Antonio Cortesi


Antonio Cortesi was an Italian ballet dancer, choreographer, and composer. He was particularly known for the numerous ballets which he created and choreographed in the first half of the 19th Century for major Italian theatres, including La Scala, La Fenice, and the Teatro Regio in Turin.
Cortesi was born in Pavia, the son of the dancer and choreographer Giuseppe Cortesi and the ballerina Margherita Reggini.

Ballets

Many of Cortesi's ballets had music expressly composed for them by Luigi Maria Viviani. Others used existing pieces of music by a variety of composers, chosen and arranged by Cortesi. On occasion he composed some of the music himself, especially for his one-act ballets. Ballets devised and choreographed by Cortesi include: