| ROYAL
BALLET
The
Royal Opera House
Covent Garden
London
Box Office: +44 020 7304 4000
Updated 10 April
2008
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The
Sleeping Beauty
Main Auditorium
March 13 - May 6, 2008
The
Sleeping Beauty is one of the
most-loved of classical ballets, combining
in a single work all the charms and
virtuosity that ballet has to offer.
Favourite highlights of music and dance
run through it, and include Tchaikovsky's
famous and lyrical Waltz and the Rose
Adage as Aurora meets in turn her four
princely suitors. This famous staging
was created for the The Royal Ballet
in 1946, and revived for the 75th anniversary
celebrations of Company in 2006. Luscious
designs bring to life the royal court,
the panoramic journey of the Prince
to the overgrown castle and the great
celebratory dances (including other
famous figures from fairytale) of the
happy ending. A great showcase for the
Company's talents and a living
milestone in its history, this Sleeping
Beauty's style and visual
splendour are unique to The Royal Ballet.
Serenade
/ New Brandstrup / Homage to The Queen
Main Auditorium
April 23 -May 14, 2008
Three works -
six choreographers. To open, music of
Tchaikovsky partners George Balanchine's
choreography in Serenade, one of Balanchine's
most popular works - he modestly
described it as ‘dancers in motion
to a beautiful piece of music'.
Next, acclaimed choreographer Kim Brandstrup
creates his first new work specially
made on The Royal Ballet's dancers
for the main stage. Finally, Homage
to The Queen mixes original Frederick
Ashton choreography with new sections
by Christopher Wheeldon, Michael Corder
and David Bintley. Originally devised
by Ashton in celebration of the coronation
of Her Majesty The Queen in 1953, this
reworking from 2006 becomes a delightful
compendium of Royal Ballet history and
creativity in a single work.
Dances
at a Gathering / The Dream
Main Auditorium
May 17 - June 10, 2008
After an absence of
30 years Jerome Robbins's great
work Dances at a Gathering makes an
exciting return to The Royal Ballet.
To solo piano works by Chopin, ten dancers
explore the potential of dance itself
through shifting relationships that
also reflect the moods of the music's
mazurkas, waltzes and études.
With virtuoso technique and individual
character at the heart of its creation,
every performance of Dances by The Royal
Ballet will be a unique experience to
savour.
There's a strong
contrast in the second work of the programme,
The Dream: with Shakespeare's
story of a midsummer's night,
Mendelssohn's delightfully delicate
music and Frederick Ashton's ever-popular
choreography. In its magic world of
night and within its evocative woodland
setting, Oberon and Titania play their
games with the unwitting mortals, while
the comic confusions of love are aggravated
by the mischievous Puck.
Romeo
and Juliet
Main Auditorium
May 26 - June 13, 2008
Kenneth MacMillan's
great interpretation of Shakespeare's
enduring tragedy is one of the most
popular works in the Royal Ballet repertory
- and one of the greatest examples
of 20th-century choreography. Against
the background of Renaissance Italy,
a chance meeting ignites a profound
love between Romeo and Juliet, bringing
with it the hope - tragically unfulfilled
- that they may unite in peace
their opposing families, the Montagues
and the Capulets. The romance and tensions
of the story particularly suit the breadth
of MacMillan's talent: from the physical
bravado of young men, whether sword
fighting or out on the town, to the
formality of a grand ball and poignant,
intimate scenes between the young lovers.
Prokofiev's musical score is a classic
of passion and colour matched perfectly
by MacMillan's beautifully fluid and
touching dance interpretation.
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