text:
Britten and ballet? You might think it's not an obvious pairing, certainly not as obvious as Britten and opera. The Suffolk-born composer wrote only one full-length ballet, The Prince of the Pagodas – a towering achievement, but strikingly solitary. Of the other ballets he was commissioned to write there's just Divertimento, adapted from Rossini's Soirées musicales for George Balanchine and the American Ballet Company's 1941 tour of South America and not danced since; and an elusive orchestration of Chopin for American Ballet Theatre's Les Sylphides, which has a question mark hovering over whether it has ever been performed.
But look closer and there's a lot more to it than that. Throughout his life Britten was fascinated by what may be best termed as 'functional' music – 'I want my music to be of use to people,' he said – and dance, of course, was a key part of that. In his operas he drew on the social purposes of dance almost as much as he drew on folk music: we see dance music used to give a sense of community in Peter Grimes, of ceremony in Gloriana, of rambunctious jollity in A Midsummer Night's Dream.
In his final opera, Death in Venice, dance becomes as much a part of the fabric of the work as singing. The beautiful young Tadzio, innocent object of ageing writer Aschenbach's impossible adoration, is cast as a dancer. His muteness and distant power, so clearly at a remove from the sung world of Aschenbach, come to represent not only in the essential futility of the older man's love, but also – in Aschenbach's fevered mind – the incarnation of physical freedom against the ordered rigidity of his own existence.
As dance influenced Britten, so his music has influenced a wide band of choreographers. Kim Brandstrup and Christopher Wheeldon are just two of many choreographers who have returned to Britten's music throughout their careers, and both used his music in the works soon to be staged by The Royal Ballet as part of a mixed programme alongside Liam Scarlett's The Age of Anxiety.
Brandstrup first worked with Britten's music in 1992, choreographing Death in Venice for Graham Vick's Royal Opera production. 'Its elegiac tone has undoubtedly coloured the way I listen to all of his music,' he says. Brandstrup finds this colouring in the relatively early work Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, which he has used for Ceremony of Innocence, created for the 2013 Aldeburgh Festival. 'It demonstrates the lightness of touch and the ease of a brilliant young composer who had been a child prodigy, a boy wonder – yet at the centre of Variations is a Funeral March and the final music, at least to my ears, seems to have the same weight and tone as the end of Death in Venice.'
Wheeldon too has had a long affinity with Britten, after dancing with The Royal Ballet for Kenneth MacMillan's production of The Prince of the Pagodas in 1989. 'Since then I've choreographed Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge and also the Diversions for Piano (left hand) and Orchestra – twice'. In his Olivier Award-winning Aeternum he uses Britten's Sinfonia da Requiem, which Britten described in a letter as 'Combining my ideas on war & a memorial for Mum & Pop'. For Wheeldon, 'The music weaves in and out from the sombre repetitive churching of the "Lacrymosa" to this crazy, devilish second movement and then finally to the very beautiful, light-filled, off-to-a-better-place third movement' – a structure clearly reflected in Wheeldon's choreography.
Great choreographers before Brandstrup and Wheeldon have also been drawn to Britten's music. John Cranko created the choreography for the original productions of Gloriana and The Prince of the Pagodas. Frederick Ashton choreographed the premiere of Death in Venice; his three one-act ballets to Britten include the fascinating Les Illuminations for New York City Ballet, an intriguing setting of Britten's Rimbaud song cycle that includes a pierrot who dances with one foot bare and the other on pointe. MacMillan's Britten works include Winter's Eve (created for his then-mistress Nora Kaye), a version of Soirées musicales and Gloriana dances (which shocked Ashton with choreography that has Queen Elizabeth I flung about with MacMillan's customary flair for daring lifts). And today choreographers such as David Bintley, Alastair Marriott and Liam Scarlett continue to find inspiration in his music.
What are your favourite Britten ballets?
The Royal Ballet's mixed programme of Ceremony of Innocence, Age of Anxiety and Aeternum runs 7–17 November 2014. Tickets are still available.
The programme is given with generous philanthropic support from Richard and Delia Baker (Ceremony of Innocence) Simon and Virginia Robertson, Kenneth and Susan Green, Karl and Holly Peterson, The Age of Anxiety Production Syndicate, the Friends of Covent Garden and an anonymous donor (The Age of Anxiety) and The Royal Opera House Endowment Fund.]]>
Encountering Youth
Kim Brandstrup created his Ceremony of Innocence for Royal Ballet dancers at the Aldeburgh Festival in Benjamin Britten's centenary year. The ballet tracks an imagined meeting between a man and his childhood self, through which Brandstrup examines the impact of the passing of youth and innocence. His choreography seeks to capture the artistic conflict of striving to 're-create what is missing, lost, absent, not there anymore'.
Brandstrup and Britten
Brandstrup used Britten's Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, a relatively early work and often considered his arrival into maturity as a composer. Brandstrup first choreographed to Britten's music for a 1992 production of Death in Venice, his final opera. Though the pieces are from opposite ends of Britten's output, Brandstrup identifies strong musical and thematic links between Death in Venice and Variations, of loss and longing for youth – which are reflected in Ceremony of Innocence.
'We Would Rather Be Ruined Than Changed'
The Age of Anxiety is Royal Ballet Artist in Residence Liam Scarlett's second narrative work for the Royal Opera House main stage. His starting point was Leonard Bernstein's Symphony no.2, 'The Age of Anxiety', which itself was inspired by W.H. Auden's 1947 poem of the same name. Scarlett's ballet follows Auden's four protagonists on an evening of drunken excesses, as they search for identity in an evolving world.
Inspired Creation
For Scarlett, dancers play a central role in the creation and interpretation of his choreography – he says that 'Making a ballet is all about specific dancers'. For Age of Anxiety he has selected two small casts that include performers from across the ranks of The Royal Ballet. He's tailored his selection to fit Auden's characters, who are 'fairly defined in terms of substance and background', while at the same time encouraging the dancers to allow their roles to 'come from within'.
Sinfonia da Requiem
Like Brandstrup, Christopher Wheeldon has a longstanding affinity with the music of Britten. He first fell in love with Britten's music early in his career, dancing with The Royal Ballet as Kenneth MacMillan created his version of The Prince of the Pagodas. For Aeternum, he selected the composer's Sinfonia da Requiem – a harrowing memorial symphony to Britten's parents, and a cry against the horrors of war. Taking his inspiration from the score, Wheeldon's ballet addresses the fear, terror and pain of loss, but ends with a sense of optimism to match what he describes as the 'light-filled' final movement.
Building a Battlefield
Wheeldon's choice of designer for Aeternum was regular collaborator Jean-Marc Puissant, who for Wheeldon 'always brings an interesting modern look and contemporary sensibility to his designs'. Puissant's striking, abstract setting for Aeternum, built around a towering, mobile wooden structure, provides the perfect setting for Wheeldon's vivid choreography. The ballet won the 2013 Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production.
The Royal Ballet's mixed programme of Ceremony of Innocence, Age of Anxiety and Aeternum runs 7–17 November 2014. Tickets are still available.
The programme is given with generous philanthropic support from Richard and Delia Baker (Ceremony of Innocence) Simon and Virginia Robertson, Kenneth and Susan Green, Karl and Holly Peterson, The Age of Anxiety Production Syndicate, the Friends of Covent Garden and an anonymous donor (The Age of Anxiety) and The Royal Opera House Endowment Fund.]]>
Highlights from the recent World Ballet Day stream are now available on demand via YouTube.
World Ballet Day saw The Royal Ballet partner with The Australian Ballet, the Bolshoi Ballet, the National Ballet of Canada and San Francisco Ballet for 20 hours of live-streaming on YouTube from the companies' respective home theatres.
There were over 300,000 views of the live-stream and each company has uploaded highlights to their channels, offering another chance to catch rehearsals, interviews and behind the scenes glimpses from the day.
Highlights from The Royal Ballet's four hours of streaming included:
Daily class in full
Each company offered glimpses into their morning class. In London, Ballet Master Brian Maloney took gave a glimpse into the barre and floor work that dancers begin each day with, accompanied by a live pianist.
Marianela Nuñez and Federico Bonelli on Manon
Royal Ballet Principals Marianela Nuñez and Federico Bonelli gave an insight into what it takes to dance Kenneth MacMillan's dramatic ballet Manon. As well as this, an extended pas de deux rehearsal is available to watch to those who access the free World Ballet Day guide (claim yours using the code 'worldballet14').
Don Quixote in rehearsal
Principal Guest Artist of The Royal Ballet and choreographer, Carlos Acosta coached Principal Vadim Muntagirov through one of Basilio's solos from Carlos's production of Don Quixote. Vadim will make his Royal Ballet role debut as Basilio later this Season.
Pirouettes from around the world
We asked for your pirouette clips and you sent them in by the thousand, from as far afield as Russia, Japan, Australia and Brazil. We received over 14,000 pirouette clips via Instagram alone!
...And if you're still after more
Other highlights on our World Ballet Day YouTube playlist include a rehearsal of Christopher Wheeldon's Olivier Award-winning Aeternum, and Liam Scarlett interviewed alongside his cast about the process of creating a new work:
To ensure you don't miss out on further clips and information about future live-streams, subscribe to our YouTube channel:
Find out how you can support the work of The Royal Ballet]]>
[Updated 2 October 2014]
FULL LIVESTREAM SCHEDULE (Times in UK BST)
You can watch the full livestream here:
Swan Lake in rehearsal
Swan Lake in rehearsal (pas de deux)
Ostinato in rehearsal
La Bayadère in rehearsal
Interview with Alexander Vetrov and Ludmila Semenyaka, Senior Ballet Teachers
Svetlana Zakharova and Denis Rodkin in rehearsal, Principal Dancer and Leading Soloist
Interview with Svetlana Zakharova and Denis Rodkin
"Hero of our time" in Bauprobe
Interview with Yuri Grigorovich, Resident choreographer
"A Legend of Love" in rehearsal (corps de ballet)
"La Sylphide" in rehearsal
Interview with Artem Ovcharenko and Anna Tikhomirova, Principal Dancer and First Soloist
Interview with Anton Getman, Deputy General Director
"Taming of the Shrew" in rehearsal
Interview with Jean-Christophe Maillot, Choreographer; Director - Choreographer of the Ballet de Monte-Carlo;
Interview with Ekaterina Krysanova and Vladislav Lantratov, Principal Dancers
Interview with Sergey Filin, Artistic Director of the Bolshoi Ballet
Interview with Vladimir Urin, General Director, The Bolshoi Theatre of Russia
Age of Anxiety in rehearsal
Manon in rehearsal
Interview with Resident Choreographer Wayne McGregor
Cassandra in rehearsal
Interview with Kevin O'Hare. Director, The Royal Ballet
Don Quixote in rehearsal
Aeternum in rehearsal
Scènes de ballet in rehearsal
Manon Act 1 in rehearsal
Manon Act 2 in rehearsal
Nijinsky in rehearsal
Interview with Helgi Tomasson
Don Quixote in rehearsal
RAkU in rehearsal
Concerto Grosso in rehearsal
The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude in rehearsal
The World Ballet Day live-stream on 1 October will see extraordinary and unprecedented access behind the scenes from five of the world's leading ballet companies - The Royal Ballet, The Australian Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet, The National Ballet of Canada and San Francisco Ballet.
The day will begin in Sydney at 3am BST and finish in San Francisco at 11pm BST. Each Company will start their day with Class and then open their rehearsal studios to the cameras to see what really goes on in the hours before curtain up.
The Royal Ballet's section runs 11am-3pm BST and will be hosted by TV and radio presenter George Lamb.
During the four hours from Covent Garden, viewers around the world will see Carlos Acosta coach Principal Vadim Muntagirov in the role of Basilio in Don Quixote. Carlos's production was first performed to acclaim last year and will be revived by The Royal Ballet in November.
Principals Marianela Nuñez and Federico Bonelli will rehearse Kenneth MacMillan's Manon in preparation for the ROH Live cinema screening being relayed around the world on Thursday 16 October.
Artist in Residence Liam Scarlett will rehearse his new work The Age of Anxiety with Principals Laura Morera and Steven McRae prior to its premiere on on Friday 7 November. The ballet is inspired by W.H. Auden's poem about four disparate characters in a wartime New York bar trying to make sense of their shifting worlds.
The full Company will be seen in rehearsal for Artistic Associate Christopher Wheeldon's latest one act work for The Royal Ballet, his award winning Aeternum, which had its premiere in 2013; and Frederick Ashton's Scènes de ballet, the ballet Ashton himself claimed to be his favourite.
Company First Artist and choreographer Ludovic Ondiviela will rehearse his first Royal Ballet commission Cassandra which will have its premiere in October as part of the Company's Linbury Studio Programme.
As well as rehearsals, artistic insights will also be given through interviews. Resident Choreographer Wayne McGregor will be interviewed about creating Woolf Works, his first full-length work for the Company based on the writings and life of the seminal English author Virginia Woolf; and Director of The Royal Ballet Kevin O'Hare will talk about what he and the Company are most excited about over the Season ahead.
Highlights from other companies include:
Exact timings will be available soon.
The day's streaming will be repeated on YouTube in full, giving viewers around the world the opportunity to catch up on any parts of the day they missed.]]>
You come from a ballet family – did this inspire you?
My mum and dad were both principal dancers in Chelyabinsk, where I grew up – sometimes they even danced together. Now they have retired and are teaching. But my sister is a ballerina and still dancing in Chelyabinsk. When I was small it just seemed natural I should dance too. It also seemed natural I should go to the Perm State Choreographic College, as both my parents had studied there and my sister was already there, in her graduation year.
You went when you were nine – that's very young.
I was very little and happy to go but didn't know it was going to be so hard. I went on the overnight train because at the time we couldn't afford the plane and I still remember the view as the train moved off – watching my parents waving goodbye to me, and I was crying. The first nights in the dormitory at school were difficult too. You couldn't show you were crying and missing your mum. You had to hide it. But it got easier later and technology became better so I got a mobile phone and could reach my parents that way. I remember when I entered the arabesque competition. My dad had promised me a laptop computer if I won a prize – and I did, I got the silver medal. I was the first boy at school with a laptop. Suddenly there was a queue of boys all wanting to try it out.
How did you come to study at The Royal Ballet School? Was this your preferred choice or were there other schools in the frame?
After six years at Perm I entered the Prix de Lausanne competition and won a study scholarship – I had lots of schools to choose from, including the Vaganova Academy in St Petersburg, and The Royal Ballet School. To be honest I chose The Royal Ballet School mainly because it was in London. I was a teenager and fed up of Russia and thought it would be amazing to live in a great city in Europe. It was very difficult at first because I didn't speak any English. I shared a room with Benjamin Ella, who is a dancer with The Royal Ballet now, and a good friend, and we created a hybrid language of English and Russian to get by. I actually didn't expect to stay longer than a year, but after my first year Gailene Stock [the former Director of the Royal Ballet School] asked me if I wanted to continue and graduate, so I stayed. After graduation I was offered a contract with English National Ballet right away.
Tell us about your dream partnership at English National Ballet with Czech prima ballerina Daria Klimentová.
We get on so well together. We match each other in physique and she is Czech and the Czech and Russian culture is a bit similar. And our sense of humour is also the same. When you are really relaxed in rehearsals it gives you the confidence to explore new things. We can make jokes, or be really honest and say what's on our mind, then just let it go. If you're dancing with someone you don't feel so comfortable with you can feel scared and shy, which might mean you don't give your best.
Daria retired in May this year and has been quoted as saying she waited 20 years to find a dance partner like you.
That's lovely. At first I don't think either of us thought we were a particularly amazing partnership. We were just working on dancing together as well as we could and enjoying it. We weren't trying to push it and create something special, it just came naturally and it was up to the audience to decide whether we were good together or not.
And now you have joined The Royal Ballet. What are you most looking forward to?
It is a really exciting time because every role I will dance with The Royal Ballet will be a debut for me. There is Manon with Lauren Cuthbertson and also Don Quixote, Onegin and Swan Lake. I've already danced The Sleeping Beauty and The Winter's Tale with the Company. The Winter's Tale was particularly interesting for me to do because I'd never really done this style of choreography before, so it was a big challenge, and when you are young it is good to always challenge yourself.
What other highlights are you looking forward to?
I'm looking forward to all the different classes I will take part in – particularly to work with the Russian teacher, Alexander Agadzhanov. What I also love about The Royal Ballet is that, unlike other companies, you have your own dressing room inside the Royal Opera House itself and sometimes before you rehearse there are operas going on – it makes you feel closer and more connected to the stage. I think I will enjoy this aspect a lot. I hope to guest for other companies sometimes too. It improves you a lot as a dancer because you go to a new company and the production and the ballerina you dance with are both new, so you have to push yourself. It's a pressure, but a good one that makes you stronger. Then when you come back 'home' it makes you feel more special.
Tell us about dancing the role of Lensky in John Cranko's Onegin for The Royal Ballet.
