Coppélia

The famous ballet Coppélia is performed at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma (Teatro Nazionale) from 3 to 7 December 2025. The show, with the entertaining choreography by Giorgio Mancini, features the participation of students from the Theatre's Dance School.

Coppélia, ou La fille aux yeux d'émail (Coppélia, or The girl with the enamel eyes) is a pantomime ballet in two acts and three scenes, with original choreography by Arthur Saint-Léon, with the music composed by Léo Delibes, first performed at the Opéra national de Paris in 1870. The libretto was inspired by the first story of Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann's Nocturnes, Der Sandmann (The Sandman), published in 1816.

The peculiar characteristic of this ballet is that all references to ethereal spirits - such as sylphs - or to the supernatural, so dear to Romanticism, disappear to make way for the humorous adventures of a mechanical doll and her lively character dances. The ballet thus represents a bold break with traditional Romantic ballets such as Giselle or La Sylphide, and is therefore very modern and innovative for the time in which it was composed.

Choreography by Giorgio Mancini; music on a recorded basis; students of the Rome Opera House Dance School.

Photo: show poster, official Facebook page of the National Theatre