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Royal Ballet2002/03 Season Details |
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Here are ROH details of the 2002 - 2002 season at the Royal Opera House. We concentrate on the Royal Ballet here - you can find Royal Opera details on the ROH site.
In some links on the left you can see discussion that arose from the release of 2002/03 programme, including comment on the press briefing given by Tony Hall, Ross Stretton and Antonio Pappano. You can also add your thoughts and comments on the season as well. We also have links to two pieces that discuss the new season and put it in context. We hope you find our coverage useful and relevant
Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos begins Antonio Pappano's tenure as the new Music Director of The Royal Opera. The first of eight new productions of opera - out of a total of twenty - which we are mounting over the Season. Just before Christmas we are also presenting a brand new work, the world premiere of Nicholas Maw's Sophie's Choice, directed by Trevor Nunn and conducted by Simon Rattle. This will be Ross Stretton's second Season as Director of The Royal Ballet. He will be bringing more internationally acclaimed choreographers to Covent Garden for the first time, as well as presenting ballets commemorating Kenneth MacMillan, a decade after his death. There will also be a new production by Natalia Makarova of The Sleeping Beauty . Under Deborah Bull's leadership, we will be using the Linbury Studio Theatre, the Clore Studio Upstairs and the Vilar Floral Hall to support new artists, develop new art and welcome new audiences. We will be continuing with the Artists’ Development Initiative and showcasing the work of the Vilar Young Artists and we will be launching partnerships with NITRO (formerly Black Theatre Co-op), and with Music Theatre Wales. Couple that with a special commission for Christmas, and we have a diverse and wonderful year ahead away from the main stage.  Alina Cojocaru on the front cover of the 2002/03 Season Guide We have had some encouraging results from recent research into our audiences. Following an analysis of our ticket bookers who are not part of any of the Royal Opera House's membership schemes, results have shown that during the first Season we opened the redeveloped House 53% of ticket bookers were completely new audience members. This number has been sustained in the 2000/01 Season where 52% were completely new and in Booking Periods 1 & 2 (19 Sep - 9 Feb) of the current Season, we have already recorded 32% of the audience as new. I am also delighted to report that we have traded to a small surplus for the third successive year, with consistently high box office figures. In all that we do artistically we must stand for excellence, we are all equally committed to allowing as many people as possible to see and enjoy what we do. That is why, in the coming year, we will continue our BP opera and ballet in the Piazza series - but hope to take them outside London too. We plan to show at least three of our productions on BBC TV, including Sophie’s Choice and 12 productions will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3. About 40,000 people take part in our Education work each year. In 2002/03 we have commissioned a new opera for schools, Babette's Feast which will receive its premiere in November. Following the success of the Björk concert we will continue our series of occasional concerts to draw a new audience into Covent Garden. We try to do all we can to make our seats affordable to as many people as possible, so for the second year running, half the seats for every performance will be held at £50 or less. In addition, the top price for two operas in this season - Wozzeck and Sophie's Choice will be £50. This is the first Season that Antonio Pappano, Ross Stretton and I will be working together. We are all looking forward enormously to taking this wonderful opera house into the next phase of its history.
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE ROYAL BALLET 2002/03 SEASON
This Season I am delighted to be able to include in our programme six ballets new to the repertory created by some of the finest choreographers in the world today. David Bintley, Mats Ek, Jirí Kylián, Mark Morris, Angelin Preljocaj and Christopher Wheeldon are all recognised as being amongst the foremost exponents of their art form and I am enormously grateful that they have found time to work with the Company this Season. The diversity and range of their work will undoubtedly provide many exciting challenges for the dancers. The 19th-century classics are the cornerstone of any great classical company’s repertory. In the autumn, Anthony Dowell’s production of Swan Lake returns, to be followed at Christmas by Peter Wright’s version of The Nutcracker. In March, completing the trilogy of Tchaikovsky ballets for the Season, I have invited Natalia Makarova to stage a new production of The Sleeping Beauty for the Company with designs by Luisa Spinatelli. In May, we pay homage to our founder, Dame Ninette de Valois, with a triple bill that includes a world premiere from David Bintley. Now Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet, Bintley was admired greatly by de Valois both as dancer and choreographer and he will dedicate the ballet, his first work for The Royal Ballet in ten years, to her. The remaining ballets in this programme are by the two choreographers most closely associated with The Royal Ballet, Frederick Ashton and Kenneth MacMillan. Another focus of the Season will be the work of Kenneth MacMillan, whose extraordinary contribution to the dance world we remember on the 10th anniversary of his untimely death in 1992. Three of his full-length works, Manon, Mayerling and The Prince of the Pagodas, all of which were created for The Royal Ballet, will appear during the Season. His one-act masterwork Song of the Earth, which he created for the Stuttgart Ballet, and Winter Dreams, one of his last works for The Royal Ballet, are also included. This Season, in addition to the programme on the main stage, the artists of the Company will continue to explore further opportunities as dancers and choreographers, and extend their skills into other such areas as arts administration through their involvement in the ongoing projects in the Clore Studio Upstairs and the Linbury Studio Theatre. There is so much on offer throughout the House during the forthcoming year. Please join us in celebrating the best of the past and present and in heralding the future.
