Roland Petit rehearsing Chéri with Carla Fracci
Roland Petit’s evocative and charming ballet, Chéri, was created at La Scala in 1996 for the mature Carla Fracci who turned sixty that year. Colette’s story of an ageing woman’s six-year relationship with a young man was the perfect choice for Fracci and Massimo Murru, who was 35 years her junior. In Colette’s story the boy is 19 and the woman 43 when they first meet. Roland chose Francis Poulenc’s music for his ballet. In his programme notes, Petit writes,
Chéri is a ballet that I created, in a way, in the family. When I was a boy I’d go to see Jean Cocteau and sometimes we’d go with Colette — who was his neighbour — to walk in the gardens of the Palais Royal, where Colette would throw bread crumbs for the birds.… [continue reading]
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