Category Archives: Ballet

Sweet sorrow: Matthew Ball and Lauren Cuthbertson dance a heart-rending Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet The Royal Ballet, 26th March 2019 “Parting is such sweet sorrow.” So perfect is Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s choreography in the Balcony Scene of Romeo and Juliet that one can almost hear Shakespeare’s lines being spoken by the … Continue reading

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Last Rites: Puccini meets Stravinsky in Leeds

The Rite of Spring/ Gianni Schicchi Phoenix Dance Theatre, Opera North, Leeds Grand Theatre, 16th February 2019 Stravinsky’s ballet The Rite of Spring famously caused a riot at its 1913 premiere at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. Demonstrations disrupted the performance, … Continue reading

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Núñez and Muntagirov light up Don Quixote

Don Quixote The Royal Ballet, 15th February 2019 Perhaps it’s written in the skies why Carlos Acosta’s staging of Don Quixote for The Royal Ballet looks tame. In the outer acts, fluffy white clouds scud across powder blue. For all … Continue reading

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Traditional to the corps: ENB’s Swan Lake returns

Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake **** English National Ballet, Coliseum, 3rd January 2019 Ballets blancs: ghostly wilis in Giselle; the Shades in Bayadère; snowflakes in Nutcracker; or here… swans. They are the great white scenes for ballerina and female corps – bourrée-ing … Continue reading

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Swans, severed heads and a deerstalker: 2018 in review

“Wow! That’s some year you’ve had!” was a message written in one of this year’s Christmas cards. “Aiming to top it in 2019?” I’m not sure I have the energy! My outstanding operatic experience of the year was easily Salome at … Continue reading

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