Christopher Wheeldon Supported (2002) by The Dalriada Trust
GONG
CARMEN 22, 24, 25, 28 October, 4, 5, (8 schools mat) November at 7.30pm The Season opens on 22 October with ballets by three contrasting choreographers, beginning with Christopher Wheeldon. Wheeldon has established himself as one of the finest classical choreographers of his generation. He began his career at the Royal Ballet School later joining The Royal Ballet. Now as Resident Choreographer with New York City Ballet, his work has won acclaim across America both on stage and screen. His latest work, which has its world premiere in May 2002, will undoubtedly build on the huge success of his previous Royal Ballet creations including Pavane pour une infante défunte in 1996 and There where she loves for The Royal Ballet ‘New Works’. Wheeldon’s new ballet uses James MacMillan’s orchestral composition, Tryst, which received its premiere in 1990 at the St Magnus Festival. Designer, Jean-Marc Puissant, will be working for the first time with The Royal Ballet, following last year’s successes designing for David Bintley’s The Seasons for Birmingham Royal Ballet and Wheeldon’s VIII for Hamburg Ballet. Mark Morris will work with The Royal Ballet for the first time in bringing a ballet created for American Ballet Theatre. First seen at the Metropolitan Opera House in 2001, GONG is a ballet for ten women and five men. GONG is very much an ensemble piece incorporating an Indonesian texture from the music, costumes and choreography, resulting in an elegant balletic and formal piece. Mark Morris has set the ballet to Colin McPhee’s Balinese inspired Tabuh-Tabuhan. McPhee, who worked with the Institute of Latino Musicology in California, composed and first performed this score in Mexico City in 1930. Morris brings costume designer Isaac Mizrahi back to the Royal Opera House for the second time. Their previous collaboration being the critically acclaimed Platée performed by The Royal Opera in 1997. Mats Ek is famous for his vividly theatrical alternatives of the classics and his take on Bizet’s celebrated opera in no exception. Created a decade ago for the Cullberg Ballet, a predatory Carmen leads the potent sexual games, while the pathos of the piece is left to rest with Don José. Mats Ek uses Georges Bizet’s score, transcribed for strings and percussion by Rodion Shchedrin, with designs by Marie-Louise Ekman that take a modern perspective on traditional Spanish motifs. Charles Barker conducts.
Mayerling is the first of five ballets by Kenneth MacMillan in this Season, part of the international celebration of Kenneth MacMillan marking the 10 th anniversary of his death. Last performed at the Royal Opera House in 1994 this three-act ballet is based on the true story of the Austro-Hungarian Crown Prince Rudolf. The double death of Rudolf and his mistress, the 17-year-old Mary Vetsera, at the royal hunting lodge of Mayerling in 1889, has been shrouded in mystery and intrigue ever since. The ballet places Rudolph at the centre of his corrupt and hypocritical court society, through his drug addled liaisons we see his descent into the arms of Mary Vetsera, his ruthless mistress. This emotional study of deeply flawed characters is MacMillan at his best, swinging wildly through a landscape of hatred, love and desire towards death. Mayerling is set to music by Franz Liszt, arranged and orchestrated by John Lanchbery, with libretto by Gillian Freeman and period designs by the late Nicholas Georgiadis. Barry Wordsworth and Graham Bond will conduct.
