Amedeo Amodio
Encyclopedia
Early career
Born in MilanMilan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
in 1940, Amodio trained at the ballet
Ballet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
school of the Teatro alla Scala, whose ranks he joined immediately. While there, he performed in productions by Léonide Massine (Il cappello a tre punte, Capriccio spagnolo, Fantasmi al Grand Hotel), George Balanchine
George Balanchine
George Balanchine , born Giorgi Balanchivadze in Saint Petersburg, Russia, to a Georgian father and a Russian mother, was one of the 20th century's most famous choreographers, a developer of ballet in the United States, co-founder and balletmaster of New York City Ballet...
(Sinfonia in Do, I quattro temperamenti), and Petit (Le quattro stagioni, Le jeune homme et la mort, La chambre, Le loup).
At the age of 22, he left the company of the Teatro alla Scala to begin his career as a choreographer and free-lancing dancer, which led him to pivotal collaborations with Hermes Pan
Hermes Pan (choreographer)
Hermes Pan was an American dancer and choreographer, principally celebrated as Fred Astaire's choreographic collaborator on the famous 1930s movie musicals starring Astaire and Ginger Rogers.-Early life:...
, who chose him as lead in the Italian TV production Studio Uno, and with Aurel Milloss at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma
Teatro dell'Opera di Roma
The Teatro dell'Opera di Roma is an opera house in Rome, Italy. Originally opened in November 1880 as the 2,212 seat Costanzi Theatre, it has undergone several changes of name as well modifications and improvements...
.
He frequently returned to the Teatro alla Scala, where he performed with Carla Fracci
Carla Fracci
Carla Fracci is a ballet dancer and actress. Her career highlights include Nijinsky, Giselle , Complete Bell Telephone Hour Performances: Erik Bruhn 1961-1967.-FAO Ambassador:...
in productions of Il gabbiano and Pelléas et Mélisande. In 1973, he was featured with Fracci in a documentary that was screened on the RAI
RAI
RAI — Radiotelevisione italiana S.p.A. known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane, is the Italian state owned public service broadcaster controlled by the Ministry of Economic Development. Rai is the biggest television company in Italy...
television network in Italy. Excerpts from Profokiev's Romeo & Juliet
Romeo and Juliet (Prokofiev)
Romeo and Juliet is a ballet by Sergei Prokofiev based on William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. It is one of the most enduringly popular ballets...
, Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr....
's Cancan and Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty were shown.
In 1975, Amodio signed his version of the Après-midi d'un phaune
Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune
Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune , commonly known by its English title Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, is a symphonic poem for orchestra by Claude Debussy, approximately 10 minutes in duration...
for the Spoleto
Spoleto
Spoleto is an ancient city in the Italian province of Perugia in east central Umbria on a foothill of the Apennines. It is S. of Trevi, N. of Terni, SE of Perugia; SE of Florence; and N of Rome.-History:...
Festival dei Due Mondi
Festival dei Due Mondi
The Festival dei Due Mondi ' is an annual summer music and opera festival held each June to early July in Spoleto, Italy, since its founding by composer Gian Carlo Menotti in 1958...
, which was then offered in reprise at the Teatro alla Scala with Luciana Savignano and scenes by Giacomo Manzù
Giacomo Manzù
Giacomo Manzù, pseudonym of Giacomo Manzoni , was an Italian sculptor, communist, and Roman Catholic.-Biography:...
. In the same year and for this latter company, he also created Ricercare a nove movimenti.
Aterballetto
After two short cameos in movies by Liliana CavaniLiliana Cavani
Liliana Cavani is an Italian film director and screenwriter. She belongs to a generation of Italian filmmakers that came into prominence in the 1970s and includes Bernardo Bertolucci, Pier Paolo Pasolini and Marco Bellochio. Cavani became internationally known after the success of her 1974 feature...
(Il portiere di notte and Al di là del bene e del male), he founded Aterballetto in 1979, company where he would direct until 1996. At Aterballetto, his work was considered experimental and said to be promoting new forms that were widely perceived "as the first examples of a national [Italian] form of choreography.
Having consciously decided to select 20 dancers who would be able to tackle any style of music and ballet technique
Ballet technique
The core technique of ballet has only minor regional variations globally. Various training methods have been devised, these produce a different physicality of performance and aesthetic results...
s, Amodio created for them a vast repertoire that paired his own creations with those of the Pantheon
Pantheon (gods)
A pantheon is a set of all the gods of a particular polytheistic religion or mythology.Max Weber's 1922 opus, Economy and Society discusses the link between a...
of choreographers. Under his guidance, Aterballetto produced Amodio's own The Nutcracker
The Nutcracker
The Nutcracker is a two-act ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto is adapted from E.T.A. Hoffmann's story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King". It was given its première at the Mariinsky Theatre in St...
, Naturale, Mazzapegul, Un petit train de plaisir, Coppélia
Coppélia
Coppélia is a sentimental comic ballet with original choreography by Arthur Saint-Léon to a ballet libretto by Saint-Léon and Charles Nuitter and music by Léo Delibes. It was based upon two macabre stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann, Der Sandmann , and Die Puppe...
, and Cabiria, while ambitiously taking on the work of masters such as Glen Tetley
Glen Tetley
Glen Tetley was an American ballet and modern dancer as well as a choreographer who mixed ballet and modern dance to create a new way of looking at dance, and is best known for his piece Pierrot Lunaire.-Biography:Glenford Andrew Tetley, Jr. was born on February 3, 1926 in Cleveland, Ohio...
, Alvin Ailey
Alvin Ailey
Alvin Ailey, Jr. was an American choreographer and activist who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York. Ailey is credited with popularizing modern dance and revolutionizing African-American participation in 20th century concert dance...
