Opera Tickets Italy

With music by Hector Berlioz and a story taken from Stendhal's famous novel of the same name, The Red and the Black is a three-act ballet staged at the opulent Teatro dell’Opera di Roma. This gorgeous setting in the heart of the Eternal City is ideal for a production that has been delighting audiences for decades since it was first conceived by the famous German-born choreographer, Uwe Scholz.

Scholz passed away in 2004 but his choreography still lives on through productions of ballets he conceived, such as Rot und Schwarz, as this ballet is known in his native German. His interpretation of Stendhal's psychological novel includes much of the satire and emotion that is present in the book. Stendhal, whose real name was Marie-Henri Beyle, used his novel – originally published as Le Rouge et le Noir: Chronique du XIXe siècle – to point out many of the excesses of French society in the aftermath of the Napoleonic wars. Scholz's ballet includes many tender moments, especially among the principal characters – Madame de Rênal, Mathilde de la Mole and Julien Sorel – as their passionate triangle plays out against a background of social climbing and ambition. The title is often taken to refer to the tension between the clerical and secular interests of the protagonists, represented by black and red, respectively. However, other interpretations are also possible, such as a literary reference to the card game 'rouge et noir' which indicates how much of a hostage to fortune or fate the main character may be. Regardless of the intended meaning of the use of colour in both the book and the ballet, this production certainly conveys emotion, such as the memorably poignant pas de deux between Julien and Madame de Rênal.

Scholz was born in 1958 and had a passion for dance and music since he was around four years old. By the age of 13 he had been admitted to the Stuttgart Ballet School. In 1973, he took his first steps on the road to choreography when his first dance interpretations were staged. The young ballet dancer was soon offered a scholarship which allowed him to study at Balanchine School of American Ballet in New York. Nevertheless, he returned from the United States to complete his studies in 1977 when he made his way to the John Cranko Academy in Stuttgart. By 1980, the prodigiously talented Scholz has been named by the Stuttgart Ballet as their resident choreographer. He then moved to the Leipzig Ballet where his choreographic interpretations of classical music began to make his name. As well as choreographing dance to Berlioz, his works included music by Bach, Beethoven, Prokofiev and Mozart, among others.

The Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, also known as Teatro Costanzi, is a superb auditorium to enjoy this blend of Berlioz, Scholz and Stendhal in a ballet that will live long in the memory.