I’ve finished listening to ‘Clarissa’ this morning and i am so frustrated i could explode. I’ll let it stew and churn for a bit and once i’ve had a chance to collect the scattered thoughts i’ll let you know what i thought of it. Until then, here is something vastly more satisfying, believe me, you’ll enjoy it! It’s an extract, the version i saw live in the show was slightly longer but this is most of it.
Steve McRae and Ed Watson, as you surely know by now are my favourite principals in the Royal Ballet đ  I am in fact going to ballet again tonight, for a repeat of the evening i had a week ago. I loved it so much i HAVE to see it again! So while i am away i want to leave you in good company  đ It’s quite likely i have shared this with you before, sorry if this is the case.
Principal of The Royal Ballet Steven McRae performs his tap solo CzĂĄrdĂĄs with violinist Vasko Vassilev as part of World Ballet Day 2015
Aren’t they fantastic?
In case this is a repeat there is a slightly longer rehearsal of another modern piece i love.
Royal Ballet Artist in Residence Liam Scarlett rehearses his new ballet The Age of Anxiety with dancers Laura Morera, Steven McRae, Bennet Gartside and Tristan Dyer. This piece was just… ‘scrumptious’.. it was fun and sad and melancholic and thoughtful
I’ll talk again about Liam Scarlett, the choreographer, in a few months’ time when we’ll see his new full length ballet, Frankenstein, about which we are all very excited here. Until then the rehearsal for Age of Anxiety. Liam Scarlett sets Leonard Bernstein’s Symphony no.2, ‘The Age of Anxiety’, inspired by W.H. Auden’s epic poem. In a New York bar in wartime four lonely strangers attempt to find spiritual meaning in an industrialized world.
I had to pick a few from their beautiful collection, click for bigger images and have a look at the gallery above as well for more:
The finale of the pas de deux in the video you have below from After the Rain/Wheeldon. The incredible Marianela Nunez and Thiago Soares (photo by DanceTabs)
The new ballet, Strapless was fabulously decadent, beautiful costumes and shallow people depicting a world of self-indulgence and conceit đ
 She was beautifully frivolous and ultimately so vulnerable, great portrayal.I have to share with you the scene which was part of the painting process: the painter John Singer Sargent, searching for inspiration, imagines the presence of his lover and muse, Albert de Belleroche:
Matthew Ball as Albert on the left and the intense painter, Ed Watson on the right đ Photo by DanceTabs
 If you click through the gallery in the link above the last photo is of Sarah Lamb and Steve McRae frolicking sprightly in the woods. Within the Golden Hour, the last of the 3 ballets last night had a deep sense of connection with nature which was a great ending.
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It has been a full on week, but it ends beautifully with a night at the ballet. A celebration marked by 3 pieces of one of my favourite contemporary choreographers, Christoper Wheeldon. The music of the pieces is perfect and all my favourite dancers of the Royal Ballet will be on stage tonight. I feel incredibly lucky and am very much looking forward to this! So i wanted to share with you a few videos of the ballets i will see tonight, via news article from the ROH which talks about the works, enjoy!
After the Rain / Strapless /Within the Golden Hour
Our quick introduction to The Royal Balletâs mixed programme celebrating choreographer Christopher Wheeldon.
Christopher Wheeldon, Artistic Associate of The Royal Ballet, is a familiar figure to Covent Garden audiences â but this is the first time the Company has presented an all-Wheeldon mixed programme. It offers an opportunity to see just how widely his choreographic talent ranges. Two acclaimed abstract ballets, created for American companies, bookend a new narrative commission from The Royal Ballet, bringing together different sides of Wheeldonâs career.
Music and Dance
For the three ballets in this programme Wheeldon has used the music of three very different contemporary composers. The beautiful simplicity of Arvo PĂ€rt comes first, a haunting setting for Wheeldonâs After the Rain. Italian minimalist composer Ezio Bossoprovides the score for Within the Golden Hour, incorporating music by Vivaldi. And in-between comes a dynamic new score from Mark-Anthony Turnage, specially written forStrapless. Turnage has previously collaborated with Wheeldon on âTrespassâ (Metamorphosis: Titian 2012), co-choreographed with Alastair Marriott.
Wheeldon created After the Rain in 2005 for New York City Ballet. This abstract ballet for three couples has become most widely known for its deeply affecting pas de deux, set to PĂ€rtâs profoundly moving Spiegel im Spiegel. The pas de deux has often been performed on its own, including by The Royal Ballet in a 2012 gala performance, and was famously captured on film with NYCB principals Maria Kowroski and Ask la Courdancing at dawn on the roof of a skyscraper on the World Trade Center site. This is the first time the work has come to the Royal Opera House in its entirety.