I am really looking forward to this – it's a great story, a Russian classic, of course. A few years ago I was only thinking about cabrioles and pirouettes and how to jump high. Now I realize there are lots of amazing ballets where I can be an actor as well as a ballet dancer.
Do you enjoy the challenge of acting through dance?
Yes I do, especially when you know a ballet well enough, as then it seems to come naturally. Once you have mastered the steps and they are in your body and muscles, you can start to let go. That is when the acting comes in. But I don't like to force it as it is sometimes hard to push the acting in the rehearsal studio – the best time for me is on stage when I have danced two acts already. By that time I am so tired I don't think about the steps at all, they become automatic and that's usually the best moment when I can let go and really go for it.
You are a product of both Russian and English schools of ballet – have you developed an individual style?
I think I have. I can't say I am 100% Russian now, because I have worked at The Royal Ballet School for three years, and with English National Ballet for four and a half years. So I am a mixture of my Russian blood and training and the English school, which have very different styles. I don't want to change that though – it is good to have a bit of everything.
Vadim Muntagirov will appear in Manon, Symphonic Variations, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Don Quixote, Onegin and Swan Lake in the 2014/15 Season.
This article first appeared in the Royal Opera House Magazine, which is sent quarterly to the Friends of Covent Garden. Find out more about becoming a Friend.
With the curtain now down on The Royal Ballet's 2013/14 Season, we want to know what your highlights were.
The Season saw more than forty dance works performed across the Royal Opera House's main stage and Linbury Studio Theatre - see them at a glance on our 2013/14 infographic. Chief Executive Alex Beard has picked out his favourite moments, but do you agree with him?
We're also looking for your 2013/14 Royal Opera Highlights.
Here are a selection of Season highlights from our Twitter following:
@TheRoyalBallet #ROHreview #WintersTale powerful narrative,varied choreography,stunning sets,lyrical music,BRILLIANT dance/acting.Had it all
— Maggy Pigott (@MaggyPigott) July 21, 2014
@RoyalOperaHouse Natalia Osipova in everything. Evgenia Obraztsova in Romeo and Juliet. Ashton's Dream and Rhapsody. #ROHreview
— Leena Hassan (@leenahassan) July 21, 2014
#ROHreview In no partic order. Osipova's Giselle & Juliet; @balletboy09 as Tybalt; dazzling Jewels (@_stevenmcrae & Osipova). #Connectome.
— teaandbiscuit (@teaandbiscuit) July 21, 2014
@TheRoyalOpera #ROHreview Is there just one? Romeo & Juliet with Carlos & Gary @balletboy09 & that swordfight & Don Q with Carlos & Nela! xx
— Sue Bell (@SueGreenMeadow) July 21, 2014
Seeing a sublime Yuhui Choe step in for Osipova's Beauty debut - and reduce the grumbling audience to a wailing, stamping ovation #ROHreview
— Leeann Chen (@Leeann_Ch) July 21, 2014
@TheRoyalBallet #ROHreview every beautiful ballet I saw during #ROHlive especially the winters tale and seeing Osipova dance giselle!
— Alice Packwood (@ap_nh) July 21, 2014
@TheRoyalBallet special mentions: Francesca Hayward - 'Rhapsody,' Yuihui Choe - Aurora, new production of 'The Winter's Tale.' #ROHreview
— Rachel Holland (@LowerSlipsGirl) July 21, 2014
@TheRoyalBallet // MacMillan's 'Gloria' and Robbins 'The Concert, two ballets I had always wanted to see and now have #ROHReview
— Moonbootica (@Moonbootica) July 21, 2014
What were your Royal Ballet highlights of 2013/14?]]>
Brava @LondonBallerina! A performance of exuberance and elegance. #ROHSerenade
— Lee McLernon (@bangorballetboy) May 14, 2014
And I could watch #ROHSerenade all day, every day, on repeat... #Heaven #Balanchine #themaster
— Rosslyn (@auroratobe) May 14, 2014
It's not that I didn't like it, it just seemed, lacking. In something. #NeedsMoreOoomph #ROHSerenade,
— Lucy Clare (@rosealare) May 14, 2014
#ROHSerenade dreamy and airy with 2 floating principal ladies and beautiful soloists (looked a little like a shampoo advertising at the end)
— Pink Lady (@impressiondanse) May 14, 2014
Absolutely loved #ROHViolets on my first-ever viewing. Enjoyed #ROHSerenade more than I anticipated, and #ROHDGV somewhat less.
— Ruth Elleson (@RuthElleson) May 14, 2014
Morera quite sensational in #rohviolets!! Remembered how complicated the story was - must revise! :) Lovely! #rohmixedprog
— Fedja Hadrovich (@Hadrovich) May 14, 2014
Woah first time watching a @Liam_Scarlett piece.. Does not disappoint. Amazing use of music, delicious complexity. #rohviolets
— C J (@566Arguello) May 14, 2014
#Morera proved one again to be one of the finest (if not the finest) actress of the @TheRoyalBallet #rohviolets
— Sebastian (@Sebastian_G_A) May 14, 2014
Love, love, love #ROHdgv!! The music, the set and of course the dance, the work as a whole. A smile on my face on my way home. :-)
— Yosh M (@yoshkosh10) May 14, 2014
#rohdgv great show this evening but serious lack of charisma from 4 leading men - learn from the outstanding corps guys! @dav_donnelly
— Michael (@mvarcoe) May 14, 2014
YES!!!!!!!! #RohDGV @TheRoyalBallet you just gave me everything I want from a ballet!
— Alex B (@booshkla) May 14, 2014
Nice to see everyone having such fun in #rohdgv (though I'm not too keen on the music). Looking fwd to #rohmixedprog again soon!
— Fedja Hadrovich (@Hadrovich) May 14, 2014
Press reviews:
Guardian ★★★★
Telegraph ★★★★
The Arts Desk ★★★
The Independent ★★★
What did you think of Serenade/Sweet Violets/DGV?]]>
A Dance in the Moonlight
Serenade, which received its premiere in 1935, was the first work George Balanchine choreographed for American dancers. He began working on the ballet at the new School of American Ballet, modelling the formations and key moments in the work on his students, and even incorporating incidents in the rehearsal room – including one girl falling over and bursting into tears – into the choreography. The resulting ballet, a plotless work that celebrates sublime geometry and beautiful line, was a milestone in the history of dance, streamlining the technique of classical ballet.
'From the heart'
Serenade is set to Pytor Il'yich Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings, op.48 – a work that the composer once described as his 'favourite child… from the heart'. Balanchine's original version of the ballet used only the first three of Tchaikovsky's four movements, but the choreographer later decided to incorporate the final movement. However, rather than conforming to Tchaikovsky's structure, he made this movement the penultimate section of his ballet, so that the work still ends with the soaring, melancholic elegy.
A Dance of Death
First performed in 2012, Sweet Violets was Royal Ballet Artist in Residence Liam Scarlett's first narrative ballet. Inspired by the work and obsessions of the painter Walter Sickert, the ballet explores the facts and conspiracy theories that surround the brutal murders committed by Jack the Ripper. Shadowy, painterly designs by John Macfarlane draw the audience into a seedy Victorian underworld, in which Scarlett's sensual choreography – full of arched spines, twisted torsos and bodies entwining in complex lifts – brings to life the emotional tensions and inner passions of his protagonists.
'On the death of a great artist'
The score chosen by Scarlett for Sweet Violets was Sergey Rachmaninoff's 1893 Trio élégaique. In turn anguished and melancholy, torrid and angry, the work was composed soon after the death of Rachmaninoff's friend and guide Tchaikovsky, and expressed his grief at the great composer's passing, as well as frustration at his own impoverishment and loneliness.
Dancing a Journey
Royal Ballet Artistic Associate Christopher Wheeldon drew inspiration for DGV from his chosen score, MGV: Musique à grande vitesse by Michael Nyman, which was composed to commemorate the 1993 inauguration of the north European TGV train. The result is a work that, through extended pas de deux and surging choreography for the corps de ballet, takes the audience on a journey. As the ballet unfolds, moments of propulsive dance and music are followed by others in which time and space become almost suspended, evoking what Wheeldon describes as 'that feeling you can get when you are travelling… like going into a tunnel, and losing your sense of how fast you are moving, or where you are'.
A Nod to Technology
Wheeldon's four pas de deux in DGV, which take their cue from the different 'regions' in Nyman's music, seem almost to suggest the journeys travelled by four couples, each with their own distinct personalities. But the ballet also contains more abstract elements. The corps often moves as one unit in formations that suggest machinery at work, while Jean-Marc Puissant's set designs – huge sheets of contorted metal mesh – bring to mind the modern, technological world that produced the TGV.
The Royal Ballet's mixed programme of Serenade, Sweet Violets and DGV: Danse à grande vitesse runs from 14 to 26 May 2014. Tickets are still available.]]>
Due to injury, Valeri Hristov will replace Federico Bonelli in the role of Polixenes for performances of The Winter's Tale on 1 and 8 May 2014.
The rest of the cast remains unchanged.
If you have a ticket please see terms and conditions of sale.]]>
#ROHtale has been made for special dancers and it shows. Great dance-drama perf from all. The Royal at its best!
— artifactsuite (@artifactsuite) April 28, 2014
Brilliant ballet! Score & choreography superb. Corps de ballet & Principals uniformly excellent. On-stage musicians & set amazing! #ROHTale
— S. Ossa-Richardson (@LilyPlum) April 28, 2014
#ROHTale 2nd act too 19th century for my taste. Could a pastoral scene, a girl and a disguised prince be more then a variation on Gisele?
— BalletBee (@BalletBee) April 28, 2014
#ROHTale left me speechless, the choreography is great!! Loved Federico Bonelli as Polixenes!!
— Caterina Pellegrini (@KateCatepell) April 28, 2014
I loved the whole performance of the Winter's Tale! It was magical. Everyone performed beautifully #ROHtale
— ~ Princess ~ (@Alessandra__x) April 28, 2014
Ok I had a little weep at the end of A Winter's Tale then like a big girl's blouse! #ROHtale Thanks @amccinemas_UK - we loved it!
— SandyLindsay (@SandyLindsay) April 28, 2014
Incredible and powerful performance tonight, loved every second! The dancers were just fantastic #ROHtale @_stevenmcrae @LondonBallerina
— Emily Ambler (@emzi_ambler) April 28, 2014
Very belated Mother's Day treat #ROHTale @Everymancinema Leeds.To paraphrase Sclub7 'There ain't no party like a Bohemia party'
— Nijinska (@LaNijinska) April 28, 2014
#ROHTale - Moving, incredible stuff - so impressed, in awe #firstballet#newfan Thank You @melillustration #thegate
— Davina Harbord (@DavinaDavine) April 28, 2014
Congratulations to @wheeldondance for #ROHTale!! Really emotional creation!! Ed Watson makes me cry!! Bravo also to Zenaida Yanowsky!!
— Elia Amato (@EliaAmato) April 28, 2014
#ROHtale Stevenage. Sarah Lamb & Edward Watson amazing. jealousy scenes awesome. Pity keep cutting off their feet tho
— Julie (@DawnCame2) April 28, 2014
Huge congratulations to the whole #ROHTale team, onstage and offstage. Special mention to the stellar orchestra and music score.
— Sofia Gkiousou (@sofiagk) April 28, 2014
What did you think of The Winter's Tale in cinemas?
The Royal Opera House Cinema Season relays our performances to over 1,100 cinemas in 29 countries around the world. The final live relay of 2013/14 will be The Royal Opera's Manon Lescaut on 24 June.]]>
Christopher Wheeldon's new Royal Ballet production The Winter's Tale was screened live across the world on 28 April as part of the ROH Live Cinema Season 2013/14.
The relay, which was presented by Darcey Bussell, included a series backstage films featuring rehearsal footage and interviews with members of the cast and creative team. If you missed out on the night, or want to find out more about the production, here they are again:
Christopher Wheeldon, Joby Talbot and Edward Watson introduce The Winter's Tale:
Christopher based his second full-length work for The Royal Ballet on Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, a drama that follows the destruction of a family through jealousy. 'Bringing a new Shakespeare to life through dance is an exciting prospect,' says Christopher. 'It is a very complex story, but at the heart of it is profound, inexplicable jealousy that strikes Leontes and causes him to do some devastating acts.'
The ballet reunites the creative team behind Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. 'We spent an amazing three days forensically taking it apart, ending up with a synopsis that was incredibly detailed, right down to the timings,' says composer Joby Talbot.
Sarah Lamb, Christopher Wheeldon and Bob Crowley discuss Act 2 of The Winters Tale:
In Act Two the action moves to Bohemia where the lost princess Perdita, living as a shepherdess, falls in love with Prince Florizel. 'Florizel is the son of King Polixenes and he doesn't want his son marrying a commoner,' explains Sarah Lamb, who created the role of Perdita. 'Our union, and our quest to get that union blessed, is what brings everyone back together and what heals everyone.'
The music, designs and choreography vividly depict the contrasting worlds of the dreary, troubled court of Sicilia and the vibrant and cheerful countryside of Bohemia. 'We designed Sicilia first, and Bohemia then became the antithesis of that,' says designer Bob Crowley. 'It is full of colour and pattern, and has a real exuberance compared to the austerity of the court of Leontes.'
Composer Joby Talbot discusses the music in The Winter's Tale:
A key element of The Winter's Tale is the contrast between the two worlds explored in the ballet and composer Joby Talbot has created a score that depicts these drastically different moods, ranging from the troubled tension of Act One, to the joyful setting of Bohemia (which includes an on-stage folk band) to the emotional conclusion in Act Three.
'I'm incredibly proud of it,' says Joby of the music. 'Act One has this musical language which is quite taut and troubled. In Act Two we want an absolute change - a lot of beautiful dancing and beautiful music. We're back in Sicilia for Act Three, which is very emotional and the music is freer.'
Read audience reactions to the cinema screening and add your own review.
The Royal Opera House Cinema Season relays our performances to over 1,100 cinemas in 29 countries around the world. The final live relay of 2013/14 will be The Royal Opera's Manon Lescaut on 24 June.
Leading choreographer and Royal Ballet Artistic Associate Christopher Wheeldon is perhaps best known for his narrative ballets, which for The Royal Ballet include the ever-popular Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and his newest work, the acclaimed The Winter's Tale.
But, like many great choreographers, Wheeldon's bread and butter is the one-act abstract ballet. Over the course of his partnerships with The Royal Ballet and New York City Ballet, and with companies around the world, Wheeldon has created a magnificent portfolio of short ballets that are each exquisite examples of his distinctive choreographic language. To mark the return of DGV, we've picked out a selection of films from companies around the world showing Wheeldon's style, both in the rehearsal room and on stage.
Melissa Hamilton and artists of The Royal Ballet in 'Trespass' (Metamorphosis: Titian 2012) © ROH/Johan Persson, 2012
Beatriz Stix-Brunell and Nehemiah Kish in 'Trespass' (Metamorphosis: Titian 2012) © ROH/Johan Persson, 2012
Wheeldon's first work for NYCB as the company's first artist in residence was Polyphonia, first performed in 2001. Wheeldon set the work to four extremely taxing piano pieces by Hungarian composer György Ligeti – in this interview with NYCB he describes how he decided to 'find a really, really hard piece of music that's going to scare the living daylights out of you. I found the Ligeti piano pieces and thought ok this music is brilliant, it's terrifying and I wouldn't know what to do with it'. It's a work that demands careful counting from the dancers (see Royal Ballet dancer tackle the first movement in rehearsal with Wheeldon here) – but that pays thrilling dividends when Wheeldon's choreography brings out the underlying patterns within the music.
After the Rain
Wheeldon created After the Rain for NYCB's 2005 New Combinations Evening, an annual celebration of the company's founder George Balanchine. The original ballet is in two parts, with the first for three couples. But is the second part, a pas de deux set to Arvo Pärt's Spiegel im Spiegel, that has really hit a chord with audiences. The pas de deux was created on Wendy Whelan – a regular collaborator with Wheeldon – and Jock Soto, shortly before Soto's retirement. In an interview with Pacific Northwest Ballet for their revival of the pas de deux, Wheeldon described how 'it wasn't until after having an audience see that I realized people were very moved by it… Some people think that they see this idea of loss, or some of love. That's the wonderful thing about making abstract dance, that you all get to decide the story that you see'. In 2003, the extract was performed by NYCB principals Maria Kowroski and Ask la Cour on the 57th floor of 4WTC, the skyscraper that stands on one corner of Ground Zero in New York.