The enduring love story of a princess turned into a swan by an evil magician is danced to one of Tchaikovsky’s most memorable scores, with timeless choreography by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov. Tchaikovsky was commissioned to write Swan Lake for the Bolshoi Ballet in 1875, and the first version of the ballet, choreographed by Wenzel Reisinger, made its premiere in 1877. This began a rather chequered history, Joseph Hansen revised the ballet shortly after, only to be dropped completely six years later. In 1895 a new version choreographed by Lev Ivanov and Marius Petipa was danced by the Kirov Ballet and this is now considered the definitive version. Over time there have been countless new versions created both in the tradition of the original and as wildly abstract approaches. Anthony Dowell’s production, set in Russia at the turn of the 20 th -century, was created reinstating rarely performed choreography based on notations made in St. Petersburg before the 1917 revolution. Swan Lake is a ballet filled with spectacle and virtuosity performed against Yolanda Sonnabend’s Fabergé-inspired designs. Charles Barker conducts.
Peter Wright’s revised staging of The Nutcracker returns to the repertory for the Christmas Season. The story, based on Hoffmann’s tale, tells how Drosselmeyer, a mysterious magician and maker of clocks and mechanical toys tries to break a curse that turned his nephew into a nutcracker doll. One magical Christmas Eve, the audience is drawn into a world of fantasy where Drosselmeyer has enlisted the help of a young girl, Clara to break the curse. There is grand battle between clockwork soldiers and the mice led by the Mouse King. With the defeat of the Mouse King, through Clara’s intervention, the curse is broken and the Nutcracker is transformed to his true self. He and Clara then travel through the magical Kingdom of the Sweets for a magnificent celebration with Drosselmeyer. Tchaikovsky’s sparkling score has all the magic of Christmas, and Julia Trevelyan Oman’s nostalgic designs will enchant adults and children alike. Valerie Ovsyanikov conducts.
WINTER DREAMS
SINFONIETTA Frederick Ashton described Scènes de Ballet as ‘just an exercise in pure dancing’. This one-act ballet, choreographed to Stravinsky’s score of the same title, is a complex and lively piece. Choreographed to the geometric studies of Euclid, Ashton intended that this ballet could be viewed from any angle and still ‘work’. Scènes de Ballet is a homage to 19 th -century classicism with designs by André Beaurepaire. Last performed at the Royal Opera House in 1992 it makes a welcome return this Season. Winter Dreams began as the ‘Farewell’ pas de deux, danced by Darcey Bussell and Irek Mukhamedov, specially commissioned to celebrate Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother’s 90 th Birthday at the Palladium. Kenneth MacMillan extended this to a one-act ballet, with Winter Dreams making its premiere in February 1991. Inspired by and using the same characters, it is a study of the melancholy in Chekhov’s Three Sisters. The ballet, with subtle period designs from Peter Farmer, is danced to selected works from Tchaikovsky arranged by Philip Gammon and with additional music based on traditional Russian themes, arranged for guitars and mandolins by Thomas Hartman. Jirí Kylián’s one-act ballet Sinfonietta enters The Royal Ballet repertory for the first time, set to Janá c ek’s eponymous score with designs by Walter Nobbe. A very physical and uplifting piece, Sinfonietta is the second Kylián work to be danced by The Royal Ballet. In 1984 the Company first performed his one-act ballet, Return to the Strange Land. The Czech choreographer, discovered and nurtured by John Cranko, is celebrated for his fluency of movement and the broad emotional range his ballets cover. Charles Barker will conduct this programme.
Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon has been one of the Company’s signature works since its creation in 1974. Based on Abbé Prévost’s L’Histoire du Chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut this magnificent ballet follows the fall of the central character, Manon, from Parisian courtesan to a fugitive in the Louisiana swamps. Despite falling in love with a young Parisian, Des Grieux, Manon agrees to a financial arrangement that her brother has made with a wealthy but elderly gentleman, Monsieur G.M. A victim of her own avarice, she persuades Des Grieux to cheat Monsieur G.M. out of more money at a card game. When they are discovered she is arrested as a prostitute and deported to America, followed by her lover. The ballet ends in a crescendo of rape, murder and Manon’s spiral into madness. Emotionally charged, Jules Massenet’s music, arranged by Leighton Lucas, from songs, piano pieces and arias (though none from his opera Manon) follows the protagonists through soaring heights of ecstasy to the depths of despair, all portrayed against Nicholas Georgiadis’s sumptuous regency designs. Graham Bond conducts.