Within the Golden Hour was created in 2008 for San Francisco Ballet, to mark the companyâs 75th anniversary. Wheeldon choreographed the work for 14 dancers, and includes much of his characteristically inventive handling of ensembles. Three centralpas de deux lead to a finale in which the whole cast comes together in a single, shimmering formation.
After the Rain / Strapless / Within the Golden Hour runs 12 Februaryâ11 March 2016.
Original article by PAUL KILBEYCcontent producer- ballet Royal Opera House
A good way to end the year âș
Not with anything about myself but with a gorgeous reminder of things that make life beautiful – ballet and art in general.
This once again unites photography and my favourite dancers in images which surprise and awe me and make me feel grateful for the humanity and creativity in people around me. And grateful for living in London and being privileged to have art like this in my life.
May the new year bring you all many special moments to touch, elate and enrich you.
‘Frieden, Liebe & Schokolade’ to all đ
somebody who joined me on the journey in 2014 đ
Itâs been quite the year! By the end of it a lot of things had happened that I could have never predicted and I feel very different at the end of 2014 than I did at the end of 2013âŠ
Itâs not necessarily been a happier year, but I feel more balanced and certainly more grateful at the end of it. I feel in a strange way … (.i almost said grown up but that is not it, in many respects quite the contrary!) reinvigorated, refreshed, with more things to hold on to on the journey.
Firstly, there is the realisation that nothing is more important or precious than the health of those we love, and our own as well to be able to enjoy it with them. So I am grateful for being ok and accepting of things I canât change around me but hoping that things will at least stay as they are for as long as possible. There will still be realities that frustrate and make me feel like my hands are tied, but there is some peace I think is good to find in just dealing with things as they are when we canât change them.
And Iâm more determined to keep myself in good working order đ It may sound bland and boring, but I recognised how important it really is, among other reasons so I can enjoy the things I want to keep doing and trust that I will be able to deal with things that may come my way.
So yes, massively grateful for feeling like 25 a lot of the time! đ It didnât really look like that in the first part of the year.
My year was thankfully still peppered with a number of live performances and for that I am even more grateful than ever. Every year I say this⊠25 years ago Iâd have never ever thought possible to live and work in London and enjoy the music I do, have visited the theatres I have, seen the cities I have in these past years. I know and I remind myself of how lucky I am and this year more than ever. So, on to some highlights. (Iâll skip the meh stuff, otherwise Iâll be sitting here as many hours as I spent seeing things. Not because they were bad per se, a few were, but I would still go see them if I could turn back time, you need to go see things to find the gems and everyone gives their best and it will provide a few hours of really nice music, even if it is not necessarily memorable):
The fun â
While a lot of things have been interesting, classical music in particular is not know a lot for the fun factor đ But I have seen 2 things which really brightened the heart and made me laugh:
The fabulous Elisir dâAmore /Donizetti at the Royal Opera House â all cast were brilliant but my thanks go to the amazing Vittorio Grigolo as Nemorino &Bryn Terfel as Dulcamara and the fabulous ROH chorus, whom I adore (amazing singers and actors the lot!). The house was shaking with laughter and they should prescribe this instead of Prozac! đ
The new Guys& Dolls at Chichester Festival Theatre with the adorable and warm voiced Jamie Parker (JP I wish you all the roles you want in 2015! And keep singing đ ) Loved this as much as I liked his Henry V at the Globe.
The good and enjoyable  â
I realise nothing will quite be able to equal the year of my first Wagner Ring at the ROH and Berlioz Troyens at same ROH, so I needed to remind myself often not to expect to much. However, there were quite a few duds this year so maybe slimmer opera pickings than usual. In no particular order of preference
Manon/Massenet (one of my top 5 favourite operas) at ROH in spring with the elegant, special and generous American tenor Matthew Polenzani (to find out a bit more about him here  Heâs a thoroughly accomplished singer and I hope heâll be back singing in London often. Incidentally, since the reopening of the La Fenice opera house in Venice in 2004 (after the big fire damage) they also have their own traditional new yearâs concert and this year they had MP and Maria Agresta alongside conductor Daniel Harding. So Iâm able to treat you to my first operatic highlight of the year 2015 straight away! (They sang Boheme too, but Iâm bored with that and never liked it much anyways) Here is Matthewâs best bit, an exquisitely sung Verdi aria from the opera Luisa Miller (the lover has betrayed him and this is all about pain):
Idomeneo/Mozart at ROH in a âfunnyâ production, which was so absurd it unfortunately alienated a lot of the audience (a friend of mine said it gave crap a bad name đ ), but which was musically so good I couldn’t care less if they wore bin bags on stage! ( they didnât, but there were plastic sharks and plastic fish :-p ). Mark Minkowski conducted a heavenly Mozart and Matthew Polenzani sung an impeccable and fiery Idomeneo. Maybe Iâm being a bit unfair as actually musically it was sheer bliss, it only misses out on excellent due to production⊠A lot of people left, I went back 3 times because it sounded so gorgeously!