DGV: Danse à grande vitesse
Wheeldon's created DGV in 2006 for The Royal Ballet, and it returns to the stage in spring 2014 in the Company's upcoming mixed programme. The ballet is set to a score by Michael Nyman that was originally commissioned by the Festival de Lille to commemorate the inauguration of France's TGV high-speed train line. In this clip, New York City Ballet corps de ballet member Gretchen Smith rehearses the work:
Fool's Paradise
One of Wheeldon's first works for his company Morphoses was Fool's Paradise, first performed in 2007 at the company's inaugural season at Sadler's Wells. Joby Talbot created a full orchestration of his 2002 chamber work The Dying Swan, a soundtrack for Yevgeni Bauer's 1916 silent film of the same name. Talbot carefully nuanced his orchestration to support Wheeldon's choreography: 'I wanted to be able to use the broader orchestral sonorities to match the scope of Christopher's onstage vision, but also have the ability to shrink back to the piece's original intimacy at a moment's notice.' Wheeldon commented how 'The result is a beautiful score, excessively melodic'. It was the start of a partnership that has led to Talbot creating the specially-commissioned scores for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and The Winter's Tale.
What is your favourite Wheeldon one-act ballet?
The Royal Ballet's mixed programme of Serenade, Sweet Violets and DGV: Danse à grande vitesse runs from 14 to 26 May 2014. Tickets are still available.]]>
Update, 13 May: Cast changes added for DGV (14, 21 and 26 May) and Serenade 17 mat, 24, 26 mat May)
Update, 25 April: Cast change added for DGV on 26 (mat) May
A number of cast changes have been announced for the Serenade / Sweet Violets / DGV Mixed programme.
For the performances of Serenade on 17 (mat), 24 and 26 (mat) May, Valeri Hristov replaces Rupert Pennefather and Eric Underwood replaces Nicol Edmonds (originally Valeri Hristov).
For performances of Sweet Violets on 14, 21 and 26 May, Meaghan Grace Hinkis replaces Leanne Cope in the role of Emily Dimmock, Thomas Whitehead replaces Thiago Soares in the role of Robert Wood, and Thiago Soares replaces Rupert Pennefather in the role of Walter Sickert. Sarah Lamb will perform the role of Marie.
For the performances of Sweet Violets on 17 (mat), 24 and 26 (mat) May, Romany Pajdak replaces Meaghan Grace Hinkis in the role of Emily Dimmock. For the performance on 17 May (mat), Ryoichi Hirano replaces Thomas Whitehead in the role of Robert Wood.
For the performance of DGV on 17 (mat) May, Beatriz Stix-Brunell replaces Itziar Mendizabal and Valentino Zucchetti replaces Nehemiah Kish. For performances on 14, 21 and 26 May, Valeri Hristov replaces Federico Bonelli. For the performance on 26 (mat) May, Matthew Golding replaces Rupert Pennefather.
Christopher Wheeldon's new Royal Ballet production of The Winter's Tale will be live screened in cinemas across the world on Monday 28 April.
The ballet, which was critically acclaimed when it had its world premiere on 10 April, features a score by Joby Talbot and designs Bob Crowley, the creative team behind Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Christopher's last full-length Royal Ballet work. Read audience reactions to the opening night of The Winter's Tale.
Edward Watson as Leontes, Lauren Cuthbertson as Hermione and Federico Bonelli as Polixenes in The Winter's Tale © ROH / Johan Persson, 2014
Steven McRae as Florizel in The Winter's Tale © ROH / Johan Persson, 2014 in The Winter's Tale © ROH / Johan Persson, 2014
Edward Watson as Leontes and Lauren Cuthbertson as Hermione in The Winter's Tale © ROH / Johan Persson, 2014
Bennet Gartside as Leontes, Valeri Hristov as Polixenes and Marianela Núñez as Hermione in Act I of The Winter's Tale, The Royal Ballet © ROH / Johan Persson 2014
Beatriz Stix-Brunell as Perdita and Vadim Muntagirov as Florizel in Act II of The Winter's Tale, The Royal Ballet © ROH / Johan Persson 2014
Beatriz Stix-Brunell as Perdita and Vadim Muntagirov as Florizel in Act II of The Winter's Tale, The Royal Ballet © ROH / Johan Persson 2014
Bennet Gartside as Leontes and Marianela Núñez as Hermione in Act III of The Winter's Tale, The Royal Ballet © ROH / Johan Persson 2014
Marianela Núñez as Hermione and Dancers of The Royal Ballet in Act I of The Winter's Tale, The Royal Ballet © ROH / Johan Persson 2014
Beatriz Stix-Brunell as Perdita and Vadim Muntagirov as Florizel in Act III of The Winter's Tale, The Royal Ballet © ROH / Johan Persson 2014
Edward Watson as Leontes, Lauren Cuthbertson as Hermione and Federico Bonelli as Polixenes in The Winter's Tale © ROH / Johan Persson, 2014
Edward Watson as Polixenes, Zenaida Yanowsky as Paulina and Dancers of The Royal Ballet in The Winter's Tale, The Royal Ballet, © ROH / Johan Persson 2014
Lauren Cuthbertson as Hermione and Dancers of the Royal Ballet in The Winter's Tale, The Royal Ballet, © ROH / Johan Persson 2014
Valentino Zuchetti and Dancers of The Royal Ballet in The Winter's Tale, The Royal Ballet, © ROH / Johan Persson 2014
Sarah Lamb as Perdita and Steven McRae as Florizel in The Winter's Tale, The Royal Ballet, © ROH / Johan Persson 2014
Thomas Whitehead as Polixenes' Steward and Federico Bonelli as Polixenes in The Winter's Tale, The Royal Ballet, © ROH / Johan Persson 2014
Lauren Cuthbertson as Hermione and Edward Watson as Leontes in The Winter's Tale, The Royal Ballet, © ROH / Johan Persson 2014
Lauren Cuthbertson as Hermione and Edward Watson as Leontes in The Winter's Tale, The Royal Ballet, © ROH / Johan Persson 2014
The Story
The Winter's Tale is based on Shakespeare's late romance of the same name, an enduring tale of consuming jealously and hopeless love; remorse and reconciliation. The plot centres on a king's irrational jealousy of the relationship between his wife and friend, and the destruction it causes. Read a synopsis of the work written by Christopher Wheeldon.
Performed less frequently than Shakespeare's other works, it is perhaps best known for its notorious stage direction, 'Exit, pursued by a bear'. Find out more about different Shakespeare adaptations.
The Production
Christopher has streamlined the plot of Shakespeare's drama to ensure the ballet has a clear storyline with moments of high drama, strong characterization and choreography that reflects the poetry of the words. There are six principal roles, providing exciting opportunities to display the Company's star dancers; Royal Ballet Principals Lauren Cuthbertson, Edward Watson, Sarah Lamb, Steven McRae, Zenaida Yanowsky and Federico Bonelli will all perform in the cinema relay. Find out more from Christopher about creating the work.
The music and designs for The Winter's Tale vividly depict the contrasting worlds explored in the ballet: the dreary, troubled court of Sicilia and the vibrantly cheerful countryside of Bohemia. Read an interview with Joby Talbot about composing the score.
Sarah Lamb, Lauren Cuthbertson and Edward Watson in rehearsal for The Winter's Tale © ROH/Johan Persson, 2014
Christopher Wheeldon and Zenaida Yanowsky in rehearsal for The Winter's Tale © ROH/Johan Persson, 2014
Digital Guide
To accompany the cinema screening, we have created a digital guide to The Winter's Tale. The guide, which is updated with new content as the screening approaches, features background information about the production and creative team; a full synopsis; specially selected photos and films; and exclusive articles exploring the story, the music and the choreography of Christopher Wheeldon. We've made a special film with Lauren Cuthbertson for the guide, 'Becoming Hermione'. Buy The Winter's Tale digital guide.
Read audience reactions to the opening night and add your own review. We will also be publishing a roundup of tweets about the cinema relay, so send us your comments on the night using the hashtag #ROHtale.
The Royal Opera House Cinema Season relays performances to up to 1,500 cinemas in 40 countries around the world. The final live relay of the Season will be The Royal Opera's Manon Lescaut on 24 June. Find out about the Live Cinema Season 2014/15.]]>
On the 10 April 2014 The Royal Ballet performed the world premiere of The Winter's Tale by Christopher Wheeldon, based on Shakespeare's enduring tale of love, loss and reconciliation. Reuniting with the artistic team from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, including composer Joby Talbot and designer Bob Crowley, Wheeldon has created a production that we hope will stay in the Company repertory for years to come.
To celebrate the first night of The Winter's Tale, a special fundraising event and post-performance dinner was held in the Paul Hamlyn Hall.
Those who watched the evening's performance may have caught a glimpse of the beautiful decorations by Simon J Lycett Ltd in the Paul Hamlyn Hall at the end of the evening.
The glorious mix of spring flowers suspended from green branches echoed Bob Crowley's designs for 'Bohemia' in Act II.
The transformation of the Paul Hamlyn Hall into a beautiful seated dinner space in only 23 minutes (the length of Act III) set a new record for tight turnarounds and involved many teams from across the Royal Opera House including Royal Opera House Restaurants, the Linbury Theatre technical team, MITIE, Development and House Management.
Paul Hamlyn Hall being set up for fundraising event: http://www.roh.org.uk/news/special-event-behind-the-scenes-at-the-winters-tale-fundraising-dinner
Paul Hamlyn Hall arranged for opening night event: http://www.roh.org.uk/news/special-event-behind-the-scenes-at-the-winters-tale-fundraising-dinner
Flowers in the Paul Hamlyn Hall: http://www.roh.org.uk/news/special-event-behind-the-scenes-at-the-winters-tale-fundraising-dinner
Christopher Wheeldon at The Winter's Tale Opening Night Gala in the Paul Hamlyn Hall © ROH / liavittone 2014
Steven McRae at The Winter's Tale Opening Night Gala in the Paul Hamlyn Hall © ROH / liavittone 2014
Lauren Cuthbertson at The Winter's Tale Opening Night Gala in the Paul Hamlyn Hall © ROH / liavittone 2014
Paul Hamlyn Hall being set up for fundraising event: http://www.roh.org.uk/news/special-event-behind-the-scenes-at-the-winters-tale-fundraising-dinner
Paul Hamlyn Hall arranged for opening night event: http://www.roh.org.uk/news/special-event-behind-the-scenes-at-the-winters-tale-fundraising-dinner
Flowers in the Paul Hamlyn Hall: http://www.roh.org.uk/news/special-event-behind-the-scenes-at-the-winters-tale-fundraising-dinner
Christopher Wheeldon at The Winter's Tale Opening Night Gala in the Paul Hamlyn Hall © ROH / liavittone 2014
Steven McRae at The Winter's Tale Opening Night Gala in the Paul Hamlyn Hall © ROH / liavittone 2014
Lauren Cuthbertson at The Winter's Tale Opening Night Gala in the Paul Hamlyn Hall © ROH / liavittone 2014
Dinner guests enjoyed a delicious three-course meal by Royal Opera House Restaurants alongside The Winter's Tale cast and artistic team and members of The Royal Ballet
The Winter's Tale first night celebration was one of a variety of fundraising events that have been held this Season in aid of The Royal Opera House Foundation, the registered charity that supports every aspect of the Royal Opera House's work: its achievements onstage, the commissioning of new works, development for talented emerging artists and craftspeople and extensive learning and engagement activity.
Our next and final fundraising event of the Season will be on 17 June to celebrate the opening night of Manon Lescaut. Contact our Development team to find out more about this event: ring +44 (0)20 7212 9356 or email firstname.lastname@example.com.]]>
Due to injury, Bennet Gartside will replace Thiago Soares in the role of Leontes for the performances of The Winter's Tale on 16, 22 (matinee), 26 (matinee), and 29 April 2014.
The rest of the cast remains unchanged.
If you have a ticket please see terms and conditions of sale.]]>
@RoyalOperaHouse #ROHtale blew me away. Beautiful dancing. Stunning sets. Incredible score. Already want to watch it again!
— Caroline Spender (@CarolineSpender) April 11, 2014
Act 2 my favourite, so much fun and just the most gorgeous tree, definitely my favourite bit of set I've seen for some time! #ROHtale
— allie.duthie (@allie_duthie) April 10, 2014
Disappointed by #ROHTale promising Act I, Boring Act II and as for Act III? Meh! Not a work I would want to see again
— Mark S Jones (@StrictlyOsprey) April 10, 2014
I wondered how this complicated story cld be told by dance but turned out it was easier to understand without words. #ROHtale
— Yosh M (@yoshkosh10) April 10, 2014
#ROHtale Noone does tortured like Watson, Lamb sweet as Perdita, with lively act 2. BUT biggest applause was for act 2 scenery green tree
— R Macrae-Gibson (@RMGCat) April 10, 2014
#ROHtale amazing. In the play the Bohemia scenes are hard going but in the ballet they are pure joy. Congrats to all.
— Ann Fox (@anniefoxputney) April 10, 2014
#ROHTale Would have liked the encounter between Leontes & Polixenes had more to it, but story was strongly delivered & work is a keeper :)
— The Ballet Bag (@theballetbag) April 10, 2014
#ROHTale was magnificent: it's got to be Wheeldon's best work yet.
— Margaret B (@MMB_1990) April 10, 2014
Wheeldon's Corps choreography in Act II of #ROHtale is just brilliant - energetic, intricate, and beautiful.
— DaveTriesBallet (@DaveTriesBallet) April 10, 2014
Wow didn't expect such subdued yet absolutely sublime ending. Proves Shakespeare can be a ballet. Well done Wheeldon & co #rohtale
— Liam Tang (@Liam_Tang) April 10, 2014
The bear as depicted neatly got them out of a hole, but many at stalls level missed it. I'm told it worked really well higher up #ROHTale
— Chris (@ManInSeatD26) April 11, 2014
Standing ovation from the entire stalls, well deserved. #ROHtale is pure RB
— sandra (@bicoated) April 10, 2014
Press reviews:
Telegraph ★★★★★
Guardian ★★★★
Evening Standard ★★★★
Arts Desk ★★★★
What did you think of The Winter's Tale?
The Winter's Tale runs until 8 May 2014. A limited number of tickets are still available.
Generously supported by The Monument Trust. With additional philanthropic support from Mrs Susan A Olde OBE, Celia Blakey, Sarah and Lloyd Dorfman, Lady Ashcroft, Simon & Virginia Robertson, The Taylor Family Foundation, Mr and Mrs Edward Atkin CBE, the Metherell Family, Richard and Delia Baker, John and Susan Burns, Sir Roger and Lady Carr, Kenneth and Susan Green, D W Hancock, Randa Khoury, Doug and Ceri King, Gail and Gerald Ronson through The Gerald Ronson Foundation, Victoria Sharp, Lindsay and Sarah Tomlinson and The Winter's Tale Production Syndicate.]]>
In 2009, reports surfaced in the press that a bear had been spotted in Suffolk. Videos appeared online, the police were notified and walkers were warned to be on their guard.
'I saw it moving through the trees ahead', said one witness. 'It was much bigger than a dog. I picked up my son and left for the car straight away.'
But the story was a hoax: there was no bear. The videos had been created by a theatre company to draw attention to their upcoming production of The Winter's Tale.
It's not often that a play is best known for one stage direction. But then not many stage directions are as memorable as the one that appears in Act III of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale: 'Exit, pursued by a bear.'
The character being pursued is Antigonus, a lord of Sicilia, who has been ordered to abandon the baby Princess Perdita . He is interrupted in his cruel errand by the arrival of the bear, an encounter that proves fatal for him – but not for the baby.
Frustratingly, 17th-century accounts of early stagings of the play make no mention of the bear's appearance. It's not impossible that a real bear was used at the premiere. The Globe Theatre was, after all, not far from the city's bear-baiting pits. But, as Shakespeare scholars Susan Snyder and Deborah T. Curren-Aquino have pointed out, these bears were far from tame: 'even less likely is a bear trained to the point where it could be trusted to wait backstage, enter on cue, and rush at Antigonus without mauling him.'
Another theory has gained credence in the last few years. In 1609 (around the time the play was written) King James I was given two polar bear cubs that had been captured on a voyage to the Arctic. One of these cubs could well have featured in the premiere – a bear cub would have been much less dangerous than a full-grown animal, and would surely have been a hit with audiences.
For a multitude of very sensible reasons, real bears are now unlikely to be used in productions of The Winter's Tale. Representations of the bear have generally fallen into two types: realistic (an actor in a bear suit) and more conceptual.
On the realistic side, Charles Kean's bear in his 1856 production was praised in The Times as 'a masterpiece of the zoological art'. An early 20th-century production by Harley Granville-Barker and a 1951 staging by Peter Brook were both praised for having convincingly ferocious bears.
But the problem with the bear-suit approach is that the scene can often end up being funny – and this direction is about a man being mauled to death. That essential mismatch has led directors to search for less 'pantomime' ways of staging the scene.
Conceptual versions of the stage direction have included a shadow of a bear seen in a flash of lightning (director Ronald Eyre, 1981), a bear evoked by a screech and a growl (James Lapine, 1989) and, in Greg Doran's 1999 production for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the fallen canopy of the Sicilian palace morphed into the shape of a bear. In a 1986 production by Terry Hands a polar bear rug reared up to chase off the terrified Antigonus.
Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon is keeping tight-lipped about how he'll be staging the scene for The Royal Ballet – but he has said the famous bear moment won't involve any dancers…
The Winter's Tale runs from 10 April–8 May 2014. Tickets are still available.
Generously supported by The Monument Trust. With additional philanthropic support from Mrs Susan A Olde OBE, Celia Blakey, Sarah and Lloyd Dorfman, Lady Ashcroft, Simon & Virginia Robertson, The Taylor Family Foundation, Mr and Mrs Edward Atkin CBE, the Metherell Family, Richard and Delia Baker, John and Susan Burns, Sir Roger and Lady Carr, Kenneth and Susan Green, D W Hancock, Randa Khoury, Doug and Ceri King, Gail and Gerald Ronson through The Gerald Ronson Foundation, Victoria Sharp, Lindsay and Sarah Tomlinson and The Winter's Tale Production Syndicate.]]>
Two kings separated as children are reunited in adulthood. One king, Leontes of Sicilia, marries Hermione, giving her a beautiful emerald. They have a son, Mamilllius, and are blissfully happy. The other king, Polixenes of Bohemia, visits the court of Leontes. He is delighted to be reunited with his old friend and stays for nine months. By the time of his departure, Hermione is about to give birth to her second child.
Act I
The court of Sicilia
It is the day of Polixenes' departure. The Bohemian court say goodbye to their Sicilian friends. At Hermione's request, Polixenes agrees to stay on another week. In a flash of jealousy, Leontes becomes convinced that his wife has been unfaithful and is carrying Polixenes' child. Jealousy turns to rage and he attacks Polixenes, who flees back to Bohemia. Leontes publicly accuses Hermione of adultery and treason, then has her arrested. This so distresses Mamillius that he falls seriously ill. In prison, Hermione has given birth to a daughter. The head of her household, Paulina, brings the newborn to Leontes, hoping to convince him that the baby is his daughter. Instead, Leontes violently rejects the child, then orders Paulina's husband Antigonus to abandon the baby in a remote place. Antigonus sets sail into a brewing storm with the baby and some treasure, including the emerald once given to Hermione by Leontes. Hermione is brought to trial and pleads her innocence. Leontes, now quite mad, refuses to believe her. Dazed and feverish, Mamillius enters the courtroom and, upon witnessing the unfolding tragedy, he collapses and dies from distress. Seeing the death of her child, Hermione too collapses dead and is taken away. Only now does Leontes realize the disastrous consequences of his terrible mistake.
The shores of Bohemia
Battling the storm, Antigonus struggles ashore to abandon the baby princess. As he leaves, he is pursued and killed by a wild bear. His ship, waiting at sea, is smashed to pieces on the rocks. As day breaks, a shepherd and his son Clown discover the baby girl and the treasure.
Act II
A hillside in Bohemia. Sixteen years later.
Perdita, the abandoned daughter of King Leontes and Queen Hermione, has been raised by the shepherd who found her. She dances beneath the great tree with her love, Prince Florizel, the son of Polixenes, whom the other villagers know only as a shepherd boy. The villagers arrive for the annual springtime festival. King Polixenes, who has heard that his son has been cavorting with a shepherdess, sends his steward to spy on the young prince. When the steward confirms his suspicions, Polixenes is enraged, and demands to see for himself. At the festival, Perdita is to be crowned May Queen. In honour of the occasion, Father Shepherd presents her with the emerald necklace he found with her on the beach. Polixenes and his steward arrive in disguise, keen to see what Florizel is up to. On witnessing Florizel's engagement to a mere shepherdess, Polixenes reveals himself. He is furious with Florizel, and condemns Perdita and her family to death. They all flee by boat to Sicilia, pursued by Polixenes.
Act III
A clifftop in Sicilia
King Leontes mourns by the clifftop graves of his wife and son, watched over by Paulina. Perdita and Florizel's ship approaches Sicilia.
The palace in Sicilia
Perdita and Florizel appeal to Leontes to allow their union, and to intercede with the enraged Polixenes on their behalf. Leontes is taken with the likeness of Florizel to Polixenes. He agrees to help the young couple, who remind him of his lost children. Polixenes arrives and Leontes tries to reason with him, but he violently handles Perdita, revealing the emerald. The long lost Princess of Sicilia is miraculously alive and the two kings are reunited. The Palace celebrates the wedding of Florizel and Perdita. As the festivities die down, Leontes is led by Paulina to see a new statue of Hermione. Deeply remorseful, he kneels at its base. Suddenly, the statue comes to life – it is Hermione, who is alive and has been kept in hiding by Paulina for 16 years. She embraces Leontes, and the family is reunited.
The Winter's Tale runs 10 April–8 May 2014. Tickets are still available.
The production is a co-production with The National Ballet of Canada and is generously supported by The Monument Trust with additional philanthropic support from Mrs Susan A. Olde OBE, Celia Blakey, Sarah and Lloyd Dorfman, Simon & Virginia Robertson, The Taylor Family Foundation, Lady Ashcroft, Mr and Mrs Edward Atkin CBE, the Metherell Family, Richard and Delia Baker, Kenneth and Susan Green, D W Hancock, Randa Khoury, Lindsay and Sarah Tomlinson, Doug and Ceri King, Gail and Gerald Ronson through The Gerald Ronson Foundation, Victoria Sharp, John and Susan Burns, The Winter's Tale Production Syndicate and an anonymous donor.]]>
The General Rehearsal for The Winter's Tale at 12.30pm on 10 April will now be closed.
Due to the scale and complexity of the new production, the amount of rehearsal time available, and the added pressure of a performance in front of a full house, the creative team have opted for a closed rehearsal to ensure the best possible result for an important, large-scale new production.
Tickets for General Rehearsals are only available to Friends of Covent Garden.
If you hold a ticket for this event you will automatically receive a refund – there is no need to contact the Royal Opera House box office.
The Winter's Tale runs from 10 April – 8 May 2014. Tickets are still available. The performance on 28 April will be relayed live to cinemas around the world. Find your nearest cinema and sign up to our mailing list.
The production is a co-production with the National Ballet of Canada. It is generously supported by The Monument Trust with additional philanthropic support from Mrs Susan A Olde OBE, Celia Blakey, Sarah and Lloyd Dorfman, Simon & Virginia Robertson, The Taylor Family Foundation, Lady Ashcroft, Mr and Mrs Edward Atkin CBE, the Metherell Family, Richard and Delia Baker, Kenneth and Susan Green, D W Hancock, Randa Khoury, Lindsay and Sarah Tomlinson, Doug and Ceri King, Gail and Gerald Ronson through The Gerald Ronson Foundation, Victoria Sharp, John and Susan Burns, The Winter's Tale Production Syndicate and an anonymous donor.]]>
With not long to go until the opening night of Christopher Wheeldon's The Winter's Tale on 10 April, The Royal Ballet is putting the final touches to the Company's first new Shakespeare adaptation in almost 50 years.
Christopher has reunited the creative team that made Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, with Bob Crowley designing and Joby Talbot composing another memorable score.
The production features two casts, each with six Principal roles.
Sarah Lamb, Lauren Cuthbertson and Edward Watson in rehearsal for The Winter's Tale © ROH/Johan Persson, 2014
Christopher Wheeldon and Zenaida Yanowsky in rehearsal for The Winter's Tale © ROH/Johan Persson, 2014
The Winter's Tale runs from 10 April - 8 May 2014. Tickets are still available.
The performance on 28 April will be relayed live to cinemas around the world. Find your nearest cinema and sign up to our mailing list.
The production is a co-production with the National Ballet of Canada. It is generously supported by the Monument Trust with additional philanthropic support from Mrs Susan A Olde OBE, Celia Blakey, Sarah and Lloyd Dorfman, Simon & Virginia Robertson, The Taylor Family Foundation, Lady Ashcroft, Mr and Mrs Edward Atkin CBE, the Metherell Family, Richard and Delia Baker, Kenneth and Susan Green, D W Hancock, Randa Khoury, Lindsay and Sarah Tomlinson, Doug and Ceri King, Gail and Gerald Ronson through The Gerald Ronson Foundation, Victoria Sharp, John and Susan Burns, The Winter's Tale Production Syndicate and an anonymous donor
The Story Begins…
Two kings, Leontes of Sicilia and Polixenes of Bohemia, were separated as children. Leontes, his wife Hermione and their son, Mamillius, are blissfully happy. Polixenes visits the court of Leontes. The two old friends are delighted to be reunited, and Polixenes stays for nine months. By the time of his departure, Hermione is about to give birth to her second child, and Leontes is thrown into an agony of suspicion…
The Bard and the Ballet
Shakespeare's plays have provided inspiration for choreographers for over 250 years. Some of the most popular works, such as The Tempest and A Midsummer Night's Dream, have been staged multiple times – the latter has been mounted by choreographers including Marius Petipa, George Balanchine and Frederick Ashton, whose 1964 version will be performed by The Royal Ballet later this summer. Wheeldon's new ballet is unique in that it is the first to be based on The Winter's Tale.
Adapting a 'Problem Play'
The Winter's Tale was the last full-length play written by Shakespeare before The Tempest. Its unusual combination of dark drama and comedy, as well as its expansive timespan and complex plot, means that it is performed less frequently than some other Shakespeare plays; it is perhaps known more for its famous stage direction, 'exit, pursued by a bear', than for anything else. In his adaptation, Wheeldon has streamlined the plot to focus on its main characters and themes, revealing it to be perfect fodder for gripping narrative ballet.
All-consuming jealousy
The driving force behind the plot of The Winter's Tale is Leontes' unfounded jealousy against his wife and friend, and the destruction it creates. This provided the perfect opportunity for Wheeldon to create a leading role for Edward Watson, with whom he has collaborated regularly and who he believes 'can handle a slightly older, more mature character'. The ballet also includes a further five principal roles, providing exciting opportunities to display the Company's star dancers, as well as promising talent from within the ranks.
Darkness and Light
The music and designs for The Winter's Tale, by Joby Talbot and Bob Crowley, vividly depict the contrasting worlds explored in the ballet. Dreary, black costumes and musical devices, such as strangulated low brass and muted trumpets, evoke the murky and troubled Sicilian court; while vibrant sets and costumes, along with shimmering, golden musical textures and an exotic stage consort conjure up the light-filled, pastoral Bohemia.
The Winter's Tale runs from 10 April–8 May 2014. Tickets are still available.
Generously supported by The Monument Trust. With additional philanthropic support from Mrs Susan A Olde OBE, Celia Blakey, Sarah and Lloyd Dorfman, Simon & Virginia Robertson, The Taylor Family Foundation, Lady Ashcroft, Mr and Mrs Edward Atkin CBE, the Metherell Family, Richard and Delia Baker, Kenneth and Susan Green, D W Hancock, Randa Khoury, Lindsay and Sarah Tomlinson, Doug and Ceri King, Gail and Gerald Ronson through The Gerald Ronson Foundation, Victoria Sharp, John and Susan Burns, The Winter's Tale Production Syndicate and an anonymous donor.]]>
Booking dates
All the booking dates below open at 10am.
Royal Opera House 2014-15 Autumn Season Seating Plan and Ticket Prices (PDF 325KB)
Purchasing tickets as part of a Package will offer the best seat availability and a saving of up to 33%. Find out more about advance booking packages.
Ballet and Dance
Deloitte Ignite 2014
5-28 September
Free opening festival curated by The Royal Ballet and Minna Moore Ede.
BalletBoyz the TALENT (Linbury Studio Theatre)
16–27 September
Former Royal Ballet dancers Michael Nunn and William Trevitt and their award-winning troupe come to the Linbury Studio Theatre for the first time, with an all-new programme.
26 September–1 November; Live cinema relay on 16 October
By Kenneth MacMillan
Kenneth MacMillan's acclaimed tragic ballet is a modern masterpiece.
Scènes de ballet / Five Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan / Symphonic Variations / A Month in the Country
18 October–12 November
By Frederick Ashton
The Royal Ballet celebrates its Founder Choreographer, Frederick Ashton, with a mixed programme of some of his finest works.
Ceremony of Innocence / The Age of Anxiety / Aeternum
7–17 November
By Kim Brandstrup / NEW Liam Scarlett / Christopher Wheeldon
A Scarlett world premiere and two recent works by Brandstrup and Wheeldon: contemporary ballet at its finest.
Cassandra NEW (Linbury Studio Theatre)
30 October–1 November
By Ludovic Ondiviela
Choreographer Ludovic Ondiviela and singer songwriter Ana Silvera present a poignant exploration of what it is to be called mad.
Mapping / Document / Christopher Bruce (Linbury Studio Theatre)
25 –9 November
By Darshan Singh Bhuller / Ivgi & Greben / NEW Christopher Bruce
Phoenix Dance Theatre presents a mixed programme including a Christopher Bruce premiere and works by Darshan Singh Bhuller and the choreographic duo Ivgi & Grebem.
Don Quixote
25 November–22 January
By Carlos Acosta after Marius Petipa
Carlos Acosta's exuberant production of this classic tale of friendship, love and loyalty is bursting with joie de vivre.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
6 December 2014–16 January 2015; Live cinema relay on 16 December
Welcome Performance for Families 6 December
By Christopher Wheeldon
Follow Alice down the rabbit hole in Christopher Wheeldon's thrillingly entertaining ballet.
The Mad Hatter's Tea Party NEW (Linbury Studio Theatre)
6 December 2014–3 January 2015
ZooNation burst onto the stage with their family Christmas show, a wonderfully wacky take on the madcap characters of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
Opera and Music
Anna Nicole
11–24 September
Mark-Anthony Turnage
Dir: Richard Jones
Cond: Antonio Pappano
A tale of sex, celebrity and scandal: Mark-Anthony Turnage's opera explores the dramatic life and death of Anna Nicole Smith.
12 September–6 October; BP Big Screen Live Relay on 17 September
Giuseppe Verdi
Dir: David McVicar
Cond: Maurizio Benini / Paul Griffiths
Corruption and innocence collide in Verdi's remarkable opera. David McVicar's staging emphasizes the depravity at the heart of the court of Mantua.
Il barbiere di Siviglia
19 September–5 October
Gioachino Rossini
Dir: Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier
Cond: Mark Elder
Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier's production of Rossini's sparkling comedy is full of wit and energy.
The Trial NEW (Linbury Studio Theatre)
10–18 October
Philip Glass
Lib: Christopher Hampton
Dir: Michael McCarthy
Cond: Michael Rafferty
Philip Glass, one of the world's most popular contemporary composers, creates a new work for Music Theatre Wales based on Kafka's nightmarish novel.
La scala di seta (Linbury Studio Theatre)
23–4 October
Gioachino Rossini
Dir: Greg Eldridge §
Cond: Jonathan Santagada §
The Jette Parker Young Artists present a fully staged performance in the Linbury Studio Theatre, in one of the most popular highlights of Meet the Young Artists Week.
§ Jette Parker Young Artist
I due Foscari NEW
14 October–2 November; Live cinema relay on 27 October
Giuseppe Verdi
Dir: Thaddeus Strassberger
Cond: Antonio Pappano / Renato Balsadonna
A despairing father is torn between love for his family and duty to a corrupt city in Verdi's searing early tragedy.
Idomeneo NEW
3–24 November
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Dir: Martin Kušej
Cond: Marc Minkowski
Love and sacrifice vie in Mozart's sublime early masterpiece, directed by Martin Kušej in his UK debut.
Glare NEW (Linbury Studio Theatre)
Søren Nils Eichberg
Lib: Hannah Dübgen
Dir: Thaddeus Strassberger
Cond: Geoffrey Paterson
Danish-German composer Søren Nils Eichberg presents a taut thriller about trust and reality.
L'elisir d'amore
18 November–13 December; Live cinema relay on 26 November
Gaetano Donizetti
Dir: Laurent Pelly
Cond: Daniele Rustioni
Laurent Pelly's acclaimed production of Donizetti's opera radiates tenderness, humour and southern sunshine.
Orfeo NEW (Roundhouse, Camden)
13–24 January 2015
Claudio Monteverdi
Dir: Michael Boyd / Trans: Don Paterson
Cond: Christian Curnyn
Autumn Season
Deloitte Ignite 2014
Free opening festival curated by The Royal Ballet and Minna Moore Ede.
Throughout September
BalletBoyz theTALENT (Linbury Studio Theatre)
Former Royal Ballet dancers Michael Nunn and William Trevitt and their award-winning troupe come to the Linbury Studio Theatre for the first time, with an all-new programme.
16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 September at 7.45pm
By Kenneth MacMillan
Music: Jules Massenet, orchestrated by Martin Yates
Kenneth MacMillan's acclaimed tragic ballet is a modern masterpiece.