, Lucinda Childs
Lucinda Childs
Lucinda Childs is an American postmodern dancer/choreographer. Her compositions are known for their minimalistic movements yet complex transitions. Childs is most famous for being able to turn the slightest movements into an intricate choreographic masterpiece...
, George Balanchine
George Balanchine
George Balanchine , born Giorgi Balanchivadze in Saint Petersburg, Russia, to a Georgian father and a Russian mother, was one of the 20th century's most famous choreographers, a developer of ballet in the United States, co-founder and balletmaster of New York City Ballet...
, Antony Tudor
Antony Tudor
Antony Tudor was an English ballet choreographer, teacher and dancer.-Biography:Tudor, born William Cook, discovered dance accidentally. He began dancing professionally with Marie Rambert in 1928, becoming general assistant for her Ballet Club the next year...
, Kenneth MacMillan
Kenneth MacMillan
Sir Kenneth MacMillan was a British ballet dancer and choreographer. He was artistic director of the Royal Ballet in London between 1970 and 1977.-Early years:...
, José Limón
José Limón
José Arcadio Limón was a pioneer in the field of modern dance and choreography. In 1928, at age 20, he moved to New York City where he studied under Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman. In 1946, Limón founded the José Limón Dance Company...
, Hans van Manen
Hans van Manen
Hans van Manen is a Dutch ballet dancer, choreographer and photographer.He is a son of a German housemaid. He studied under Sonia Gaskell, Françoise Adret and Nora Kiss. Van Manen wrote many ballets. He worked for the Dutch National Ballet from 1973 to 1985. He was awarded the Erasmus Prize in...
, Léonide Massine, David Parsons, and Maurice Béjart
Maurice Béjart
Maurice Béjart was a French born, Swiss choreographer who ran the Béjart Ballet Lausanne in Switzerland. He was the son of the French philosopher Gaston Berger.- Biography :...
.
During his tenure as Artistic Director
Artistic director
An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre company, that handles the organization's artistic direction. He or she is generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogul, since the organization is generally a non-profit organization...
for Aterballetto, Amodio strengthened his liaisons with noted composers and musicians, many of whom contributed original music for his creations; among them, Luciano Berio
Luciano Berio
Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian composer. He is noted for his experimental work and also for his pioneering work in electronic music.-Biography:Berio was born at Oneglia Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (October 24, 1925 – May 27, 2003) was an Italian...
, Sylvano Bussotti
Sylvano Bussotti
Sylvano Bussotti is an Italian composer of contemporary music whose work is unusually notated and often creates special problems of interpretation.Born in Florence, Bussotti learned to play the violin as a child, becoming a prodigy...
, Aldo Bennici, Azio Corghi
Azio Corghi
Azio Corghi is an Italian opera composer, also a teacher and musicologist. He was born at Cirié, in the Province of Turin, studied at the Turin and Milan conservatories and was a pupil of Bruno Bettinelli...
, Giuseppe Calì
Giuseppe Calì
Giuseppe Calì was a Maltese painter, born in Valletta of Neapolitan parents and educated at the Accademia delle Belle Arti in Naples under Giuseppe Mancinelli...
, Jan Garbarek
Jan Garbarek
Jan Garbarek is a Norwegian tenor and soprano saxophonist, active in the jazz, classical, and world music genres. Garbarek was born in Mysen, Norway, the only child of a former Polish prisoner of war Czesław Garbarek and a Norwegian farmer's daughter...
, Naná Vasconcelos
Naná Vasconcelos
Naná Vasconcelos is a Brazilian Latin jazz percussionist, vocalist and berimbau player, most notable for his works with Pat Metheny, Don Cherry, Egberto Gismonti, and Gato Barbieri....
, and Edoardo Bennato
Edoardo Bennato
Edoardo Bennato is an Italian singer-songwriter. He is the brother of the singer-songwriter Eugenio Bennato.-Biography:...
.
Anxious to incorporate other media in his work, he elicited the artistic input of high-caliber costume and set designers (such as Emanuele Luzzati
Emanuele Luzzati
Emanuele Luzzati was an Italian painter, production designer, illustrator, film director and animator. He was nominated for Academy Awards for two of his short films, La gazza ladra and Pulcinella .He was born in Genoa and turned to drawing in 1938 when, as a Jew, his academic studies were...
, M. Antonietta Gambaro, Luisa Spinatelli, and Maurizio Millenotti
Maurizio Millenotti
Maurizio Millenotti is an Italian costume designer. He was nominated twice for the Academy Award for Costume Design: the first time for his work in Otello ; the second time for his work in Hamlet .- External links :...
) while painters and sculptors produced unique artwork (among them, Mario Ceroli, Piero Dorazio, Lucio Del Pezzo, and Claudio Parmiggiani).
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was his last work created for Aterballetto, where Mauro Bigonzetti
Mauro Bigonzetti
Mauro Bigonzetti is an internationally acclaimed choreographer of contemporary ballet. Born in Rome in 1960, Bigonzetti trained at the ballet school of Teatro dell'Opera di Roma and entered their company in 1979. In 1983 he joined the Reggio Emilia company Aterballetto, renowned for its...
succeed him as Artistic Director.
Later career
After working between 1997 and 2000 at the helm of the ballet troupe of Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, he freelanced for the Teatro Regio di Torino in TurinTurin
Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
and the Tulsa Ballet, among others, before accepting in 2003 the artistic direction of the Teatro Massimo
Teatro Massimo
The Teatro Massimo Vittorio Emanuele is an opera house and opera company located on the Piazza Verdi in Palermo, Sicily. It was dedicated to King Victor Emanuel II....
in Palermo
Palermo
Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...
, Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
.