Natalia Makarova will re-create the enduring fairytale, The Sleeping Beauty, the story of a Princess and her household sent into a slumber by the embittered and evil fairy Carabosse. A favourite with all ages, this new production of The Sleeping Beauty will be danced to Tchaikovsky’s original score with new designs by Luisa Spinatelli. Makarova, acknowledged as one of the greatest exponents of ballet, began her dancing career with the Kirov Ballet in 1959. After her defection to the West in 1970 she danced with nearly all of the world’s greatest ballet companies, and then pursued a stage career as a musical and comedy actress, for which she won an Olivier Award. The Sleeping Beauty will be her second production for The Royal Ballet. Performances will be conducted by Valery Ovsyanikov and Charles Barker.
Angelin Preljocaj, a classically trained dancer before studying contemporary dance, created the three-act ballet, Le Parc, for the Paris Opéra Ballet in 1994. It explores the various codes of conduct for love throughout the 17 th and 18 th -century French literature, from the innocence of inspirational love to licentiousness. Preljocaj takes the ballet through an evolving landscape as the games of love are played out, and the strategies of the lovers are laid bare for the audience. Danced against a highly symbolic and pastoral set by Thierry Leproust, with lavish costumes from Hervé Pierre, Le Parc uses some of Mozart’s most exquisite orchestral music alongside sound creation by Goran Vejvoda.
First performed at the Royal Opera House in December 1989, MacMillan’s The Prince of the Pagodas is danced to Benjamin Britten’s score, commissioned by John Cranko for his original ballet in 1957. When Kenneth MacMillan began the delicate process of strengthening and re-structuring the ballet’s narrative he employed the help of travel writer and novelist Colin Thubron, who initially thought ‘re-plot a ballet? How can you?’ However, The Prince of the Pagodas, often described as a combination of King Lear, Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella, was re-created and enriched to offer a mature approach to the fairytale genre. The story follows an ailing Emperor who decides to divide his kingdom unequally between his two daughters, Princesses Épine and Rose. Épine, the slighted daughter, lays a curse on the empire, transforming her sister’s beloved Prince into a salamander. Britten’s score was heavily influenced by Balinese music which he used as an authentic integration rather than a façade, in many ways making this work pioneering at the moment of conception. The oriental theme is followed through with Nicholas Georgiadis’s vivid designs. Richard Bernas will conduct.
NEW BINTLEY BALLET
SONG OF THE EARTH David Bintley returns to choreograph a new work for The Royal Ballet. In 1980 Bintley began his choreographic relationship with the Company with Adieu, a successful debut followed by nine other ballets including Galanteries, the ever-popular ‘Still Life’ at the Penguin Café, and Tombeaux, the last ballet he choreographed for the Company. Ashton’s Scènes de Ballet opens the programme with MacMillan’s the third part. Song of the Earth is set to Mahler’s great song cycle Das Lied von der Erde, the composer’s poignant farewell to the joy and beauty of the world, which uses settings of ancient Chinese poems. In this ballet, music, poetry and choreography combine to show that whilst our individual lives are short, the earth is in an eternal process of renewal. MacMillan’s imagery captures the essence and atmosphere of the poems and matches the elegiac beauty of Mahler’s score. Song of the Earth uses designs by MacMillan’s lifelong collaborator, Nicholas Georgiadis. The programme is conducted by Barry Wordsworth
Tara Bhavnani, Artist – born in Burlington, Ontario, she trained at the National Ballet School of Canada and is currently with L’École de Danse de L’Opera National de Paris. She has won the Erik Bruhn Memorial Award and the Peter Dwyer award for excellence in dance. Lauren Cuthbertson, Artist - age 17 was born in Devon and began dancing with the Junior Associates, Royal Ballet School, White Lodge and Upper School from Sept 1995 – Feb 2002. She gained 2 nd place in the Young British Dancer of the Year in 2000 and in 2001 she was the Silver Medallist at the Adeline Genée Award. Emma-Jane Maguire, Artist - age 18 was born in Yorkshire and came to train with Junior Associates, Royal Ballet School, White Lodge and Upper School from September 1994 to February 2002. She was a Bronze Medallist at the Adeline Genée Award in 2001 and was also a winner of the Kerrison Cooke Bursary. Viviana Mastrella, Artist – came from Arena di Verona Company Kristen McNally Artist - age 19 was born in Merseyside, and started her training with the Royal Ballet Upper School from September 1999 until February 2002. Pietra-Mello Pittman, Artist - age 18 born in Surrey, started her training with the Royal Ballet Upper School From September 1999 until February 2002. Jamie Bond, Artist - age 19 from Essex, trained at the Royal Ballet School, White Lodge and Upper School from September 1994 until February 2002. Jamie was the Young British Dancer of the Year winner in 2000 and the UK representative for Eurovision Young Dancer competition in 2001. Adam Linder, Artist - age 18 from Australia, started his training in the UK at the Royal Ballet Upper School from January 2000 until February 2002. James Wilkie, Artist - age 19 from Wiltshire, started his training as a Junior Associate, Royal Ballet School, White Lodge and Upper School from September 1994 until February 2002. He was a Bronze Medallist in the 2001 Adeline Genée Awards.