26 September at 7.30pm; 27 September at 12.30pm; 30 September at 1pm
1 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 13 | 15 | 16† | 25 | 29 October at 7.30pm; 4 October at 2pm and 7pm; 5 October at 12 noon; 11 October at 12.30pm
1 November at 7pm
† Live cinema relay
Scènes de ballet / Five Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan / Symphonic Variations / A Month in the Country
By Frederick Ashton
Music: Igor Stravinsky / Johannes Brahms / Cèsar Franck / Fryderyk Chopin
The Royal Ballet celebrates its Founder Choreographer, Frederick Ashton, with a mixed programme of some of his finest works.
18 October at 7pm; 22 | 28 October at 7.30pm
4 | 5 | 11 | 12 November at 7.30pm
Ceremony of Innocence / The Age of Anxiety / Aeternum
By Kim Brandstrup / NEW Liam Scarlett / Christopher Wheeldon
Music: Benjamin Britten / Leonard Bernstein / Benjamin Britten
A Scarlett world premiere and two recent works by Brandstrup and Wheeldon: contemporary ballet at its finest.
7 | 13 | 14 | 17 November at 7.30pm; 8 November at 2pm and 7pm
Cassandra NEW (Linbury Studio Theatre)
By Ludovic Ondiviela
Music: Ana Silvera
Choreographer Ludovic Ondiviela and singer songwriter Ana Silvera present a poignant exploration of what it is to be called mad.
30 | 31 October at 7.45pm
1 November at 2pm
Mapping / Document / Christopher Bruce (Linbury Studio Theatre)
By Darshan Singh Bhuller / Ivgi & Greben / NEW Christopher Bruce
Phoenix Dance Theatre
Phoenix Dance Theatre presents a mixed programme including a Christopher Bruce premiere and works by Darshan Singh Bhuller and the choreographic duo Ivgi & Grebem.
25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 November at 7.45pm
Don Quixote
By Carlos Acosta after Marius Petipa
Music: Ludwig Minkus, arranged and orchestrated by Martin Yates
Carlos Acosta's exuberant production of this classic tale of friendship, love and loyalty is bursting with joie de vivre.
25 | 27 | 28 November at 7.30pm
12 | 15 December at 7.30pm; 20 December at 1.30pm and 7pm; 29 December at 7pm; 30 December at 12.30pm
3 January at 1.30pm and 7pm; 5 | 7 | 8 | 14 | 19 | 21 | 22 January at 7.30pm
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
By Christopher Wheeldon
Music: Joby Talbot, orchestrated by Christopher Austin and Joby Talbot
Follow Alice down the rabbit hole in Christopher Wheeldon's thrillingly entertaining ballet.
6 December at 1.30pm (Welcome Performance) and 7pm; 10 | 16† December at 7.30pm; 19 December at 2pm and 7.30pm; 22 December at 12.30pm; 23 December at 1.30pm and 7pm; 24 December at 12 noon; 27 December at 1.30pm and 7pm; 31 December at 12 noon and 5pm
10 January at 7pm; 12 | 15 | 16 January at 7.30pm
† Live cinema relay
The Mad Hatter's Tea Party NEW (Linbury Studio Theatre)
ZooNation burst onto the stage with their family Christmas show, a wonderfully wacky take on the madcap characters of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
Previews: 6 December at 12.30pm and 5pm; 8 December at 7pm
9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 December at 7pm; 13 | 20 | 22 | 23 | 27 December at 12.30pm and 5pm; 24 | 31 December at 12.30pm; 28 December at 2pm; 29 | 30 December at 5pm
2 | 3 January at 12.30pm and 5pm
Winter Season
By John Cranko
Music: Kurt-Heinz Stolze after Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky
John Cranko's adaptation of Pushkin's verse-novel, set to music by Tchaikovsky, trembles with emotional charge.
24 January at 2pm and 7pm; 27 | 28 | 30 January at 7.30pm; 31 January at 12.30pm
2 | 4 February at 7.30pm; 7 February at 12.30pm; 11 February at 2.30pm and 7.30pm; 16 | 18 February at 7.30pm; 27 February at 2.30pm and 7.30pm
Swan Lake
By Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, additional choreography by Frederick Ashton and David Bintley
Music: Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky
Anthony Dowell's production of the greatest romantic ballet draws upon the opulence of 1890s Russia.
10 | 13 February at 7.30pm; 14 February at 7pm; 19 February at 2pm and 7.30pm; 21 February at 1.30pm and 7pm
13 | 16 | 17† | 18 | 19 | 25 | 26 March at 7.30pm; 14 March at 12.30pm; 21 March at 1.30pm and 7pm
2 | 7 | 9 April at 7.30pm
† Live cinema relay
London International Mime Festival (Linbury Studio Theatre)
The acclaimed annual festival returns to the Linbury Studio Theatre.
TBC January
Murmur / Inked (Linbury Studio Theatre)
By Aakash Odedra
Aakash Odedra dances an exhilarating mixed programme, created in collaboration with choreographers Lewis Major and Damien Jalet.
23 | 24 January at 7.45pm
Draft Works (Linbury Studio Theatre)
By The Royal Ballet
Dancers from within the ranks of The Royal Ballet create and perform experimental new works.
24 | 26 February at 7.45pm
Ballet Black (Linbury Studio Theatre)
The award-winning company presents a dynamic mixed programme from leading choreographers.
10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 February at 7.45pm
Spring Season
Bayadère – The Ninth Life (Linbury Studio Theatre)
By Shobana Jeyasingh
Music: Gabriel Prokofiev
In a new Royal Opera House commission Shobana Jeyasingh reimagines Marius Petipa's India-set classical ballet La Bayadère.
25 | 26 | 27 | 28 March at 7.45pm
The Four Temperaments / Hofesh Shechter / Song of the Earth
By George Balanchine / NEW Hofesh Shechter / Kenneth MacMillan
Music: Paul Hindemith / TBC / Gustav Mahler
Masterpieces by Balanchine and MacMillan frame a world premiere from Hofesh Shechter in The Royal Ballet's thrilling mixed programme.
27 | 30 March at 7.30pm
8 | 10 | 14 April at 7.30pm
La Fille mal gardèe
By Frederick Ashton
Music: Ferdinand Hérold, arranged and orchestrated by John Lanchbery
Frederick Ashton's joyful ballet contains some of his most brilliant choreography.
16 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 28 | 29 April at 7.30pm; 26 April at 3pm
2 May at 2pm and 7pm; 5† May at 7.30pm
† Live cinema relay
Summer Season
Woolf Works NEW
By Wayne McGregor
Music: Max Richter
Royal Ballet Resident Choreographer Wayne McGregor presents his first full-length ballet for the Company.
11 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 20 | 21 | 26 May at 7.30pm; 23 May at 12 noon
Afternoon of a Faun / In the Night / Song of the Earth
By Jerome Robbins / Kenneth MacMillan
Music: Claude Debussy / Fryderyk Chopin / Gustav Mahler
The Royal Ballet's mixed programme brings together two of Jerome Robbins's masterpieces with MacMillan's powerful depiction of love and loss.
29 May at 7.30pm; 30 May at 12.30pm
1 | 4 June at 7.30pm
The Architect / mixed programme (Linbury Studio Theatre)
By Kenneth Tindall / NEW TBC
Northern Ballet
One of the UK's leading touring companies visits the Linbury Studio Theatre with a mixed programme.
The Elves and the Shoemaker
By Daniel de Andrade
Northern Ballet
Northern Ballet presents new children's ballet from its award-winning series Short Ballets for Small People.
TBC May
Springboard (Linbury Studio Theatre)
Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance; Verve; Ballet Central; Dutch National Ballet
1 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 6 June at 7.45pm
The Royal Ballet School Summer Performances
12 July at 12 noon (main stage) | TBC July (Linbury Studio Theatre)]]>
The 2014/15 Live Cinema Season will see a total of 11 Royal Opera House productions relayed to more than 1,500 cinemas in over 40 countries. The screenings include seven Royal Opera and four Royal Ballet productions:
Manon, 16 October at 7.15pm
The Royal Ballet
By Kenneth MacMillan
Music: Jules Massenet, orchestrated by Martin Yates
I due Foscari NEW, 27 October at 7.15pm
The Royal Opera
Giuseppe Verdi
Dir: Thaddeus Strassberger
Cond: Antonio Pappano
Cast includes Plácido Domingo, Francesco Meli and Maria Agresta
L'elisir d'amore, 26 November at 7.15pm
The Royal Opera
Gaetano Donizetti
Dir: Laurent Pelly
Cond: Daniele Rustioni
Cast includes Lucy Crowe, Vittorio Grigolo and Bryn Terfel
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, 16 December at 7.15pm
The Royal Ballet
By Christopher Wheeldon
Music: Joby Talbot, orchestrated by Christopher Austin and Joby Talbot
Andrea Chénier NEW, 29 January at 7.15pm
The Royal Opera
Umberto Giordano
Dir: David McVicar
Cond: Antonio Pappano
Cast includes Jonas Kaufmann and Eva-Maria Westbroek
Der fliegende Holländer, 24 February at 7.15pm
The Royal Opera
Richard Wagner
Dir: Tim Albery
Cond: Andris Nelsons
Cast includes Bryn Terfel and Adrianne Pieczonka.
Swan Lake, 17 March at 7.15pm
The Royal Ballet
By Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov
Music: Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky
Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny NEW, 1 April at 7.15pm
The Royal Opera
Kurt Weill
Dir: John Fulljames
Cond: Mark Wigglesworth
Cast includes Anne Sofie von Otter, Willard W White and Christine Rice.
La Fille mal gardèe, 5 May at 7.15pm
The Royal Ballet
By Frederick Ashton
Music: Ferdinand Hérold, arranged and orchestrated by John Lanchbery
La bohème, 10 June at 7.15pm
The Royal Opera
Giacomo Puccini
Dir: John Copley
Cond: Dan Ettinger
Cast includes Anna Netrebko and Joseph Calleja
Guillaume Tell NEW, 5 July at 2.45pm
The Royal Opera
Gioachino Rossini
Dir: Damiano Michieletto
Cond: Antonio Pappano
Cast includes Gerald Finley and Malin Byström
It's clear that both you and Christopher Wheeldon don't shy away from challenges when choosing works to transform into ballets.
Yes, we seem to have alighted on the two wordiest writers in the English language when it comes to our selection of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and The Winter's Tale! Like a lot of people, I only knew the famous 'exit pursued by a bear' direction in the Shakespeare. Chris and I went to see the Royal Shakespeare Company production in New York – I felt it was important that we saw it, and afterwards we went out and had a chat about our thoughts.
Was composing The Winter's Tale more of a challenge than Alice?
Yes, definitely. With Alice I unexpectedly found that establishing the magical and mechanical clockwork world would became my baseline, and I could go off in lots of crazy directions – but keep coming back to that as a linking device. There's not really an equivalent in The Winter's Tale. It's pretty much a linear narrative that takes you on a journey with a character [Leontes] who descends into irrational jealousy, madness, ruin, remorse and is finally redeemed. There's no chance to draw breath before heading off on another part of the adventure.
The story of The Winter's Tale takes us in and out of different places and eras, which would suggest you could use contrasting tone colours and styles for the various scenes.
Oh yes, completely. The material in Sicilia (our Act I) and the material in Bohemia (our Act II) are like black and white, or even monochrome and colour; if the first act is King Lear then the second is A Midsummer Night's Dream. It's supposed to be as different as possible. These colouristic shifts are meat and drink to ballet. You want to be able to go from high drama to low comedy to romance to reflection to whatever.
So it's rather like a triple bill crammed into one?
Yes, you want as much variety as you can get. We were very clear that Bohemia was going to be a very different place from Sicilia. And it is. The first act is mostly inside this cold, draughty, rather inhuman Sicilian palace, all rather buttoned-up and staid. Bohemia is the exact opposite – it's out in the open, it's summertime, it's full of beautiful fun-loving people having a great old time.
The music for the Sicilian scenes which sandwich the Bohemian one is then presumably much darker.
Very much so. The story of The Winter's Tale is predicated on the idea that everything is ruined by one man's jealousy. This is actually something that Shakespeare comes back to again and again in his works. And one can see why. Anyone who has suffered from that kind of irrational jealousy knows that it is one of the worst feelings in the world. It goes nowhere, it's like a big black hole. You can 'use' anger, somehow, but you can't 'use' jealousy constructively – it is such a pointless emotion! Having established that this is the driving force behind everything, the challenge was how to depict that in music. I had this image of jealousy appearing as a black feeling in the bottom of your stomach, which then envelops and poisons. So the moment in Act I when Leontes stops fighting his jealousy and gives way to completely irrational thinking, the orchestra is eaten by these great big bass drum and gong notes. I've also used strangulated low brass and muted trumpets and shrieking E flat clarinets. I thought about how to depict this jealousy more than anything.
Read Nigel Bates's full interview with Joby Talbot in The Winter's Tale red programme book.
The Winter's Tale runs from 10 April–8 May 2014. Tickets are still available.
Generously supported by the Monument Trust. With additional philanthropic support from Mrs Susan A Olde OBE, Celia Blakey, Sarah and Lloyd Dorfman, Simon & Virginia Robertson, The Taylor Family Foundation, Lady Ashcroft, Mr and Mrs Edward Atkin CBE, the Metherell Family, Richard and Delia Baker, Kenneth and Susan Green, D W Hancock, Randa Khoury, Lindsay and Sarah Tomlinson, Doug and Ceri King, Gail and Gerald Ronson through The Gerald Ronson Foundation, Victoria Sharp, John and Susan Burns, The Winter's Tale Production Syndicate and an anonymous donor.]]>
The Winter's Tale might not be as familiar to non-Shakespeare buffs as Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet or Macbeth, but its strong narrative has drawn choreographer Christopher Wheeldon to adapt it into a ballet.
In this latest film, we look at the themes and plot of the original play with Christopher and theatre director Lucy Bailey, who directed an RSC production of The Winter's Tale in 2013.
'It's a story of jealousy, comedy, great tragedy and redemption,' says Christopher.
'It's about sex, friendship, and a fall from grace - the darkness within that destroys the potential for a good life,' says Lucy. 'It's about class and the haves and the have-nots...It defies being put into one genre - it's a romance, a tragedy, a comedy, it's intensely poetic and spiritually enlightening. For me, that's why it's called a problem play but for me, it's not - it's one of Shakespeare's best.'
The story of The Winter's Tale follows the destruction of a marriage through consuming jealousy, the abandonment of a child and a seemingly hopeless love. Yet – the ending is one of forgiveness and reconciliation.
Watch Christopher Wheeldon speak about the choreographic process of adapting Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale.
To see more films like this, subscribe to the Royal Opera House YouTube channel:
The Winter's Tale runs from 10 April-8 May 2014. Tickets are still available. The production will be relayed live to cinemas around the world on 28 April. Find your nearest cinema and sign up for our cinema newsletter.
The ballet is staged with generous philanthropic support from The Monument Trust. Generous support is also offered by Mrs Susan A Olde OBE, the Metherell Family, Lady Ashcroft, Celia Blakey, Sarah and Lloyd Dorfman, Sir Simon and Lady Robertson, The Taylor Family Foundation, Mr and Mrs Edward Atkin CBE, Richard and Delia Baker, Kenneth and Susan Green, David Hancock, Randa Khoury, Lindsay and Sarah Tomlinson, Doug and Ceri King, Sir Roger and Lady Carr, The Winter's Tale Production Syndicate and an anonymous donor.]]>
Christopher Wheeldon's new ballet The Winter's Tale will see the choreographer create his first full-length work for The Royal Ballet since 2011's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
'I've always wanted to make a Shakespeare ballet,' says Christopher, 'I think that the biggest challenge for any choreographer tackling Shakespeare is to somehow find a way to infuse that poetry into the choreography and not just use the plot line.'
Christopher's new ballet follows a number of iconic balletic adaptations of the Bard's works, including Kenneth MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet and Frederick Ashton's The Dream - both staged at Covent Garden this Season.
The Winter's Tale has a reputation as a problem play but Christopher believes it will translate well to dance, not least because there are six principal roles, offering major parts for some of The Royal Ballet's star dancers.
'It's those moments of high drama that work so well for dance because you need very strong characters and plot lines that are clear and easy to follow to make a story ballet. What we've done is to stripped away some of the lesser characters and tried to streamline the plot a little bit, focusing on the ideas of unexplained jealousy and the tragedy that follows from that.'
To see more films like this, subscribe to the Royal Opera House YouTube channel:
The Winter's Tale runs from 10 April-8 May 2014. Tickets are still available.
The ballet is staged with generous philanthropic support from The Monument Trust. Generous support is also offered by Mrs Susan A Olde OBE, the Metherell Family, Lady Ashcroft, Celia Blakey, Sarah and Lloyd Dorfman, Sir Simon and Lady Robertson, The Taylor Family Foundation, Mr and Mrs Edward Atkin CBE, Richard and Delia Baker, Kenneth and Susan Green, David Hancock, Randa Khoury, Lindsay and Sarah Tomlinson, Doug and Ceri King, Sir Roger and Lady Carr, The Winter's Tale Production Syndicate and an anonymous donor.
