Cover Italian ballet star Roberto Bolle will come to Hong Kong next month to perform in ‘Caravaggio’, which is part of the Hong Kong Arts Festival (Photo: courtesy of Dennis Cursio)
Italian ballet star Roberto Bolle will come to Hong Kong next month to perform in ‘Caravaggio’, which is part of the Hong Kong Arts Festival (Photo: courtesy of Dennis Cursio)
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There’s no stopping Roberto Bolle. The 50-year-old ballet star is on a mission: to bring the world closer together through the arts. Next month, he will bring ‘Caravaggio’ to Hong Kong
“I’ve never danced a ballet in such a small costume,” says Italian ballet superstar Roberto Bolle, with a shy yet somehow hearty laugh. He’s referring to the tight, nude-coloured underwear that he wears in choreographer Mauro Bigonzetti’s Caravaggio, a production inspired by the life and revolutionary art of the Italian painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio.
The daring design serves a purpose. Caravaggio was known for his use of chiaroscuro, the stark contrasts of light and shadow which define tenebrism, a style of painting the artist is often credited with inventing. This created intense drama and emotion in his depictions of gods, saints and Bible stories. Bigonzetti brings this legacy to life using dramatic lighting, fierce choreography and those minimal costumes that direct all attention to the dancers. “You can see all the muscles and shapes of the body, which is really beautiful,” says Bolle.
Much like the pioneering painter himself, Caravaggio, first performed in Germany in 2008, is one of the most inventive ballets today. It cleverly blurs the line between dance and visual art, offering a refreshing take on storytelling and artistic expressions. Don’t expect Caravaggio’s life story to be all laid out for you—the show focuses more on portraying Caravaggio’s psyche and moments of enlightenment, as the dancers bring light, shadow and beauty—elements fundamental to the artist’s creativity—to life onstage. “It’s neither a narrative nor an abstract ballet. It’s in between,” says Bolle. “You have an idea of what the era is, with all the peasants, the dancing, the mood—we are in Caravaggio’s world and time.” At the same time, he says the choreography will be both powerful and unconventional. “It’s unlike all the other ballets I’ve seen.”
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Above Roberto Bolle and Maria Khoreva in ‘Caravaggio’ (Photo: courtesy of Michele Monasta)
Roberto Bolle and Maria Khoreva in ‘Caravaggio’ (Photo: courtesy of Michele Monasta)
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When Bolle first watched a DVD of the ballet’s premiere, he was, in his words, “in love”. In 2023, he danced the title role with Argentina’s Ballet del Teatro Colón when the production was performed as part of the cultural programme Divina Italia in Buenos Aires; last year, he took it home to Italy, staging performances in Florence, Milan, Turin and Genoa. Next month, he will reprise the lead role when Caravaggio is staged in Asia for the first time, as part of the Hong Kong Arts Festival.
Performing in Caravaggio marks a full-circle moment for the dancer. Bolle began his ballet training in his native Piedmont aged seven before joining the prestigious Ballet School of the Teatro alla Scala in Milan at 12. Early training gave him technical mastery, but it was Caravaggio, his favourite painter, who ignited his passion for drama and art. He remembers seeing the 16th-century artist’s works as a child, in the Church of St Louis of the French in Rome, home to three Caravaggio masterpieces. “I was completely fascinated and overwhelmed by these paintings,” he says. “It’s like you’re looking at a painting that is not flat; the way he positioned the characters and captured light and shadow created so much depth in the paintings. A genius like him will always be relevant because he changed art history and continues to inspire artists, including myself. Caravaggio is one of those who will always matter, and will always be one of the greatest.”
Above Roberto Bolle and Maria Khoreva in ‘Caravaggio’ (Photo: courtesy of Michele Monasta)
Roberto Bolle and Maria Khoreva in ‘Caravaggio’ (Photo: courtesy of Michele Monasta)
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Caravaggio is as much a celebration of the dancer as it is of the painter. Bolle, who is renowned for his physique, that rivals that of Michaelangelo’s marble David statue, turns 51 next month—a shockingly advanced age in an industry where professionals reach their prime before 30 and often retire before 40. His envious condition is primarily the result of discipline and consistency: Bolle works out every day when he’s not dancing and steers clear of processed food, except for the occasional indulgence in dark chocolate and chocolate ice cream. “The job demands countless sacrifices, especially when you reach a certain stage of life. Not everyone wants that,” he says. “In my case, dance gives me this incredible opportunity and possibility to create something special and beautiful even now; to travel the world and to live with the art form that I love. That is the best gift I’ve received [from life].”
