Royal Ballet First Soloist Valentino Zucchetti to Leave Company After 16 Years
Zucchetti will make his final appearances dancing Lescaut in Kenneth MacMillan's Manon at the Royal Opera House.
The Royal Ballet's First Soloist Valentino Zucchetti will leave the Company after 16 years to pursue his choreographic and producing career. Before he embarks on the next stage of his career, he performs the role of Lescaut in Kenneth MacMillan's Manon on 19th and 24th October (evening).
Zucchetti was born in Calcinate, Italy, and aged 11 moved to Milan to study at La Scala Ballet School. He subsequently trained at The Royal Ballet Upper School and on graduation joined Zürich Ballet and then Norwegian National Ballet. He joined The Royal Ballet in 2010, was promoted to First Artist in 2011, Soloist in 2012 and First Soloist in 2014.
Zucchetti has performed across the range of The Royal Ballet's extensive repertory. In the 19th-century classics his roles have included Hans-Peter and the Prince in The Nutcracker, Bluebird in The Sleeping Beauty, Benno in Swan Lake, Bronze Idol in La Bayadère and Espada in Don Quixote. Among Frederick Ashton's ballets, he danced Colas in La Fille mal gardée, Puck in The Dream, Blue Boy in Les Patineurs, the Gypsy Girl's Lover in The Two Pigeons and the lead male role in Rhapsody. In MacMillan repertory roles have included Mercutio and Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet, Lescaut in Manon, Lead Hungarian Officer in Mayerling and Fool in The Prince of the Pagodas. He also performed Lensky in John Cranko's Onegin and roles in George Balanchine's Tarantella and Jewels, Jerome Robbins's Dances at a Gathering, and Christopher Wheeldon's DGV: Danse à grande vitessse and Brother Clown in The Winter's Tale. He created roles for choreographers including Carlos Acosta, Kim Brandstrup, David Dawson Alastair Marriott, Liam Scarlett, Heinz Spoerli and Christopher Wheeldon, among others.
During his time with both The Royal Ballet School and the Company, Zucchetti honed his own choreographic skills, regularly presenting new works at Draft Works and creating award-winning works for the Main Stage as well as creating Sonata for Six for the School's 2013 matinee. His 2020 ballet Scherzo for The Royal Ballet received the South Bank Sky Arts Award for Dance, and Anemoi created in 2021 won the Critics' Circle National Dance Award for Best Classical Choreography. He created Prima for The Royal Ballet: A Diamond Celebration in 2022 and at the recent Royal Ballet and Opera Spring Gala choreographed As One.
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