 Both visits this year to Glyndebourne in the summer provided not only the wonderful tea in the grounds and the countryside outing đ (on the cheap as we tend to do either standing or cheapest available ticks) but also 2 great operas: Onegin/Tchaikovsky with the brill Ukrainian baritone Andrei Bondarenko and a beauuutiful Traviata/Verdi (one of my all time favourites) conducted by Sir Mark Elder as one can only wish to hear it and sung very well by another American tenor, Michael Fabiano and the sparkling young Venera Gimadieva
 A Werther/Massenet (one of my top 3 – I love French opera as you are bound to find out at some point ) at the Arcola theatre in London sung by great young singers in a reduced setting but it worked wonders.  Itâs called fringe, but those young souls put their all into it and blew us away, tears and all. Which just goes to prove you donât need big names or even big theatres to have amazing experiences.
 A Jonas Kaufmann Winterreise song recital at the ROHâ it was great, but I was quite sick and sadly this will never be my favourite cycle nor is Schubert my favourite song composer and I just like JK in so many other things more; the Manon Lescaut/Puccini at ROH with JK again and Pappano – another Puccini that doesnât quite enchant me but Pappano makes it worth a listen and so does Jonas; just not something I sit down to listen to on my own and another good but not great production.
 Juan Diego Florez singing La fille du regiment/Donizetti at ROH â how can you not love him? Always lucky to hear him sing live, just as it is with Jonas Kaufmann đ
 Gerald Finley (Canadian bass/baritone) singing songs at Wigmore Hall with Julius Drake and singing the most wicked and charming count in Mozartâs Nozze di Figaro at ROH â one I never miss when he is in town đ Definitely special⊠and he climbed Kilimanjaro this summer with his sons for charity!
 Richard III at Trafalgar Studios, intriguing production with some good acting though not quite as fulfilling as Iâd hoped it would be, but it was an interesting enough experience that I appreciated having.
 Joyce diDonato and Antonio Pappano â season opening concert at Wigmore Hall, she sang beautifully, heâs just incredible and the piano is just one of his many talents and it was great to listen in such an intimate setting even if the program was not always wow.
The excellent and memorable â
Thin opera pickings this year, which was one of the surprises, but thoroughly compensated by ballet and THEATRE!
Tristan and Isolde â Wagner at ROH, always good, especially with Tony Pappano conducting and Nina Stemme singing and I had also missed Wagner a lot!;
French baritone Ludovic Tezier and Jonas Kaufmann singing the 2 main characters in Verdiâs Forza del destino, Munich Bayrische Staatsoper- didnât much like production, wasnât convinced by the conducting, donât much care for the soprano but these two ripping at each other while singing are in-cre-di-ble! I canât find the duets now, but this quick video gives you a shred of it, with the voices melding in Verdi heaven đ
 And very much to my surprise Ariadne auf Naxos /Strauss at ROH – again with Pappano conducting and the fascinating Karita Mattila singing. In fact this was one of the bigger musical surprises for me. I donât like Strauss operas except Elektra and Salome, the neo-romantic ones donât do much for me and my previous experience of Ariadne has not been good. I only went along to give it another try and I loved it! Due to conductor, brilliant and fun production by Christoph Loy, but above all due to the ladies singing (just in case you were wondering if I was fixated on male voices đ a bit , but I do like females ones to, just picky đ ). Karita Mattila, Ruxandra Donose and Jane Archibald were all 3 brilliant singers, actresses and just lovely elegant ladies. We had them in a âIn Conversationâ event and I adored them all, the kind of women you want to become when you grow up, fantastic at what they do, fun, sparkling, powerful and feminine. Definitely one of the special highlights of the year. And I would have never expected that in a million years! Live and learn đ
The Verdi Requiem with Pappano conducting his 2nd orchestra, the Accademia Nazionale St Cecilia Rome on their visit to London. Everyone expected this to be forceful and full of power and instead it was soulful and emotional, it felt absolutely right, true and from the heart, one of the most beautiful renditions Iâve ever heard and the most touching.
