The famous ballet, shown for the first time in Paris in 1883 at the Eden Theatre -a sumptuous building in Indian style next to the Garnier Opera, where the underground can still be visited - is shown in the integral version signed by director Filippo Crivelli, by the imaginative costume and set designer Giulio Coltellacci, by choreographer Ugo dall'Ara, composer Fiorenzo Carpi and strongly wanted by Remigio Paone in 1967 for the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.

For this representation the premises of the Opera will host an exhibition, open to the puiblic until the 3rd of March 2002,  celebrating the "ballo grande", created in 1881 by Luigi Manzotti and Romualdo Marengo. A rich corredo of photographs, drafts and drawings which bear witness to the success of opera in the whole world after the Milanese debut at the Scala. Among the exhibition's curiosities, a 1913 film on "Excelsior", a black and white film which shows pats of ballet, fragments of show in a scattered order, in an extraordinary cinema and theatre becoming.

According to Vittoria Ottolenghi, Excelsior is "a ballet that expresses a very special moment of our history and our theatre, which is precious and unrepeatable. It describes the inspiration, the imagination, the Italian genius, utopias of progress and science. The wishes for a better world. A great show that will influence Hollywood thirties' productions, always keeping up with the times, with continuous choreographic integrations ".

January.2002