Caterina Beretta

Caterina Beretta (8 December 1839 - 1 January 1911) was an Italian ballet dancer and dance teacher. She was one of the most celebrated ballet dancers of the 19th century and was famous throughout Europe, appearing in London and Italy.[1]

Caterina Beretta
Newspaper cutting of Caterina Beretta dated in 1864
Born(1839-12-08)December 8, 1839
Milan
DiedJanuary 1, 1911(1911-01-01) (aged 71)
Milan
Occupation(s)Ballet dancer and dancing master
SpouseLorenzo Viena

Biography

Caterina Beretta was born on 8 December 1839 and was the daughter of a mime. She studied with Auguste Hus in the ballet school of the Teatro alla Scala.[2]

Career

In 1853 she appeared in the premiere of Giuseppe Verdi's opera Les vêpres siciliennes in France.[3][4] In 1855 she went to Paris to perform in Le Diable à Quatre and Jovita, ou Les Boucaniers Mexicains by Joseph Mazilier, where she was impressed to Théophile Gautier. On the contrary, she received negative reviews for her performance in The Four Seasons.[5]

In 1856 and 1857 in Milan and Rome she performanced in Shakespeare, ossia Un Sogno di una Notte d'Estate, by Giovanni Casati. Until 1871 she danced as prima ballerina at the Teatro Regio in Turin, where she alternated with performances at La Scala, La Fenice, and Teatro Pagliano.[2]

In 1877 she was maîtresse de ballet at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, and also at La Scala between 1905 and 1908. Her students would eventually include Anna Pavlova,[6] Pierina Legnani,[7] Vera Trefilova, Tamara Karsavina,[8] Rosina Galli,[8] Ria Teresa Legnani, Marie Giuri, and Cia Fornaroli.[9][10][11]

References
  1. Craine, Debra; Mackrell, Judith (2010). "Beretta, Caterina". The Oxford Dictionary of Dance (2 ed.). Oxford Reference. ISBN 9780199563449.
  2. Cohen, Selma Jeanne (1998). "Beretta, Caterina". The International Encyclopedia of Dance. Oxford Reference. ISBN 9780195173697.
  3. Celi, Claudia (1998). "Beretta, Caterina". International encyclopedia of dance : a project of Dance Perspectives Foundation, Inc. Selma Jeanne Cohen, Dance Perspectives Foundation. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509462-X. OCLC 37903473.
  4. Steeh, Judith A. (1982). History of ballet and modern dance. Internet Archive. Wigston, Leicester : Magna Books. p. 28. ISBN 978-0-948509-55-1.
  5. Jürgensen, Knud Arne (1995). The Verdi Ballets. Parma.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  6. Money, Keith (1982). Anna Pavlova, her life and art. Internet Archive. New York : Knopf : Distributed by Random House. pp. 43, 63. ISBN 978-0-394-42786-7.
  7. Brinson, Peter (1980). Background to European ballet. Internet Archive. New York : Books for Libraries. pp. 44, 87, 186. ISBN 978-0-8369-9279-3.
  8. Moore, Lillian (1969). Artists of the dance. Internet Archive. [Brooklyn], [Dance Horizons, Inc.] p. 153. ISBN 978-0-87127-018-4.
  9. Windham, Donald, ed. (1944). European Dance Teachers in the United States. Ballet Society. p. 100.
  10. Commire, Anne; Klezmer, Deborah; Gale, Thomson (2007). Dictionary of Women Worldwide: 25,000 Women Through the Ages. Detroit, Mich.: Thomson Gale. ISBN 978-0-7876-9394-7. OCLC 71817179 – via Encyclopedia.com.
  11. Veroli, Patrizia (September 2005). "Walter Toscanini, Bibliophile and Collector, and the Cia Fornaroli Collection of The New York Public Library". Dance Chronicle. Taylor & Francis. 28 (3): 323–362. doi:10.1080/01472520500276138. ISSN 0147-2526. S2CID 192112510.
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