BALLET, ballet, ballet! Everything Iâve seen these past 12 months from the Royal Ballet has been top notch and worth seeing and revisiting. In fact, there is only 1 other thing I saw this year as often as the RB McMillan Manon đ I saw every cast and I even got to see Roberto Bolle dance for the first time! The one who brought me to tears was however my lovely Ed Watson, who, together with my other shining star of the year, Steve McRae, danced in the new full length ballet Winterâs Tale (new music and ballet on Shakespeareâs tale of jealousy), which I canât wait to see again. Itâs so reassuring and just amazing to witness the creativity in both music and ballet at the RB (Winterâs Tale by choreographer Christopher Wheeldon and music by Joby Talbot)! And there were many more highlights from the RB, like McRaeâs peerless Oberon in McMillanâs A midsummer nightâs dream and several modern pieces – Liam Scarlettâs âSweet Violetsâ and âAge of Anxietyâ, Alastair Marriottâs âConnectomeâ and Kim Brandstrup’s âCeremony of Innocenceâ. I mentioned only 2 of my favourite dancers, but there are several more and I have to say ballet has felt very much alive and exciting this year at the RB, so much new work that I loved and many revivals of great quality. Itâs totally exciting to see creativity thriving and Iâve loved all new stuff so far! Keep up the good work RB, youâre doing great! And I donât regret one bit reshuffling my tight budget to reduce opera a bit and enjoy more ballet, Iâve been richly rewarded!
 THEATRE!!!!!Now this is new and has been a significant shift over the past year. Itâs an interest that has been growing slowly and has received a big boost this year. In previous years I could have mentioned a few things Iâve seen, a couple really good ones, but this year has been incredible and one good thing has led to another! While in opera a lot has not made this list and in ballet Iâve felt I wanted to mention most of what I have seen, in theatre bar 2 every single thing Iâve seen makes my list of highlights!
There was Richard II from the RSC which I saw in their run at the Barbican with the outstanding David Tennant as Richard. Great acting from him and the rest of the cast, great production and one more reason to love Shakespeare. It was the first time I had the chance to see David Tennant act live and Iâm totally convinced, canât wait for the next opportunity, whatever praise he got for the role it was fully deserved;
Coriolanus with Tom Hiddleston, sadly not in the theatre but the cinema version, equally stunning, well acted and great production and the trio of plays at the beginning of the year was completed by
Henry V with Jude Law at the Noel Coward â one more where I went along doubtful and came out stunned and emotional and excited; he was as good as all the papers said and I am totally on board with the reviews which remarked on how lucky we were in London to enjoy these 3 actors in these 3 great productions! And the year had just begun!
The James plays at the National â I wish Iâd been able to see all 3 instead of just the 2nd , sadly I miss the trilogy due to work travel but what I saw grabbed me totally ; again it ticked all the boxes, great acting, great production, great script in this case too.
Medea at the National â with Helen McCrory!!! A great example of how you can make modern audiences feel Euripides as if it was happening today! She was breath-taking and I felt like I had barely survived the play it was so intense. I also loved the modern/contemporary production.
Which made me regret even more the many failures in opera to direct them in interesting ways. Theatre this year was anything from traditional like the Richard II or the Henry to the modern and out there like Richard III or Medea and they were all successful in their own ways, there wasnât a production I felt was useless among them. And yes if I had to pick a genre that really blew me away this year, it was theatre! I went in open minded but doubtful at the same time about its potential impact on me and came away feeling so much and so deeply! And also very very grateful of being able to see all these actors on stage live today.
Best productions â
Speaking of productions, this is just a mention for the direction itself rather than the content or musical value in some cases.
Kasper Holtenâs new Don Giovanni at the ROH â brilliant, modern, exciting, physiologically eventful and insightful! Like few directors with him I felt he really understands women đ Canât wait to see a revival.
Alcola theatre Werther by Aylin Bozok â yes great opera can be done with little money and still be wonderful!
Wheeldonâs Winterâs tale at RB â a perfect example of narrative ballet done in modern ways, narrative ballet for the 21st century but building on all RB tradition, very clever and very beautiful!;
Liam Scarlettâs Anxiety â contemporary ballet telling a story for modern sensibilities, movie- like, boundary trespassing in many good ways;
Medea at the National by Carrie Cracknell â ancient theatre for our time, yes it can be done! Loved it! All theatre productions were great, effective in their individual ways, I liked Rii at Trafalgar for its boldness but it wasnât quite effective, while Medea was new, fresh, contemporary and spot on.
And then there was the epic & life changing!
THE CRUCIBLE
To be continued… (i’ll update this same post as i want to keep it all together rather than creating another)
Opera is Magic 