Yet the role requires more than a carefully controlled diet and dedicated training. Unlike the grands jetés and fouettés of romantic ballets such as Swan Lake or Sleeping Beauty—the sorts of roles Bolle danced many times as a principal dancer at Teatro alla Scala and American Ballet Theatre—Caravaggio plunges into the painter’s enlightenment, torment and catharsis through experimental choreography that mirrors the inner chaos of artist, whose life was notoriously driven by uncontrollable passions and shadowed by violent conflicts. The dancers frequently twist and intertwine their bodies in a manner he describes as intrecciato, Italian for “braided”.
Above Roberto Bolle (Photo: courtesy of Vito Lorusso)
Roberto Bolle (Photo: courtesy of Vito Lorusso)
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Part of Bolle’s preparation for the role included a visit to the major Caravaggio exhibition at Palazzo Barberini in Rome last summer, a showcase of around 200 paintings by the artist and his contemporaries, which helped deepen his understanding of the historical and cultural context. But even more critical was his full emotional immersion in the character—something, Bolle says, comes with age and experience.
“I feel that now, at my age, I have this maturity and [emotional depth] to portray such a strong personality,” he says. “Unlike the prince of a fairy tale, or similar characters which are usually quite flat, this role is very much [digging] into the pain and depth of a person. And the good thing about growing older is that you can [only] bring more layers to my character by drawing from what I’ve experienced in life and onstage all these years.”
And despite being older than the average étoile, or star dancer, Bolle has no concrete plan for retirement. “When I turned 40, I thought I would stop, but here we are. I’ve stopped counting [down until I retire],” he says with a laugh. “But every time I go onstage now, I do wonder at the back of my mind if I am dancing the roles for the last time. I don’t have any regrets, though, because a lot of these roles I’ve done, be that in Swan Lake or Nutcracker, focus on technicality, and someone in his 30s would probably be a better cast. In the second part of your career, you are searching for something that inspires you and that you can emotionally give back to the public in a different way.”
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Above Roberto Bolle bid farewell to the American Ballet Theatre, where he was a principal dancer, after his last performance as Des Grieux in ‘Manon’ in 2019 (Photo: courtesy of the American Ballet Theatre)
Roberto Bolle bid farewell to the American Ballet Theatre, where he was a principal dancer, after his last performance as Des Grieux in ‘Manon’ in 2019 (Photo: courtesy of the American Ballet Theatre)
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And Bolle has found a way to do that, off stage as well as on. He founded the Roberto Bolle Foundation in 2023 to nurture young dancers and promote arts education in Italian schools. “Not all students necessarily become [professional] dancers,” he says, “but dance teaches discipline and helps them push their limits to reach their goals, whether in music or any other profession.”
The goal of his upcoming performance in Hong Kong, Bolle says, extends beyond artistic expression—he hopes to expand cultural exchange across continents. “Caravaggio connects the past and the present. Similarly, dance builds cultural bridges: Italy is about the beauty of the past and traditions; Asia looks towards the future with energy and innovation. Every time I visit a Chinese city, the speed of development amazes me,” he says. “This dialogue between east and west is fascinating, and to [be a catalyst for that] is very important to me.”
Whatever his next chapter might look like, Bolle’s purpose is to move not only bodies on stage, but his audiences, especially the younger ones. “I like both parts of my career: my performances onstage and educational projects offstage. I like inspiring people. I like being a good example for the next generation—someone they can look at and say, ‘I’d like to be like him, I’d like to follow his path.’ That, to me, is very rewarding.”
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Zabrina is the Senior Editor, Arts and Culture of Tatler Hong Kong. She specialises in performing arts, visual art and film. Her wanderlust was first fuelled by the Mighty Rovers Antarctica Expedition 2010. Over the years, she has interviewed A-list artists and filmmakers, including Oscar winners Chlóe Zhao and Tim Yip, Golden Horse winner Sylvia Chang, In the Mood for Love cinematographer Christopher Doyle, Pachinko author Min Jin Lee, and Coachella’s first Chinese solo singer Jackson Wang. She won gold at the WAN-IFRA Asian Media Awards for her 2021 feature on the waves of hate crimes targeting Asian Americans.
