal gardée (with always lovelier Margarita Fernandes and Vienna’s “Dahling”, Davide Dato), and Dance of the Blessed Spirits (with the wonderfully tallented Alessandro Frola).

Other featured pieces included:

Within the Golden Hour (Wheeldon) with Sinthia Liz, Victor Caixeta, Masayu Kimoto, Madison Yound and Alessandro Frola.

The Dying Swan (Fokine), a tour de force, emotionally and majestically performed by Ketevan Papava. A real Artist. Chapeau!

Swan Lake, Act 3 Pas de quatre (Ashton), in which Ioanna Avraam, Natalya Butchko, Masayu Kimoto and Duccio Tariello shone. By the way, it feels good to watch this version again, instead of Nureyev’s self-centred, egocentric and limited work.

Le Corsaire (Pas de deux) with the extremely gifted Étoile of the Opéra de Paris, Paul Marque, unfortunately poorly and badly accompanied by Liudmilla Konovalova (Guest performer), whose technical skills do not match the necessities anymore, starting (please) with fully stretched feet, required for the Divertissement role. Unfortunately, the only embarrassing piece of this beautifully rehearsed and prepared Gala Evening. Unfortunately, very embarrassing!

And as the crowning of the (very warm) evening in Vienna: Diamonds (from Jewels) (Balanchine). The public rejoiced in watching the combination of Victor Caixeta and Olga Esina, the first of all Étoiles at the Vienna State Opera. Words would not be enough. Words would be too insignificant and too superficial. The language of Dance speaks once more for itself. Wishing you a lovely Summer break, I will have to leave you with that.

P.S. For a whole Season, I have concentrated too much time on reporting about the Vienna State Ballet. I have to „get back“ to all other companies I have much reported about during the last 15 years, and which I have been neglecting terribly. I have even neglected HET’s (Ted Branson’s) invitation to fly to Amsterdam. I regret this. The thing is, with the passing of time- and this has nothing to do with age- I can work less and less on „the assembly line“. It is impossible to write an earnest critique at “the push of a button”, Creativity has to do with it.

Every critique matters. Every word matters.

And I shall be reducing them.

I will leave you with that!

I wish you a lovely Summer!

Ricardo Leitner

a t t i t u d e

Vienna, June 30th, 2026