Over the past few years, opera and ballet have embraced video projection as a design element. The Royal Ballet's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, ENO's Satyagraha and Glyndebourne's The Turn of the Screw are just some of the productions across both art forms that have incorporated the technology.
Video is a key element of the design of Kasper Holten's new Royal Opera production of Don Giovanni, which will be screened live in cinemas around the world on 12 February. The director has seen a shift in perception from inside the industry:
'It's a definite change, but I embrace it because I love collaborating,' he told the Guardian, 'I love seeing a production and wondering if a particular idea was mine or someone else's. The thing that's most exciting for me is finding Luke [Halls, the production's video designer], who's not just a tech nerd, but he's got an artistic language'
Before the cinema relay, let us know what you think using the comments field below:
What do you think of the use of video projections in opera and ballet? Have you enjoyed their use in productions or found them distracting?
A selection of your comments from Twitter:
@RoyalOperaHouse When done well, projections serve to tell a really effective story. Ex. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
— Nancy Hitzig (@nothingbuthitz) February 11, 2014
@RoyalOperaHouse if a director feels they have a place then fine, but definitely need to be careful as they can trigger my migranes!
— Rachel Holland (@LowerSlipsGirl) February 11, 2014
@RoyalOperaHouse I'm all for it. Opera isn't meant to be a museum piece, it's very essence was to be cutting edge.
— Adrian (@Adrianyyz) February 11, 2014
@Adrianyyz @RoyalOperaHouse I think I'd go for integrity rather than tastefulness. Projections *can* achieve great things...
— Ruth Elleson (@RuthElleson) February 11, 2014
@RoyalOperaHouse @SalfordUni did a comparative audience study about projection and streaming in opera: have a look - http://t.co/1ffFadMkDZ
— Alan E Williams (@AlanWilliams123) February 11, 2014
@RoyalOperaHouse I was lucky to watch a rehearsal of #dongiovanni & think its fantastic! Completely transforms the set, cant wait to see it
— Gary Dale (@garydaleISP) February 11, 2014
@RoyalOperaHouse saw it used in " Nixon in China"...plane landed as backdrop. OK with that but not with projections of performers.
— ArCr (@pavalover) February 11, 2014
Don Giovanni will be screened live around the world on 12 February 2014. Find your nearest cinema and sign up to our mailing list
Casting has been confirmed for Christopher Wheeldon's new ballet The Winter's Tale, based on the play by William Shakespeare.
The first cast includes Lauren Cuthbertson, Edward Watson, Sarah Lamb, Steven McRae, Zenaida Yanowsky and Federico Bonelli.
Update: The second cast will feature Marianela Nuñez, Thiago Soares, Beatriz Stix-Brunell, Vadim Muntagirov, Laura Morera and Valeri Hristov.
The Winter's Tale opens on 10 April 2014. It will be screened live in cinemas around the world on 28 April.
The Winter's Tale is a co-production with The National Ballet of Canada. The ballet is staged with generous philanthropic support from The Monument Trust. Generous support is also offered by Mrs Susan A Olde OBE, the Metherell Family, Lady Ashcroft, Celia Blakey, Sarah and Lloyd Dorfman, Sir Simon and Lady Robertson, The Taylor Family Foundation, Mr and Mrs Edward Atkin CBE, Richard and Delia Baker, Kenneth and Susan Green, David Hancock, Randa Khoury, Lindsay and Sarah Tomlinson, Doug and Ceri King, Sir Roger and Lady Carr, The Winter's Tale Production Syndicate and an anonymous donor.]]>
Ela Loska: Greetings from Poland! What made you choose a ballet career? Why ballet over tap dancing?
Steven: 'Ballet is far more challenging and I felt that there were greater career options in ballet...' #AskStevenMcRae
— The Royal Ballet (@TheRoyalBallet) December 4, 2013
Steven: '...I still do both but ballet is something you have to commit to at a younger age' #AskStevenMcRae
— The Royal Ballet (@TheRoyalBallet) December 4, 2013
@live4music35: Do you get nervous when you go to stage? If you do, what's your measure for that?
Steven: 'I genuinely love performing so I don't get nervous. I guess I'd call it an adrenaline rush...' #AskStevenMcRae
— The Royal Ballet (@TheRoyalBallet) December 4, 2013
Steven: '...Too many nerves don't allow you to perform at your best.' #AskStevenMcRae
— The Royal Ballet (@TheRoyalBallet) December 4, 2013
@chemilans: Which role are you most at ease with, and which one makes you sometimes feel awkward?
Steven: 'I adore playing Romeo. I think MacMillan really created an amazing male role...' #AskStevenMcRae
— The Royal Ballet (@TheRoyalBallet) December 4, 2013
Steven: '...I've also been lucky to dance with some of the best Juliets in the world - Cojocaru,Yoshida,Marquez,Obraztsova' #AskStevenMcRae
— The Royal Ballet (@TheRoyalBallet) December 4, 2013
@akikotyo: What are your dressing room essentials?
Steven: 'Pocari sweat from Japan, @marksandspencer Risotto from London...' #AskStevenMcRae
— The Royal Ballet (@TheRoyalBallet) December 4, 2013
Steven: '...and my wooly warm ups that Sarah Lamb generously provides me with' #AskStevenMcRae
— The Royal Ballet (@TheRoyalBallet) December 4, 2013
@artsworth How does the London dance scene compare to that of Sydney, your home city?
Steven: 'The standard of dance in Australia is great but the geographical location restricts what audiences can see...' #AskStevenMcRae
— The Royal Ballet (@TheRoyalBallet) December 4, 2013
Steven: '...London is at the centre of the arts world.' #AskStevenMcRae
— The Royal Ballet (@TheRoyalBallet) December 4, 2013
@mpjdancer: Congrats on your new degree! What would you like to do with it..?
Steven: 'I've purely studied business management for my future. I adore the world of #dance...' #AskStevenMcRae
— The Royal Ballet (@TheRoyalBallet) December 4, 2013
Steven: '...I want to do everything I possibly can in the future to help develop the world of dance...' #AskStevenMcRae
— The Royal Ballet (@TheRoyalBallet) December 4, 2013
Steven: '...into something even greater with a wider appeal' #AskStevenMcRae
— The Royal Ballet (@TheRoyalBallet) December 4, 2013
Alyssa: Is it easier to act in a ballet where a character is laid out (like Romeo) or in contemporary ballet (like McGregor)?
Steven: 'Both styles require some form of portrayal. A character is usually more obvious whereas contemporary works...' #AskStevenMcRae
— The Royal Ballet (@TheRoyalBallet) December 4, 2013
Steven: '...are more of an expression or an emotion, than something entirely human.' #AskStevenMcRae
— The Royal Ballet (@TheRoyalBallet) December 4, 2013
Jeanyne: I am from Alabama where NASCAR is popular. I read that you are interested in motor racing. What kind do you watch?
Steven: 'I love NHRA Drag Racing. My father raced in Australia and I've grown up admiring and being inspired by John Force.' #AskStevenMcRae
— The Royal Ballet (@TheRoyalBallet) December 4, 2013
@ryotaro11: What would you like to have if you can have one more talent except dancing?
Steven: 'I have friends that speak multiple languages. I'm always in awe of them as I think this is a genuine talent.' #AskStevenMcRae
— The Royal Ballet (@TheRoyalBallet) December 4, 2013
Stephen Flaherty: Who is your favourite choreographer who you've worked with to create a new ballet?
Steven:'I've been lucky to work with some of the greatest choreographers however no one has created a full length for me...' #AskStevenMcRae
— The Royal Ballet (@TheRoyalBallet) December 4, 2013
Steven: '...Perhaps I'll say that person is the greatest when the day comes!' #AskStevenMcRae
— The Royal Ballet (@TheRoyalBallet) December 4, 2013
@thesavyel: I really enjoyed 'Something Different' :) Have you worked on a new choreography?
Steven: 'Yes. I'm always exploring ways of incorporating my tap dancing but I'd really like to work with a choreographer...' #AskStevenMcRae
— The Royal Ballet (@TheRoyalBallet) December 4, 2013
Steven: '...out there to develop something entirely unique amalgamating the worlds of ballet and tap.' #AskStevenMcRae
— The Royal Ballet (@TheRoyalBallet) December 4, 2013
@niftysheep: 'What tips do you have for a 22 year old late starter like me? :) (Started half a year ago)'
Steven: 'I'd recommend you work on developing your flexibility as well as your strength...' #AskStevenMcRae
— The Royal Ballet (@TheRoyalBallet) December 4, 2013
Steven: '...This will be key to improving your technique yet looking after your body.' #AskStevenMcRae
— The Royal Ballet (@TheRoyalBallet) December 4, 2013
Steven McRae will be performing in The Royal Ballet's Jewels. Tickets are still available]]>
We may think of Shakespeare as England's poet, but he's a lot more international than that. In De Oscuro's MacBeth the dancer-actors speak extracts from Shakespeare's play not just in the original English, but also in a new Welsh translation by Mererid Hopwood and occasionally in Polish and Hebrew. They're far from the first to let Shakespeare loose in other languages.
Shakespeare originated an estimated 2,000 English words commonly used today – including 'bump', 'swagger', 'eyeball' and 'obscene'. Modern English wouldn't be what it is without Shakespeare. But the plays written 400 years ago by a man from the Midlands have had a global appeal for centuries.
The Globe to Globe Festival at Shakespeare's Globe on Bankside in 2012 was testament to that. Over a few months the complete stage works were performed in 37 different languages. Troilus and Cressida in Maori, The Merry Wives of Windsor in Swahili, Richard III in Mandarin, All's Well that Ends Well in Urdu, Love's Labours Lost in British Sign Language – the feast of languages was a full debauch. The Globe is planning to invert that festival between 2014 and 2016 with the world tour to end all world tours: Hamlet (in English), performed in every single country in the world.
Groundbreaking though the Globe's festival was, it did not showcase a new phenomenon. Shakespeare has been around in translation as far back as the poet's lifetime. In the early 1600s English theatre companies on tour in Europe performed versions of Shakespeare's plays, first in English but soon adapted to the local vernacular – a German version of Titus Andronicus was published as early as 1620. In some places the popularity of the plays engendered a whole new culture of theatre – Shakespeare is still seen as a key progenitor of German theatre.
Though German came first, translations to other languages followed in the 18th century, with Voltaire's French translations in the 1730s, Sumarokov's Russian in 1750 and translations into Italian (1756), Spanish (1772), Czech (1786), and more translations across the rest of Europe. On the back of the British Empire, Shakespeare was performed in Calcutta in the 1780s in Marthi, Gujurati and Parsi, and Urdu translations came in the 19th century. Elsewhere we have translations into Hebrew (1874), Japanese (1885), Arabic (1890s), Korean (1921) and Chinese (1922). With the translation of Hamlet into Klingon in 2000, you could say the final frontier has been crossed.
There are also huge numbers of successful adaptations where Shakespeare's original poetry is just a side show: the host of Shakespeare operas; musicals such as Kiss Me Kate or West Side Story; films such as the brilliantly atmospheric adaptations by Akira Kurosawa (including Throne of Blood and Ran); and modernized recontextualizations such as 10 Things I Hate About You or O. Or if you want to dispel the smoke of words altogether there are ballets of Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Winter's Tale – and a raft of silent films from the early 20th century (including Svend Gade's 1921 Hamlet and Dmitri Buchowetski's 1922 Othello) that transcend linguistic boundaries all on their own.
When it comes to Shakespeare, the world is but a word – give or take a few. There seems to be no medium in which he won't flourish.
What Shakespeare adaptations do you love?
With the curtain about to rise on a Season filled with tantalizing productions across both opera and ballet, we've created an infographic to pick out a few highlights and interesting facts.
This follows last year's extremely popular infographic which was also created in conjunction with bloggers The Ballet Bag.
When we announced the Season earlier in the year, we filmed interviews with Director of Opera Kasper Holten and Director of The Royal Ballet Kevin O'Hare where they let us know what they were most looking forward to.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel for more insights into what we do.
What are you most looking forward to over the coming season?]]>
The Royal Ballet tours to Japan have always been legendary among the Company with lots of hard work and lots of adventure. This is my fourth tour to the land of the rising sun but it hits me every time I arrive in Tokyo that this is a city entirely different to home - weirdly wonderful with its pace, energy and spirit.
Following a short stint in Monaco, we arrived in Tokyo excited for the Company's first staging of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland outside Covent Garden. Because of this we've run through the production a number of times at the Tokyo Ballet's studios. Though we battle the initial jet lag hurdle on long haul tours, we always want to deliver fantastic performances, such is the incredible reception from the ballet-mad Japanese audiences.
Bunka Kaikan is a quirky venue with an underground backstage that makes you feel like you are heading down into an air raid shelter. A lovely tradition at this theatre is every performer writes their name on the concrete pillars and walls underground. It's a who's who's of the last 25 years in the dance world and everyone is distracted by reading and doodling on this wall of fame. Also by the stage, every company leaves a poster signed by every member. It's Japanese to honour past performers and performances in this way.
We find all the Alice props strategically squeezed into the stage side dock area. This is a much smaller stage than Covent Garden and the ballet involves many major scenery changes. The afternoon rehearsal is quite slow, despite the Japanese extras and crew being amazingly efficient. It's a big ballet to piece together and get looking slick. We don't quite complete the first run through before we break, but the second one (with orchestra) goes amazingly smoothly. As the ballet saying goes, 'never work with animals, props or children' this production has two of those three!
One of the highlights of the first few days was the Japanese children playing the hedgehogs in Alice, and stealing everyone's hearts. These adorable children are only six (we use ten-year-olds at home) and in the wings they impress us with their little ballet demonstrations.
Away from the rehearsal routine, it's important to recover and refresh ourselves from the long flight - sleep is a hot topic of conversation but some of the girls (myself included) attempt to stay awake and jolt ourselves into a new time-zone. Many of the dancers seek out massages or treatments to aid this and we're in the right place, as cheap, high-quality treatment is available all over the city, which has a wonderful combination of a strong work ethic and an understanding of the importance of relaxation.
Tokyo is a wonderful place to roam around and I've impressed myself with my memory of routes and places. On a break, a few of us went for a stroll in the tranquil gardens at the Nezu Institute of Fine Art. It's a place that I've been to on a number of visits here and, such is its beauty, I always make a point of visiting. UenoPark is another one of my favourites. In between a matinee and evening performance the Company decamps down the hill to gorge on the delicious gyoza and sushi as well as to shop for market gifts and treats.
Though the city is very different from London, there are some similarities (with a slight twist). This is most noticeable when travelling on Tokyo's bustling underground system - we spent a day travelling on the Chiyoda Line (which traverses a cross town District Line-esque route), and our commute to the theatre is on the Ginza Line (a loop that apes the Circle Line). We smile at these comparisons.
Find out more about The Royal Ballet's tour to Japan.]]>
Afternoon tea has long been a favourite event in dramas, when its formalities and rituals can be stood on their head for fun, embarrassment and shock. Gerald Barry takes an unexpected direction presenting afternoon tea in his opera of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest with a tea party that's a masterpiece of vitriol in the guise of utter politeness. But Wilde isn't the only one to tackle how this 'civilized' institution can bring out the worst in people and so we thought we'd take a look at a few iconic afternoon teas. Cucumber sandwiches at the ready…
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Everything about the Mad Hatter's tea party is wrong. It is held permanently at six o'clock as the Mad Hatter's watch has stopped at that point, Alice is first offered wine – which they don't in any case have, the Hatter accuses the March Hare of oiling his watch with butter, and the March Hare dips the Hatter's watch into his cup of tea to see if that will start it. The table is piled with unwashed crockery, so the Mad Hatter, Dormouse and March Hare just keep moving round to clean place settings (the servants here have passed from being taken for granted to being non-existent). The conversation has the trappings of polite exchanges, but constantly goes wrong, most famously when the Hatter asks the riddle: 'Why is a raven like a writing desk?' No one knows the answer; it is a conversational dead end. Nothing at this tea party functions: the timing, the food, the drink, the service, the conversation. It is the opposite of the ordered, polite, structured afternoon tea of a well-to-do Victorian household. Carroll pokes observational fun at daily routine.
I Lived with You
The class-bound concerns of afternoon tea were picked on by Ivor Novello in his 1932 stage farce I Lived with You, made into a film the following year with many of the same actors. Novello himself plays the lead: a Russian prince who fled the Revolution and is adopted by a social-climbing middle-class household in Fulham. This family is full of pretensions, desperate to present an image above its station; the prince is used to doing exactly what he wants without fear of consequences, and inconsiderately encourages them to emulate him. The result is increasing chaos and confusion. Afternoon tea is the point at which everything finally goes horribly wrong. As a bit of social one-upmanship, the respectable ladies of the neighbourhood are invited to meet the Prince. The Prince insists that vodka takes the place of tea – but still served in the fine china cups and saucers: the cup that cheers and inebriates. Ultimately, the snobbish, middle-class women who play at being civilized through an increasing alcoholic haze provide the perfect audience for the noisy and revelatory appearance of the mistress of the husband of the house. The greater the veneer of social-climbing etiquette, the further the fall off the unvarnished pedestal.