Robert Tewsley, Principal - trained at the Royal Ballet School, joined the National Ballet of Canada (1990), and the Stuttgart Ballet (1996). He made his Royal Ballet debut in John Cranko’s Onegin in November 2001. Jose Martin, Soloist - trained with Victor Ullate, Madrid, School of American Ballet and San Fransisco Ballet School. He joined San Fransisco Ballet (1994 Soloist), Zurich Ballet (1997 Soloist), Alberta Ballet (1998 Principal), English National Ballet (2000 Soloist) and is currently with Boston Ballet as Soloist. He won the Jackson International Competition (Special Prize of the Jury). Isobel McMeekan, First Artist - born in London, she trained at Elmhurst Ballet School and Royal Ballet Upper School. She joined Birmingham Royal Ballet (1996), and was promoted to Soloist in 2000. Valeri Hristov, First Artist - born in Sofia, Bulgaria, he trained at the State Chore School. He was a finalist at both the Varna, Bulgaria and International Ballet Competitions and was most recently PACT Ballet in Pretoria. He is currently with Pacific Northwest Ballet, Seattle, Tim Matiakis, First Artist - currently with Royal Swedish Ballet. Andrej Uspenski, Artist - born in St Petersburg, Russia, he trained at the Vaganova School, St Petersburg, the Palucca School, Dresden and the State Ballet School, Berlin. He has gained 2 nd Prize in the International Ballet Competition, Italy and 2 nd Prize in the International Ballet Competition, Russia. He is currently with Royal Danish Ballet.
The programme will include small-scale performance’s from the resident companies showcasing emerging talent and experimenting with new ideas; work from ROH Education; work under the umbrella of the Artists’ Development Initiative and performances and other events from the Vilar Young Artists. In addition, the Royal Opera House will put in place a series of partnerships with arts organisations, performing companies and individual artists to address and further common aims of supporting and developing new artists, welcoming new audiences and creating and presenting new art. The first of these partnerships will be with two diverse and innovative companies: Music Theatre Wales and NITRO. Following on from their successful presentations of Peter Maxwell Davies’ The Lighthouse and Michael Berkeley’s Jane Eyre, Music Theatre Wales will work with the Royal Opera House over the course of the partnership to present contemporary chamber opera in the Linbury Studio Theatre. Their first presentation will be Nigel Osborne’s The Electrification of the Soviet Union. NITRO will be collaborating with the Royal Opera House on music-theatre and dance-theatre projects including a unique version of its NITRObeat festival, NITRO at the Opera, to develop the work of black British composers writing for the classical voice. Partnerships with individual artists – Artists-in-House – will offer a range of individuals including composers, choreographers, visual artists, writers, digital artists and scientists the opportunity to collaborate with the Royal Opera House in exploring new ideas and presenting new work throughout the alternative spaces of the building. Linbury Studio Theatre This Season, the Royal Opera House will present two new works specially commissioned for the Linbury Studio Theatre: Babette’s Feast, an opera for schools by John Browne, and for Christmas The Wind in the Willows, a family entertainment developed and choreographed by William Tuckett. Clore Studio Upstairs In the Clore Studio Upstairs, the established ADI programme will continue to offer a range of small-scale performance as well as creative and developmental opportunities to individual independent artists and ROH artists and personnel. ADI exists to offer small-scale companies and independent artists the opportunity to access the resources and specialist expertise of the Royal Opera House; to provide an arena for experimentation and collaboration; to offer opportunities for continuing professional development to artists from both inside and outside the Royal Opera House. Over its first two years, ADI worked with well over 250 artists including composers, dancers, musicians, visual artists, photographers, designers, writers, actors, film makers and over 30 choreographers. During the 2001/02 season, ADI supported 16 projects.
