Barry Kosky continues his Ring Cycle at the RBO with a Five-Star Siegfried In Siegfried, the third part of Der Ring des Nibelungen, Richard Wagner shifts the focus away from the troubled world of the gods towards the energy of youth on earth. This is storytelling through opera, where the theatre is crucial and the […]
Pierrot Lunaire – Linbury Theatre – RBO
An evocative dance-theatre meditation with stunning musical accompaniment. The haunting music of Pierrot Lunaire, written in 1912 for a singer and a small group of instrumentalists, sets 21 poems by the Belgian poet Albert Giraud (in German translation) to music. Three sets of seven poems revolve around Pierrot, the clown from commedia dell’arte. It’s a […]
Yorke Dance Project Honours Modern Dance Pioneers
Yolande Yorke-Edgell Talks to London Unattached about Modern Milestones “Legacy is very important to me”, says Yolande Yorke-Edgell, British dancer, choreographer and founder of the Yorke Dance Project, which launched in Los Angeles in 1998 and relaunched in the UK in 2009, thus spanning the width of the Atlantic Ocean, not only geographically, but also […]
Turandot From the Royal Opera. A Winter Spectacle Worth the Cold
Puccini’s epic show Turandot returns to Covent Garden. Puccini’s Turandot, with its combination of myth, ritual and emotional extremity, suits dark evenings and the build-up to Christmas, when audiences seem especially ready for spectacle and intensity. Set in a fantastical ancient Peking, the opera unfolds with a story of ceremony, fear, and the possibility of love, moving […]
The Nutcracker, The Royal Ballet
A Magical Christmas Treat at Covent Garden Nothing says Christmas like The Nutcracker; and nothing says truly magical, transporting, transcendental Christmas like The Royal Ballet’s The Nutcracker. Sir Peter Wright’s incomparable production of the Christmas ballet, regularly spruced up since its premiere just over 40 years ago, has officially opened the festive season at a […]
London City Ballet, Rebirth
Works by Page, Robbins, Chu, Ratmansky You simply cannot say it often enough: London City Ballet is A. Good. Thing. Barely two years old, this small modern-day reiteration of the late lamented eponymous troupe (1978-1997), a favourite of Princess Diana’s, carved its place in the British ballet scene from the word “go” with a combination […]
The Royal Ballet, Perspectives: Balanchine, Marston, Peck
The Royal Ballet’s first triple bill of the season marries a seminal old work by George Balanchine, his 1934 Serenade, to modern day New York in Justin Peck’s 2014 Everywhere We Go, now borrowed by the Royal Ballet for the first time, by way of a brand new piece by Cathy Marston entitled Against the Tide.
Osipova/Linbury
The Great Natalia Osipova Goes Beyond the Confines of Ballet Best known pretty well the world over as an outstanding classical ballerina – a ballet superstar – over the past few years, Natalia Osipova has embarked on self-curated projects that explore her talents beyond the confines of ballet. Her current show at the RBO second […]
The Makropulos Case – Royal Ballet and Opera
In a cluttered lawyer’s office in Prague, a court case has dragged on for generations. Papers pile up, tempers fray, and then a stranger enters. She is dazzling, remote and eerily well-informed about events that happened centuries ago. Her name is Emilia Marty, and she has been alive for more than 300 years. So begins Janáček’s The Makropulos Case, a work that refuses to behave like any other opera.
Joburg Ballet: Communion of Light
Joberg Ballet, a two-dozen-strong company is under the artistic direction of Dane Hurst, a South African dancer, who is well known to British ballet audiences, having danced for many years with several UK companies, among them Rambert, Phoenix, National Dance Company of Wales and Company Wayne McGregor. Hurst is also an in-demand choreographer.