Jacopo Tissi and Alejandro Virelles join dancers of the Hungarian National Ballet on 27 May 2023 at the 7th Iván Nagy International Ballet Gala at the Hungarian State Opera. The prestigious event organized in memory of the world-famous Hungarian ballet dancer, ballet director, dance teacher, and former artistic consultant of the OPERA, will also include the presentation of the Solymosi Award to the most dedicated artist of The Nutcracker series, which ran for more than 30 performances this season. The gala features students of the Hungarian National Ballet Institute and the Hungarian State Opera Orchestra conducted by László Kovács.
The first half of the gala features Jacopo Tissi, guest soloist of La Scala Theatre Ballet of Milan, who was the first Italian artist and principal of the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow from 2016 until the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, and who had previously danced at the Vienna State Ballet and La Scala. He is partnered with Tatyjana Melnyik, principal of the Hungarian National Ballet to perform an excerpt from La Bayadère by Marcus Petipa, staged by Tamás Solymosi, Albert Mirzoyan, and Cristina Balaban.
Alejandro Virelles, principal of the Berlin State Ballet since 2018, is to appear in the finale of the gala. The artist was previously a principal soloist of the Cuban National Ballet, the Barcelona Ballet, the Boston Ballet, the English National Ballet, and the Bavarian State Ballet, will perform a pas de deux from Don Quixote with Tatyana Melnyik in a choreography by Alexander Gorsky (répétiteur: Albert Mirzoyan).
The gala also features leading dancers of the Hungarian National Ballet in Diana and Acteon Pas de Deux by Agrippina Vaganova, 5 Tangos by Hans van Manen, Sad Case by Sol León & Paul Lightfoot, and an excerpt from La Esmeralda by Marius Petipa. Students of the Hungarian National Ballet Institute (the ballet school of the Hungarian State Opera) are featured in Polonaise from Paquita Suite by Petipa and Milongeando en el 40, a tango choreography by Dénes Kovács with the participation of Tango Harmony Budapest.
Since 2016, the OPERA organizes an international ballet gala every year in memory of the artist who unexpectedly passed away in 2014, in which the professional and personal greatness of Iván Nagy, former soloist of the Washington National Ballet, the New York City Ballet, the American Ballet Theatre, and artistic director of the Santiago City Ballet, the Cincinatti Ballet, and the English National Ballet is honoured by soloists from the most prestigious dance companies of the world together with the artists of the Hungarian National Ballet.
Photos: Alejandro Virelles ©Justin Chauncey / Iván Nagy ©Tamás Gács / Jacopo Tissi ©Elen Pavlova
