Genoa – Small yellow in the City Council in Genoa on the alleged identification of a new artistic director of the Nervi International Ballet Festival, a historic event that will also be held in 2025 to make the Lanterna an international capital of ballet.
The municipal councilor of Azione Cristina Lodi, with an immediate response question to the Council, asked “whether it is true that Hamburg Ballet principal dancer Jacopo Bellussifrom Genoa, will be the new director of the event”.
According to what Lodi reconstructed, the one who anticipated that Bellussi would be in charge and relaunch the event was “Mayor Marco Bucci in an informal context and the delegated councilor Barbara Grosso during a press conference”. Councilor Lodi asked the Bucci Board if the news was confirmed and “how is it possible that the appointment of the management of an event of this magnitude can take place without there being public notices, formal expressions of interest and transparent selections, bypassing the twenty-year experience of the previous organizers?”.
The Deputy Mayor Peter Piciocchi in his response he never mentioned Bellussi, reiterating that “the administration is thinking about an edition of the Nervi Ballet Festival with fireworks and to do this, an international level of management is certainly necessary”. Piciocchi added however that: “As has always been done by the administration, the rules will be respected, the search for the figure will be conducted in full compliance with the regulations”.
Lodi replied that it would be “very serious” if the choice had been “made in advance of the formalities“. In May 2023, Mayor Marco Bucci appointed Jacopo Bellussi as “senior consultant” for the project to enhance “Genoa, International Ballet Capital” with the aim of developing the feasibility plan for the event. Bellussi is also already the director of the “Gala Pas de Deux”, whose third edition was staged at the Teatro Carlo Felice last March. The event was launched in 2019 as a charity evening for the collapse of the Morandi bridge thanks to the initiative of a group of soloists from the Hamburg Ballet coordinated by the Genoese dancer.
Other news from the City Council
The issue was addressed during the Council meeting the topic of the acquisition of the airport’s shares. The leader of the Democratic Party Simone D’Angelo and the Democratic Party councillor Davide Patrone questioned the deputy mayor and budget assessor Pietro Piciocchi on the circumstances that led the administration, in the space of two weeks, to be ousted by MSC as the buyer of the shares of Cristoforo Colombo sold by Aeroporti di Roma. The news of the last few days according to D’Angelo saw the “Municipality of Genoa as a business mediator rather than a buyer”.
Patrone attacked Piciocchi, asking himself “how much the deputy mayor’s word is worth, given that it has recently been denied on several occasions”. Pietro Piciocchi responded that “the Municipality of Genoa continues to actively pursue the objective of entering the airport, as could already be read in the announcement of Aeroporti di Roma – he stated – for us the entry into the shareholding is strategic but we are very happy that at the moment the acquisition by a solid industrial partner is taking place as an indispensable premise for the relaunch of the airport”.
Another topic at the centre of the session was that of dam. The budget variation that also includes the allocation of 23 million to buy back the Waterfront sports arena was approved by a majority (and with the minority voting no). “We are four years ahead of schedule on the completion of the dam works and it is not acceptable that two Ligurian MPs have asked questions in Parliament to say that, instead, we are late and that the commissioner mayor has not told the truth – said Mayor Marco Bucci – It is offensive to the city, it is not acceptable”. The mayor is referring to the questions presented by the Pd MPs Valentina Ghio and Andrea Orlando. “But it is not the Pd that says that the dam is late, it is the port authoritywho said that there is a one-year delay”, replied the group leader and provincial secretary of the PD, Simone D’Angelo.
#Mystery #Bellussi #director #Nervi #Ballet #Festival #question #City #Council