Mary Poppins
In Mary Poppins, author P.L. Travers created a highly subversive character. On the surface the magical nanny is strict and formal in the novel, with an extra dose of charm in Julie Andrews's portrayal in the Disney film. But Mary Poppins really exists to challenge and overturn pretty much anything that limits her children's opportunities, hopes and imagination. She likes afternoon tea, and an idealized version is described in her perfect day out with the street-painter Bert. The pair jump into Bert's pavement art of a lovely countryside scene and have afternoon tea with 'a pile of raspberry jam-cakes as big as Mary Poppins' waist'. But there is a more famous tea party in the book and film, held on the ceiling. Mary Poppins's Uncle Albert is full of laughing gas, and the nanny's two charges Jane and Michael Banks catch the same affliction. Uncle Albert, Jane, Michael and Mary Poppins all end up eating 'piles of bread and butter, crumpets, coconut cakes and a large plum cake with pink icing' while suspended near the ceiling. With her usual mock-show of disapproval, Mary Poppins describes such behaviour as 'silly and undignified' – but readily joins in. This tea party is a witty subversion of respectability and convention, and suggests something of the wide-eyed perspective of children trying to make sense of a confusing adult world of strange social rituals.
What are your favourite iconic tea parties?
The Importance of Being Earnest runs from 14 - 22 June. Tickets are sold out though returns may become available.
The production is generously supported by the John S Cohen Foundation.
The London theatre industry's annual Olivier Awards took place last night (28 April) with the National Theatre's Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time taking home seven awards - equalling Matilda's record last year - including leading man Luke Treadaway's award for Best Actor and Best New Play.
In other categories Helen Mirren was crowned Best Actress for her role as the Queen in The Audience while Royal Opera House-affiliated artists Marianela Nuñez (Outstanding Achievement in Dance for her role in Metamorphosis: Titian 2012), Christopher Wheeldon (Best New Dance Production for Aeternum) and Bryan Hymel (Outstanding Achievement in Opera for his roles in Rusalka, Les Troyens and Robert le diable) won.
Other winners included Billy Elliot, which tells the story of one boy's aspiration to join The Royal Ballet School. It won the BBC Radio 2 Audience Award while Top Hat won Best New Musical.
View details of all this year's winners.
Highlights from the ceremony are available to watch on ITV Player for one month.]]>
What did you think of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in cinemas?
The Royal Ballet's Frederick Ashton Mixed Bill will be screened in July.]]>
It's one of the best-loved scenes in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: the meeting of Alice and the hookah smoking Caterpillar. After his solo, backed by Arabian princesses, the caterpillar departs the stage with parasol in hand, followed by a trail of legs in perfect unison. 16 legs with 16 feet, all wearing the most beautiful, royal blue, crystal-encrusted pointe shoes. It's a moment audiences love but behind it lies a huge amount of effort.
Each blue shoe belongs to one of eight dancers: either members of The Royal Ballet Company or Royal Ballet School students. Each individual pair is prepared by one of the two members of staff working in the Ballet Shoe Room. Jane and Máire first have to fit the shoes, before dying them an exact shade of royal blue. Blue ribbons are then attached before each shoe is hand-encrusted with 365 crystals. It takes about a day to prepare each pair of shoes, and these are just 8 of the thousands (approximately 11,000) pairs of pointes Jane and Máire have to make sure are available to the Company throughout the Season
The Ballet Shoe Room is particularly busy at the moment, with three full-Company works needing support. Before the end of the Season, Jane and Máire will have ordered, dyed, prepared and got the right shoes to the right dancer for 11 performances of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, 12 Bayadères and 13 performances of Mayerling.
We need an investment of over £250,000 each Season to support Jane and Máire's work meeting the ballet footwear demands, and each year we run a Pointe Shoes Appeal. Every donation makes a very real difference:
Thank you to everyone who supports us. We are very grateful for the part you play in our success.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland runs until 13 April 2013. Tickets are sold out though returns may become available.
Watch our film to find out how pointe shoes are made.]]>
The nominations announced for prestigious London theatre awards have been announced.
The Royal Ballet's Aeternum, choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon has been nominated in the Best New Dance production while Marianela Nuñez has been nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Dance for her performances in Aeternum, Diana and Actaeon (from Metamorphosis: Titian 2012) and Viscera.
Tenor Bryan Hymel has been nominated for his performances in The Royal Opera's Les Troyens, Robert le diable and Rusalka in the Outstanding Achievement in Opera category alongside a joint nomination for the Stage Management teams of both the Royal Opera House and English National Opera and Music Theatre Wales for In the Locked Room/Ghost Patrol, performed in the Royal Opera House's Linbury Studio Theatre.
Former Royal Ballet dancer Gillian Lynne will receive a special award.
The Olivier Awards ceremony will be held at the Royal Opera House on 28 April and will be relayed live to a big screen in Covent Garden Piazza. You can listen to live coverage on BBC Radio 2 and watch highlights afterwards on ITV.
View the full nominations for this year's Olivier Awards.
Watch Bryan Hymel speaking about Les Troyens:
Watch a behind the scenes film about Metamorphosis: Titian 2012, including footage of Marianela Nuñez rehearsing:]]>
In the remaining 2012/13 Season productions, Yuhui will dance in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, La Bayadère, Mayerling and Symphony in C.
Read our previous Q&As with The Royal Ballet's Marianela Nunez and Thiago Soares, Gary Avis, and Roberta Marquez; The Royal Opera's John Tomlinson and Royal Opera House Apprentices.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland will be live in cinemas on 28 March (with Sarah Lamb as Alice). Tickets are available at venues around the world.]]>
What did you think of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland?
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is sold out at the Royal Opera House (though returns may become available and day tickets will be available). The ballet will be screened live to cinemas around the world on 28 March 2013.]]>
If you could turn any book into a ballet or opera, which would you choose?
Those of a literary bent may enjoy Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (16 March - 13 April) The Metamorphosis (16 - 23 March), Kafka Fragments (28 - 30 March), The Firework-Maker's Daughter (3 - 13 April) and Hansel and Gretel (8 - 11 May), and Raven Girl (24 May - 8 June).]]>
Alexei Ratmansky and Christopher Wheeldon recently gave an ROH Insights audience a taste of their two new works for The Royal Ballet, titled 24 Preludes and Aeternum respectively. The ballets will be performed alongside George Balanchine's Apollo as part of a Mixed Programme.
As well as rehearsing their works, the two choreographers were also interviewed and, as well as introducing their pieces, spoke about the pressures of choreographing for what Christopher called an increasingly 'hungry' audience. Alexei also spoke of his first experience of working with the Company: 'They are wonderful professionals, they know how to act, how to dance'. He also commented on his choreographic method and adapting his style to the company he is working with.
Alexei's piece is his debut work with the Company and the session saw him rehearsing 24 Preludes with Royal Ballet Principal Edward Watson. The piece is set to Chopin's Preludes [Spotify] but the music will be performed by the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House - rather than by a pianist - when the ballet is fully staged. The choreographer told the audience at the Insight: 'Four couples will be dancing, each of them will have solos, duets, trios and quartets'.
Christopher's Aeternum was rehearsed with James Hay, Thiago Soares and Claire Calvert. The piece is set to Britten's Sinfonia da Requiem [Spotify] with the session focusing on a solo by James and a pas de deux for Thiago and Claire.
24 Preludes and Aeternum premiere as part of a Mixed Programme with George Balanchine's Apollo from 22 February - 14 March 2012. Find out more about ROH Insights.]]>
The Royal Opera House is to expand its international links with Brazil through performances, education work and skills training in the city in Rio de Janeiro in late February and early March 2013.
Artists from The Royal Ballet and The Royal Opera's Jette Parker Young Artists Programme will perform in gala performances at Rio's Theatro Municipal from Friday 1 - Sunday 3 March. Included among the party will be Brazilian Royal Ballet Principals Roberta Marquez and Thiago Soares.
Former Young Artist Dominic Grier conducts the Orchestra of the Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro, while the Programme's Artistic Director David Gowland will accompany some pieces on the piano. The performances will open the venue's 2013 season.
- - - - Update: 14 February - - - - -
The programme will include:
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Roberta Marquez and Thiago Soares, together with Leanne Benjamin, Federico Bonelli, Sarah Lamb, Steven McRae, Marianela Nuñez and Edward Watson will all perform.
One of the pas de deux, In the Hothouse by choreographer Alastair Marriott, features mezzo-soprano Justina Gringyte, who will also join soprano Dušica Bijelić and tenor Pablo Bemsch to sing arias and duets from some of great operatic and operetta repertory, including:
As well as the performances, a two-day symposium in partnership with the Theatro Municipal and the British Council's TRANSFORM Festival will bring together dance teachers and schools, social organizations and professional dance companies in the city. Those present will investigate approaches to ballet teaching and how to use dance as an educational tool. The symposium takes place on Thursday 21 and Friday 22 February and follows previous work with the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing.
The trip to Brazil is intended as a precursor to a proposed tour by The Royal Ballet in 2015. The Royal Opera House has a particular interest in fostering links with Brazil, with large audiences attending cinema relays and substantial numbers engaging with our social media networks.
Ahead of the trip to Brazil, Royal Ballet Principal Roberta Marquez answered audience questions via Twitter.
We are grateful to the Oak Foundation and the British Council for their support of this trip]]>
Musicians working in ballet often have to find their own way into the very specific musical world of dance. The Royal Opera House's Jette Parker Young Artists Programme is one of the few places offering expert coaching and the unique experience of working with The Royal Ballet.
'The young conductors or pianists that come to us may decide after six months that ballet work is not for them, but at least that will be an informed decision,' explained The Royal Ballet's Director of Music, Barry Wordsworth. 'I could give endless examples of talented musicians being quite unnecessarily put off working in dance just because of a bad first day.'
Both conducting and playing for ballet, Barry explains, involve inside knowledge, not least the awareness that dancers don't work by bar numbers. 'Instead they'll say "let's go from my pas de chat", so the musicians who don't know their pas de chat from their entrechat six are completely flummoxed.'
23-year-old Jette Parker Young Artist Helen Nicholas began the programme at the start of September 2012 and, after a period of observing what went on in the studios, now finds herself working alongside the ballet music staff, playing for rehearsals and coaching sessions. She cut her teeth on the music for Liam Scarlett's ballet Viscera, and was been heavily involved in The Nutcracker. The baptism of fire that is Company class is imminent.
Improvising at the keyboard for daily class is a challenge for any pianist, and Helen is typical in feeling that nothing in her previous training has prepared her for it. 'You can have the best technique in the world, and that won't help you. You can be a good jazz improviser, but that's not going to help in a roomful of ballet dancers. This is all about producing music that fits the steps – not only in tempo, but also feel and mood. It's got to motivate the dancers to do that particular step, and you have ten seconds, at most, to decide how you're going to do that, from the moment the person taking the class announces the next exercise.'
So far, she says, it's been a case of trial and error in the staff classes she has volunteered to play for. But for her first full Company class she will prepare plenty of options, 'including one tune for pliés in 4/4 and another for pliés in 3/4 – you never know which they'll want.'
Another of the skills Helen has acquired in a few months on the programme is speed-reading. There's no time to spend days on end practising a score, as she might for a solo recital, so she has learnt to prioritize: 'Locate the danger points – usually tempo changes – and adapt any technical challenges to something more manageable. What's important to keep in mind is that this isn't about you giving an artistic performance, it's about giving the dancers what they need.'
New technology offers another useful shortcut. 'In the office we have access to a database of all the ballets we're doing. Although I know The Nutcracker well, I watched it again on film, and discussed with Robert [Clark – Royal Ballet Head of Music and Helen's mentor] the bits I'd probably be doing, and with which dancers. That way I can mark up my score in advance. As a new person, I don't want to hold up the rehearsal while I fumble for the right page. The dancers will have done it a million times, and I need to be up to the speed of everyone else.'
Helen is currently the main rehearsal pianist for the New Ratmansky ballet, and is also working in rehearsals on the New Wheeldon. Both will be performed in a Mixed Programme with Apollo, opening on 22 February.
Find out what it takes to conduct for ballet.
The Apollo/New Wheeldon/New Ratmansky mixed programme runs from 22 February to 14 March. Tickets are still available. The Jette Parker Young Artists Programme is supported by Oak Foundation.
This article was adapted from a piece in About the House, the quarterly magazine received by the Friends of Covent Garden.]]>
As with The Royal Opera, over the years The Royal Ballet has seen a number of roles created on particular dancers by choreographers. We thought we'd take a look at a few examples:
Kenneth MacMillan and Lynn Seymour
One of MacMillan's first works for Deutsche Oper Ballet, Concerto is an exuberant showpiece of the outstanding abilities of the whole company. The lyrical second movement was based on Lynn Seymour's warm up for rehearsal: "I used to become fascinated by what she was doing rather than what I was supposed to be doing, and I decided to incorporate the idea of the barre work into the choreography." The central pas de deux, danced by Seymour in the first performance, is an sensual transformation of the dancer's graceful exercises.
The Rite of Spring
Kenneth MacMillan and Monica Mason
Kenneth MacMillan plucked the 20-year-old Monica Mason – later Director of the Royal Ballet – from the corps de ballet to create the gruelling part of the sacrificial Chosen One. It was a part she would dance for the next 20 years. MacMillan explained his choice: "For one thing, she has tremendous power… rare in English dancers, who tend to be more elegant and refined. But she has a real athletic quality, which struck me in rehearsal – also she is tremendously musical."
He drew on Mason's knowledge of Zulu dances, gained during her South African childhood. As Mason remembers, it is "absolutely not feminine choreography" – something MacMillan made use of in 1987, in the ballet's first revival after Mason retired from the part in 1982. He departed from Stravinsky's original scenario and cast a man (Simon Rice) as the Chosen One: "I realized the steps I'd worked out on Monica were just as suited for a man. In fact, I'd picked Monica out of the 'tribe' of the corps because she was so much more athletic than the others, with real energy and attack." In her 2011 revival of the ballet, Monica followed MacMillan's adaptation, also casting men for the part: Edward Watson and Steven McRae.
Marguerite and Armand
Frederick Ashton and Margot Fonteyn
Frederick Ashton had long been looking for a subject for Margot Fonteyn and her new partner Rudolf Nureyev when he came across Alexandre Dumas fils's La Dame aux camélias, also the inspiration for Verdi's La traviata. Fonteyn was far older than many other leading dancers, but her electric partnership with Nureyev had revived her career.
In this story of a courtesan forced by propriety to give up her beloved, Ashton showed audiences a dancer whose technical abilities were beginning to decline but who retained a profound emotional power.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Christopher Wheeldon and Steven McRae, Lauren Cuthbertson, Edward Watson
For The Royal Ballet's first full-length commission in 15 years, Christopher Wheeldon produced a wealth of fabulous creations including a discombobulating Cheshire Cat, a sinuous caterpillar and a tap-dancing Mad Hatter – created especially for McRae, almost unique among Principal ballet dancers for his brilliance as a tap-dancer. Wheeldon was no less exacting with the casting of his principals: "As soon as I decided I was going to do Alice, Lauren [Cuthbertson] was absolutely for me the key to making this production work, because I knew she would embody the kind of Alice I wanted to portray. She has a unique ability to make her dramatic persona on stage natural, honest, fresh and to the point…as for Edward [Watson], he and I have been friends from school, and we grew up together…I want my White Rabbit to be a little bit bad, a little belligerent, and Ed's great at that. He does bad-tempered – a little bit tortured – really well!"
Do you have a favourite specially-created ballet role?
Marguerite and Armand runs from 12 - 23 February 2013 while Alice's Adventures in Wonderland from 15 March - 13 April 2013.]]>
The Royal Ballet has received nine nominations in this year's National Dance Awards. The awards, which are now in their 13th year, are presented by the Critics' Circle – a collection of 50 professional dance writers and critics - and celebrate the very best of dance and ballet in the UK.
Chairman of the Dance Section, Graham Watts said:
"It has been a bumper year! Collectively they have put forward over 250 dancers, choreographers and companies for consideration and so the final shortlists are already very much the elite of 2012."
This year's nominees include Royal Ballet Principals Edward Watson, and Marianela Nuñez, First Soloist Yuhui Choe and Soloists Paul Kay, Beatrix Stix-Brunell and Dawid Trzensimiech. Former Royal Ballet Principal and now Director of English National Ballet Tamara Rojo is also nominated for her work at Covent Garden.
Choreographers recognized include Royal Ballet Artistic Associate Christopher Wheeldon and Alastair Marriott, both nominated in the Best Classical Choreography category for Trespass, which formed part of Metamorphosis:Titian 2012. Our Associate Company Ballet Black are nominated in the same category for Storyville, as well as in the section for Best Independent Company.