KENNETH MACMILLAN: PRINCIPAL CHOREOGRAPHER OF THE ROYAL BALLET (1977-1992) The choreographer Kenneth MacMillan explored in his work subject matters and human relationships and behaviour in a way that changed the face of ballet. His works include dramatic dance dramas which portray searing, passionate and sometimes destructive relationships and behaviour. He trained at Sadler’s Wells (now the Royal) Ballet School and joined Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet in 1946. In 1952, he choreographed his first ballet Somnabulism, which was the highlight of the first evening of choreography given by the Sadler’s Wells Ballet Choreographic Group. Ninette de Valois commissioned him to create a ballet to Stravinsky’s Danses concertantes in 1955, the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship which was to lead to MacMillan becoming Director of The Royal Ballet from 1970 – 1977 and its principal choreographer from 1977. He died unexpectedly in 1992, during a performance of his Mayerling by The Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House, in the theatre which had been his home. On the tenth anniversary of his death, the Royal Opera House Archives are mounting a retrospective of his early choreographic works for the two Royal Ballet companies, which were also the beginnings of his collaboration with designer Nicholas Georgiadis and dancer Lynn Seymour. The exhibition on the ground floor of the theatre, in the Vilar Floral Hall and the Amphitheatre Corridor will include costumes, head dresses, set and costume designs and photographs from Danses concertantes, House of Birds, The Burrow, Agon and The Invitation as well as from MacMillan’s first full length ballet Romeo and Juliet.
SEPTEMBER 2002 On the 25 th anniversary of the death of Maria Callas, an exhibition recalls her great roles at Covent Garden. Callas made her debut at the Royal Opera House in November 1952 in the title role in Bellini’s Norma. Her costume as Norma and the iconic red dress she wore as Tosca in the second act of the 1964 Zeffirelli production of Puccini’s Tosca will be on display in the main entrance to the theatre. There will be a small accompanying photographic exhibition in the Foyer.
OCTOBER 2002 During Black History Month, the Royal Opera House celebrates the contribution of black artists to The Royal Ballet and The Royal Opera with an exhibition in the Piazza Link.
2003 Rudolf Nureyev was the first high-profile Russian ballet defector to leap to freedom in the West in 1961. Shortly after, Ninette de Valois invited him to appear with Margot Fonteyn and The Royal Ballet in Giselle in 1962 and it was to be the beginning of a legendary partnership. Following the tenth anniversary of Nureyev’s death in 1993, an exhibition will recall the roles Nureyev danced with The Royal Ballet as well as ballets he staged for the Company. The exhibition on the ground floor, the Vilar Floral Hall and Amphitheatre Corridor will include costumes, set and costume designs and photographs.
2003 This Season Edward Downes celebrates having conducted for The Royal Opera in every Season since 1953. Edward Downes joined the music staff of the Royal Opera House in 1952, conducting his first performance during the Covent Garden Opera Company’s 33?visit to Bulawayo in 1953. An exhibition of photographs and programmes on the ground floor portrays highlights from productions he has conducted in the last 50 years.
During the 2002/03 Season, the Royal Opera House will continue its already extensive education projects, currently reaching over 40,000 people each year, while building on new initiatives. THE EDUCATION PROGRAMME HIGHLIGHTS FOR 2002/03 YOUNG/NEW AUDIENCES INITIATIVE A programme of new small-scale work for performance in the Linbury Studio Theatre and for touring is being developed as part of a Young/New Audiences Initiative. Following enthusiastic reception of Sixty Minute Cinderella, a further new opera for 8-11 year olds, Babette’s Feast, will receive its premiere in November in the Linbury Studio Theatre.
