“If you go to see Le boeuf sur le toit , you will enjoy it. You just have to look and listen without making the slightest effort. Don't look for an idea, a plot, an intention, a plot, a symbol in this farce. There's none of that. So, what happens? Nothing. Nothing happens. Get this into your head and don't tire yourself out needlessly. The curtain rises on the interior of a bar. Lively café-concert music is played, made more abundant by the use of modern musical sources. Amusing characters, their simple human heads replaced by large painted cardboard heads, enter one by one. All these characters—there are eight of them, I think—sway and dance slowly to lively music that doesn't lack verve and frankness.” With these words, the critic of «Le Ménestrel» (announcement 82, no. 11, March 12, 1920, p. 107) reviewed the first performance of Darius Milhaud's Le boeuf sur le toit , which took place on February 21, 1920, at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, with sets by Raoul Dufy and the collaboration of the clowns of the Medrano circus, the famous Fratellini. Composed in 1919, Le boeuf sur le toit (The Ox on the Roof) expresses the composer's nostalgia for Brazil, a country where he had stayed during the Great War as secretary to the poet Paul Claudel, then French ambassador to Rio de Janeiro. Having returned to Paris, Milhaud decided to assemble, as the composer himself stated, “a few popular melodies, tangos, sambas and even a Portuguese fado and transcribe them as the theme of a rondo that recurs between each successive pair”.

Milhaud/Galliano

Collegio dei Gesuiti

Villa Filippina

Tchaikovsky and Petipa's fairytale ballet, considered the pinnacle of classical dance, in a version by Aaron S. Watkin and Marcelo Gomes: music and dance in their purest form!

Sleeping Beauty

Semperoper Dresden

La Bayadère

Teatro dell'Opera di Roma

After his acclaimed literary adaptations of »Carmen« and »Peer Gynt«, Johan Inger now turns to a classic ballet that will reveal yet another facet of his art: »Swan Lake«. In 2023, the Swedish choreographer has reinterpreted this great work for Semperoper Ballett and, in so doing, addressed some profound questions: How are personal relationships affected by violence and manipulation? And what roles do personal freedom, respect and acceptance play in a loving relationship?

A Swan Lake

The ballet gala marking the end of the 2026/27 season offers a multifaceted insight into the extraordinary choreographic work of the renowned dance artist Jerome Robbins.

Fayçal Karoui

Events

Upcoming events

Jun 28, 2027

Ballett-Gala 2027 · Wiener Staatsoper

Past events

17 - 18 Jul, 2026

Milhaud/Galliano · Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana

Feb 19 - Apr 19, 2026

Sleeping Beauty · Semperoper Dresden

Future and recently performed repertoire

Conductor in Sleeping Beauty by Tchaikovsky

Semperoper Dresden

Conductor in Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky

Semperoper Dresden

Conductor in La Bayadère by Minkus

Teatro dell'Opera di Roma

Conductor in Le bœuf sur le toit by Milhaud

Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana

About

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