Arthur Pita is shortlisted for Best Modern Choreography for The Metamorphosis, which premiered in the Linbury Studio Theatre in 2011. The production returns to the Royal Opera House in March 2013, with Edward Watson reprising his role as the unfortunate Gregor Samsa.
The winners of the National Dance Awards will be announced at a ceremony on Monday 28 January 2013. See the full list of nominees.]]>
Storified by Royal Opera House · Mon, Nov 05 2012 03:40:30
What did you think of the Royal Ballet Mixed Bill?]]>
As part of the Autumn Season, The Royal Ballet are to perform for the first time choreographer and Artistic Associate Christopher Wheeldon's Fool's Paradise.
Staged alongside Wayne McGregor's Infra and Liam Scarlett's Viscera, the work is an abstract ballet to a score by Joby Talbot, with whom Christopher worked on the acclaimed Alice's Adventure's in Wonderland. Fool's Paradise contains a moving pas de deux, rehearsed in this clip by Principals Sarah Lamb and Federico Bonelli, which builds to a glittering arrangement for the whole ensemble as gold petals shower down onto the stage.
Last season we filmed a rehearsal of Christopher's ballet Polyphonia as part of Royal Ballet Live. Watch footage of Christopher rehearsing Polyphonia.
As well as Fool's Paradise and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, a brand new work by Christopher will also be staged during the 2012/13 season, opening on 22 February 2013 alongside a new work from Alexei Ratmansky and George Balanchine's Apollo.
Fool's Paradise runs from 3 - 14 November as part of a mixed programme.]]>
On Wednesday 17 October 2012, booking for Winter Season productions at the Royal Opera House opens for the general public. Booking for Winter Advanced Packages, which includes a Winter Family Package, has been open since 10 October.
You can see details of all bookable productions for the Winter Season on our website as well as the winter seating plan and price guide.
The Royal Opera opens the Winter Season with Kasper Holten's directorial debut Eugene Onegin. A production described by Kasper as a fresh reading of a classic opera, the titular role will be sung by Simon Keenlyside, who played the role of Macbeth in Covent Garden to critical acclaim in 2011. The season also features the hotly anticipated UK premiere of George Benjamin's Written on Skin, for which director Katie Mitchell makes her Royal Opera main stage debut; Jonathan Kent's much-loved production of the classic Tosca; and Daniele Abbado's new production of Nabucco, which will feature Plácido Domingo in the title role.
Royal Ballet productions for the Winter Season include three mixed bills, ranging from a Russian-flavoured evening of The Firebird, In the Night and Raymonda Act III, to a classic all-Ashton programme that includes the passionate Marguerite and Armand. New work comes from both Alexei Ratmansky, artist-in-residence at the American Ballet Theatre, and Christopher Wheeldon. These two works will be performed in a triple bill with George Balanchine's Apollo. The season also includes John Cranko's masterful Onegin, Arthur Pita's dance-theatre adaptation of Kafka's novella The Metamorphosis, and performances from Cassa Pancho's Ballet Black in the Linbury Studio Theatre.
Tamara Rojo as Marguerite, Sergei Polunin as Armand in Marguerite and Armand © Tristram Kenton/ROH 2011
Last night's closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games saw dancers from The Royal Ballet join their counterparts from other British dance companies and Darcey Bussell in a 200-strong ensemble choreographed by Alastair Marriott and Christopher Wheeldon at the climax of the three-hour spectacular.
Coming out of retirement, former Royal Ballet Principal Darcey descended onto the centre of the stage on a flaming phoenix where she joined Gary Avis, Edward Watson, Nehemiah Kish and Jonathan Cope for a performance inspired by the Olympic flame and spirit.
Watch the performance on BBC iPlayer
Take a look behind the scenes during rehearsals:
Gary Avis tweeted afterwards that the experience had been 'incredible', sharing a picture of the quintet backstage with Christopher Wheeldon and Alastair Marriott.
Darcey Bussell retired from professional dance in 2007 but remains involved in the art form. Earlier this year she was announced as a judge for the next season of the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing.
The ceremony also featured the music of Blur, whose frontman Damon Albarn performs at The Royal Opera House later this month as part of Yinka Shonibare's Deloitte Ignite.]]>
As Metamorphosis: Titian 2012 leaves the Covent Garden stage, fans of the work of Christopher Wheeldon can console themselves with this clip of the choreographer rehearsing Polyphonia. Originally part of Royal Ballet Live, the video features Christopher rehearsing the piece with artists including Leanne Benjamin, Sarah Lamb and the recently promoted Beatriz Stix-Brunell and Alexander Campbell.
Polyphonia was created in 2001 for New York City Ballet. It was most recently performed by The Royal Ballet in a triple bill with Wayne McGregor's Carbon Life and Liam Scarlett's Sweet Violets.
The next chance to see work by Christopher on the ROH stage is the one-act ballet Fool's Paradise in November. Other works by Wheeldon coming up in the 2012/13 season include an as yet untitled new commission (22 February - 14 March, in a triple bill with new works by Alexei Ratmansky and George Balanchine's Apollo) and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (15 March - 13 April).
Tonight's relay of Metamorphosis: Titian 2012 as part of BP Summer Big Screens is a perfect opportunity for audiences to sample the diversity of choreographic talent within the Royal Opera House.
Three different creative teams formed by a contemporary artist, a composer plus a pair or a trio of choreographers have produced three brand new dance pieces in response to the Titian paintings currently on display at the National Gallery's Sainsbury Wing: Diana and Callisto depicting the moment where the chaste goddess is shocked to discover the pregnancy of the most beautiful of her nymphs, Callisto, Diana and Actaeon in which the young hunter intrudes upon the bathing Diana, and The Death of Actaeon where the hunter - turned into a stag by the revengeful goddess - is torn to pieces by his own hounds.
Considered among Titian's greatest works, these large canvasses are the painter's own creative response to Ovid's poems, Metamorphoses, and they are the best starting point in order to understand what now motivates each of these three creative teams:
The first work by Wayne McGregor and Kim Brandstrup, Machina, eschews narrative in favour of suggestion and minimalism. Extreme angular shapes by the dancers, a baroque-influenced score by Nico Muhly and a high-tech concept by artist Conrad Shawcross. Known for his structural and mechanical montages, Shawcross has distilled the essence of Titian's main character in his "Diana-robot". The machine takes centre stage, sometimes vulnerable, but mostly dominant: Diana as a huntress on the look out for her next target.
In Trespass we see the symbols from Titian's paintings come to life. Mark Wallinger has put his artistic focus on the crescent moon headdress worn by Diana in two of the paintings, as well as on the peculiar juxtaposition of Diana/Actaeon across Titian's canvasses. Diana is goddess of the hunt but also of the moon, thus the idea of celestial bodies, the suggestion of man exploring and trespassing, with a nod to the Apollo mission. With a thrilling score by Mark-Anthony Turnage and a set that provides a 180-degree viewpoint for audiences (thanks to Wallinger's giant curved mirror), Alastair Marriott and Christopher Wheeldon have created for dancers Sarah Lamb, Steven McRae, Beatriz Stix-Brunell, Nehemiah Kish and Melissa Hamilton solos and duos of exquisite shapes (spot the crescent moon-shaped lift) that often recall antique sculpture.
Dance is an ideal medium for fleshing out emotion. While in Titian's paintings we can only imagine Diana's outrage at being discovered naked by the hunter Actaeon, on stage choreographers can attempt to translate those feelings into steps. Against the exotic and colourful landscape designed by Chris Ofili, Will Tuckett, Liam Scarlett and Jonathan Watkins examine the focal narrative point in Titian's work and explore this encounter between "Diana and Actaeon" from three different angles: surprise, outrage, anger, fear, threat and desire are suggested in the three pas de deux danced by Royal Ballet principals Marianela Nuñez and Federico Bonelli.
These three works, brimming with creativity and personality have much to offer to art lovers. Machina might appeal to those who admire contemporary dance, Trespass has a distinctive neoclassical flavour, while Diana and Actaeon will appeal to story-ballet lovers. All in all, this is a wonderful opportunity to see a cross-collaborative project come alive, a unique event in the London 2012 Festival calendar.
Federico Bonelli and Marianela Nunez in rehearsals for Metamorphosis: Titian 2012. © ROH/The Ballet Bag 2012
Federico Bonelli and Marianela Nunez in rehearsals for Metamorphosis: Titian 2012. © ROH/The Ballet Bag 2012
Leanne Benjamin in rehearsals for Metamorphosis: Titian 2012, with Edward Watson and Carlos Acosta. © ROH/The Ballet Bag 2012
Metamorphosis: Titian 2012 runs until Friday 20 July at the Royal Opera House with the performance on 16 July screened around the country as part of BP Summer Big Screens.
Emilia Spitz and Linda Uruchurtu write about ballet and dance at www.theballetbag.com. They have been named among the "100 Best Arts Tweeters" by The Times.]]>
The teams behind the scenes at the Royal Opera House are always busy, but this season has been particularly eventful. From the epic prop demands of David McVicar's upcoming Les Troyens to the mammoth task facing the costume team reviving Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, all have been hard at work ensuring that productions on stage live up to the Royal Opera House's world class reputation.
Recently, we followed the Props team as they embarked on the gruesome task of creating the famous severed head from Salome. The work, carried out by prop maker Steve Jolley, took three months and was documented in a short film. The full process was so fascinating, and took such an enormous amount of work, that we've cut an extended version to showcase it:
The Props team have also had the more appetising job of creating an array of fake food for Robert Carsen's new production of Falstaff. An entire banquet was created from latex - from a whole salmon to summer puddings and garden salads. View our gallery of prop food.
The Costume Department has also been a whirl of activity. The return of The Sleeping Beauty in late 2011 saw the corridors and workrooms of Covent Garden filled with multicoloured tutus in preparation for the staging of a piece with a huge cast. Costume Workshop Manager Mal Barton showed us how a tutu is made, and gave us a glimpse into fitting First Artist Claire Calvert for her Lilac Fairy costume. This followed the dazzling insight into the costumes for Jewels - a must-watch for fans of all things sparkly.
With around 3,000 wigs produced for the opera and ballet companies, the season has also been demanding for the Wigs department. As well as producing headpieces for new production, the team also maintain those worn in revived productions - a staggering 100,000 wigs are maintained by the small team per year. Watch our short film about the wigs department.
Over the coming months we'll be posting more content and films, including a peek behind the scenes on Les Troyens.]]>
Nearly 200 participants of all ages recently took part in a series of workshops at the High House Production Park in Purfleet and the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, exploring the characters and themes from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
Each session focused on a different creative skill – from design and dance to composition and spoken word. The families produced shadow puppets and learned how to animate them, composed songs and instrumental music, choreographed their own dances and turned their hand to creative writing.
At the end of the week curator and composer Rachel Leach and animator John Harmer took the families' work and edited it together to create a short film:
Listen to an example of the spoken word pieces they created:
Go to our Flickr gallery to see more images from the event.
If you missed this event, there are plenty of other opportunities to get involved in goings on at the Royal Opera House, such as the Community Chorus. Information on other projects is available on our Learning section.]]>
Watch vox pops from the opening night, filmed by the team from Winkball.
On 1 March, Royal Opera House Insights returns to Thameside Theatre in Grays, Essex, offering a deeper look at The Royal Ballet's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
Join choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, Royal Ballet dancers and members of the production team as they explore a world of tiny hedgehogs, croquet mallet flamingos, and a tap-dancing Mad Hatter.
Premiering last year, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is bursting with fresh, witty choreography and bold designs. At the insight you'll get an exclusive glimpse at dancers rehearsing the roles that take weeks to perfect as well as hearing from the production team about the challenges of creating a balletic hit.
Nearby Purfleet is the home of High House Production Park, the home of our scenery workshops and the UK's first ever national centre of excellence for technical skills, crafts and production for the performing arts and live music industries.
Tickets for the Insight event are currently on sale and can be purchased online or by calling the Box Office on 020 7304 4000.
There is a very specific thrill to an Insight Evening - the emotion to see dancers up close, to learn how they rehearse, to see them take risks a few feet from you. Extra treats, however, were in store on 14 May to introduce the last triple bill of The Royal Ballet's season, comprised of Chroma, Tryst and Symphony in C. One of the great Balanchine ballerinas of her time, Patricia Neary, was there to introduce the Balanchine masterpiece Symphony in C, and her presence in the studio seemed to energize dancers and audience alike. Tryst was then rehearsed by choreographer Christopher Wheeldon himself, later joined by Scottish composer James MacMillan for a discussion of the work's score. An embarrassment of riches, and the rare opportunity to see ballets being passed on by a muse and a choreographer in the same evening.
Patricia Neary launched the evening with a delightful bit of history. Symphony in C was originally choreographed for the Paris Opera Ballet in 1947 as Le Palais de Cristal - instead of the white tutus and plain backdrop we know today, Balanchine had the four movements dressed in different colours. The ballet then entered the repertoire of the New York City Ballet the following year under the name Symphony in C, after the Bizet symphony it is set to, and Balanchine's dancers always thought the two ballets were identical. When Patricia Neary was called to the Paris Opera Ballet to rehearse Le Palais de Cristal in the 1990s, however, she quickly realised they weren't - Balanchine had apparently forgotten a good deal of the choreography he had created the year before, and he started from scratch when it came to New York, creating what Patricia Neary deems the better version of one of his most famous "tutu" ballets.
Symphony in C is a company work - with 8 principals, 16 demi-soloists and 28 corps de ballet dancers, it fills the stage like few short works. For Patricia Neary, it also became a learning ballet. The third section was one of her first assignments at the New York City Ballet, and she went on to dance in the first and fourth movements. The only part she never performed was the Adagio - "Mr. Balanchine usually is in love with the girl who does that movement," she explained. The choreography is indeed a celebration of the Ballerina, and the audience was made aware of its spell as Neary guided Principals Marianela Nuñez and Rupert Pennefather through the entire pas de deux. The man disappears behind the woman, a mere cavalier as she melts in his arms, oblivious. Marianela Nuñez brought out the solemn, pensive beauty of the choreography, her back arching and initiating the flow in her arms, the emotion deepened here by the sound of her heavily breathing at the end of the long, difficult scene. Everything in the choreography urges the audience to fall in love, and with such crystalline execution, it is hard not to.
A rehearsal of the third movement of the ballet followed. It is a fast, virtuoso whirlwind of jumps, and Patricia Neary remembers struggling with it shortly after joining the New York City Ballet - she hadn't trained at Balanchine's School of American Ballet, and suddenly she realised what fast meant with him. As the former ballerina gave directions to Yuhui Choe and Sergei Polunin, one could see Balanchine's specific style emerging, with its emphasis on musicality and on an off-balance edge Choe was slowly incorporating.
Patricia Neary gleefully explained that she has found the Royal Ballet a perfect fit for Symphony in C as the four soloists flew through the finale, which traditionally brings together the entire 52-strong cast. The virtuoso classical coda, complete with jumps, turns and fouettés, is a gasp-inducing display of talent seen up close. "Mr. B" was proud of this ballet, we were told, and always rehearsed it himself, probably not least because it brings a company closer in its exacting classical beauty.
Christopher Wheeldon then introduced Tryst, his very first creation for The Royal Ballet, followed since by DGV and Electric Counterpoint. The work hasn't been seen since 2002, and newcomers Melissa Hamilton and Eric Underwood have therefore been learning from scratch the intricacies of the slow central pas de deux, which takes its cue from the Scottish feel of James MacMillan's score. We dove into their fresh reading along with Wheeldon, who suggested metaphors to take the neo-classical abstraction to another level - the idea of Zeus and Aphrodite coming together, with branches or wings growing from their backs as they extend their arms, shivering in the wind. A visible change took place as the dancers, pushed by Wheeldon, started to reach out and breathe life into the choreography's shapes. Abstract but far from expressionless, Tryst's pas de deux suddenly became a nuanced, layered whole.
The choreographer was finally joined by James MacMillan, the prolific composer of Tryst, for a discussion led by Rozzie Metherell. Originally from the west of Scotland, MacMillan composed his first piece on the piano when he was 9. His best teachers remain, he says, the great classical composers, not least Bach - they taught him music needs to be "both complex and luminous," not unlike choreography. As it happens, Tryst hadn't been composed with dance in mind back in 1989 - Christopher Wheeldon decided to use it one day as he was driving through Scotland with Tryst playing in the background, a perfect reflection of the landscape.
Stunned by the result, James MacMillan went on to work with the choreographer on a new score for a New York City Ballet premiere, Shambards. He is also conducting the complex Tryst for this season's revival, and discussed the idea that the music should be a support and inspiration for the dancers in performance, rather than the composer's sacred property. Symphony in C and Tryst are clear examples of what can be achieved through such dialogue between music and dance, and the two casts scheduled for this triple bill are set to bring out different facets of both ballets' complex architecture.
Laura Cappelle]]>