BABETTE’S FEAST
The Commission There will be five performances for schools only, reaching 1350 young people, and three public performances. To accompany the schools’ performances there will be an extensive programme of workshops. There will also be workshops and pre-performance talks running in conjunction with the public performances. Each class group will take part in a half-day in-school workshop, introducing key dramatic and musical themes, characters and elements of narrative, planned in collaboration with the production’s composer, librettist and director. A teachers’ pack and series of Inset sessions will accompany the project, with specific emphasis on student preparation and follow-up ideas in the classroom after the visit to the performance.
CHANCE TO DANCE This exciting and successful project continues into its second decade. This September as the project team commences the annual programme of visits to schools in Lambeth, Southwark and Hammersmith & Fulham, Shevelle Dynott, one of the project’s first scholars, will enter the Royal Ballet Upper School. The project functions on a number of levels. 14,439 children have participated in the autumn lecture demonstrations and workshops and 572 children have been awarded scholarships which comprise special ballet classes in their local community, free dance kit, and associated activities and outings. Strong links are forged with the Royal Opera House and its performing companies with students attending performances and occasionally taking part in Royal Ballet productions. Members of The Royal Ballet have participated in the annual lecture demonstrations, and have performed with the children three times in the ROH Linbury Studio Theatre in short versions of The Nutcracker (November 1999), Coppélia (December 2000) and La Fille mal gardée (March 2002). 18 children have been successful in gaining Local Education Authority grants and/or bursaries and have progressed to full-time training at vocational dance schools including: the Royal Ballet School (White Lodge); Arts Educational School (Chiswick); Arts Educational School (Tring); Elmhurst Ballet School; Northern Ballet School. In addition, 24 Chance to Dance students have also been successful in auditions for places on the Royal Ballet School Junior Associates programme, which offers Saturday classes for children who show exceptional talent. * One of the aims of Chance to Dance is to ensure that, in the long term, no child will feel that the world of ballet is inaccessible. OTHER PROJECTS INCLUDE CLORE DUFFIELD SCHOOLS’ MATINEES PROGRAMME offers six performances per annum (three operas, three ballets) with all seats at £5 and a programme of free preparatory activities for teachers and students. Those visiting the Royal Opera House for the first time are given priority for these popular and oversubscribed performances.
CREATIVE VOICES A major, long-term project in South Africa, working with artists, teachers and students, predominantly in Soweto and central Johannesburg. The project involves exchange visits and sharing of experience and expertise. After an extremely successful launch in 2001, a second phase of training courses for local artists and teachers began in February 2002. Performances of the new operas they create with the young people will take place during September and October.
WRITE AN OPERA The Write an Opera project, reaches teachers and students in 40-60 primary and secondary schools annually. Each student undertakes at least 120 hours of work to create an original opera, and so far teachers from 17 countries have participated.
BEHIND THE SCENES COURSE This intensive annual course for students aged 18-22 has proved to be a popular strand of the Royal Opera House’s programme for students and young adults.
The extensive programme of in-house activities aimed predominantly at adults includes insight days and evenings, pre-performance talks and masterclasses. Activities for families include backstage tours, opportunities to watch The Royal Ballet in class and practical weekend workshops looking at specific operas and ballets. Monday Moves is a programme of weekly dance classes for blind and visually impaired adults held in The Royal Ballet’s studios.
FLORAL DANCES
TRAINING AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT Ongoing training and professional development for Royal Opera House artists will continue. This will include courses plus opportunities for members of The Royal Ballet to study at degree level. In addition, artists will continue to be involved in planning, delivering and evaluating education projects.
This new pricing structure means that for the 2002/03 Season:
In the 2002/03 Season there will be 138 performances by The Royal Ballet and 150 performances by The Royal Opera
The Sleeping Beauty Mon – Sat £3, £6, £8, £14, £26, £37, £45, £55, £62, £70, £77 The Nutcracker, Manon, Swan Lake Mon – Sat £3, £6, £8, £11, £25, £35, £43, £53, £58, £65, £73 Mayerling, Coppèlia, The Prince of the Pagodas Mon – Thurs £3, £6, £8, £11, £23, £32, £40, £50, £55, £62, £70 Fri – Sat £3, £6, £8, £11, £23, £32, £40, £44, £48, £53, £58
Ballet Mixed Bills
Ballet Matinee
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