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Beaton at La Scala
by Vittoria Crespi Morbio.
Essay by Vittoria Crespi Morbio, Make-up of Reality.
Appendices: biographical notice; catalogue of the works; chronology of stage designs.
Collection «Performing Artists at La Scala».
Amici della Scala – Umberto Allemandi & C., Turin, 2010.
Italian Edition, pp. 117.
One of the most famous photographers of the 20th century, but also diarist, writer, journalist, draughtsman, set designer for the cinema and the theatre, legendary conversationalist and irrepressible dandy, Cecil Beaton (1904-1980) marked his era with his utterly personal style, without which the notion of glamour would be something vague. The Teatro alla Scala hosted two of his ballet stagings, produced with choreographers as prestigious as Balanchine and Ashton. Il Lago dei cigni (Swan Lake) (1953) and Marguerite and Armand (1966), with the unforgettable Margot Fonteyn-Rudolf Nureyev pair bear witness to the maverick charm of the most British protagonist of international culture.