2012/13 Season The Royal Ballet – Covent Garden, London

Details of the new season, which features six world premieres and two works new to the company.

Ballet and dance productions to be staged as part of the 2012/13 season have now been announced. Opening on the main stage with Swan Lake, Kevin O’Hare’s  first season as Director features six world premieres and two works new to the company. Three ballets will be screened as part of the Royal Opera House Cinema season .
 
2012/13 season announced: Ballet and Dance
THE ROYAL BALLET

Kevin O’Hare’s inaugural season as Director of The Royal Ballet will showcase a wide breadth of the Company’s repertory with a strong focus on new work. There will be six world premieres from some of today’s finest choreographers, plus two works new to the Company’s repertory. To complement this, there will be a mix of 19th Century classics, Royal Ballet heritage works from Ashton and MacMillan, and ballets by other internationally renowned choreographers.

Joining Kevin and current Associate Director Jeanetta Laurence on the artistic team will be Christopher Wheeldon and Wayne McGregor who become Artistic Associates (with Wayne also continuing in his existing role as Resident Choreographer). Christopher and Wayne will create new ballets for the Company and also be involved in creative decisions, working with the dancers and nurturing new choreographic talent. Music Director Barry Wordsworth will be conducting throughout the Season and continues the development of aspiring conductors and pianists.

The Royal Ballet is delighted to be the first British ballet company to commission acclaimed choreographer Alexei Ratmansky to create a new work which will premiere in February 2013. Formerly Artistic Director of the Bolshoi and currently Artist in Residence at American Ballet Theatre, Ratmansky is known for his versatile and inventive approach to choreography whether in re-staging the classics, such as his 2007 production of Le Corsaire for the Bolshoi, or in creating his own work, such as On the Dneiper, his first work for ABT in 2009. His first work for The Royal Ballet will debut alongside another world premiere by Christopher Wheeldon and George Balanchine’s masterpiece Apollo.
 

Onegin Photo by dee Conway

Other works by Christopher Wheeldon during the Season include his brilliantly inventive Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and, new to The Royal Ballet, Fool’s Paradise which he created in 2007 for his Morphoses company.

There will be new work from Alastair Marriott for the autumn’s Gala and more new work has also been commissioned from Wayne McGregor to premiere in May 2013 alongside another popular Balanchine ballet, Symphony in C. In a departure from his usual approach to working with the dancers of The Royal Ballet, McGregor’s piece, set to a commissioned score and entitled Raven Girl, will be a narrative modern day fairytale. He will collaborate closely with author of The Time Traveler’s Wife, graphic novelist and artist Audrey Niffinegger.

Royal Ballet First Artist Liam Scarlett is rapidly becoming one of the hottest choreographic talents around and will follow up his recent mainstage success to bring two new pieces to the Company. The first will be his production of Viscera, which he created for Miami City Ballet in January 2012, followed by his first full-length narrative work which will premiere in the Linbury Studio Theatre in May 2013.

Viscera, Fool’s Paradise and Wayne McGregor’s Infra will be shown together as a triple bill in November 2012. Opening the Season in October is a Royal Ballet classic, Anthony Dowell’s popular production of Swan Lake. Other full-length classics in the 2012/13 repertory include Peter Wright’s magical production of the perennial Christmas favourite The Nutcracker in December and Natalia Makarova’s magnificent production of La Bayadère in April.

Also for the Christmas season is a triple bill featuring Mikhail Fokine’s The Firebird to mark the centenary of the ballet’s first performances at Covent Garden, Jerome Robbins’ In the Night (last danced by the Company in the 1970s) and Rudolf Nureyev’s showcase divertissement, Raymonda Act III.

The 20th and 25th anniversaries of the deaths of Kenneth MacMillan and Frederick Ashton will be commemorated in two mixed programmes celebrating their immense choreographic legacy. A triple bill of Kenneth MacMillan’s work will open in November; his sublime 1966 piece for Berlin Opera House Concerto; Las Hermanas, not performed by The Royal Ballet since 1994 and never before seen at the Royal Opera House, and his hauntingly beautiful tribute to his friend John Cranko, Requiem. A few months later, in April 2013, MacMillan’s full length, emotionally charged drama Mayerling returns.

In February, the choreographic tribute continues with a programme of Founder Choreographer Frederick Ashton’s work. It opens with the glamorous, full Company ballet La Valse and two of his most celebrated piece d’occasion, the Thais and Voices of Spring pas de deux, followed by Monotones I and II, two pas de trois of striking simplicity set to the music of Satie. The evening finishes with Marguerite and Armand, revived in the 2011/12 season, and incredibly popular for the dramatic intensity of its principal roles and stunning designs by Cecil Beaton.

2013 sees a Royal Opera House-wide celebration of Pushkin’s brilliant novelin- verse, Eugene Onegin, with interpretations by both The Royal Ballet in John Cranko’s Onegin from 19 January, and The Royal Opera’s new production Eugene Onegin from 4 February.

There will be many opportunities to see The Royal Ballet away from the Royal Opera House with members of the Company performing in Northern Ireland and in collaboration with the Aldeburgh Festival and DanceEast, for the Britten Centenary in a new work by Kim Brandstrup. There will be international tours to Monte Carlo and Tokyo.

Kevin O’Hare, together with Kasper Holten, Director of Opera, The Royal Opera, is keen to bring about a closer working relationship with the Linbury Studio Theatre. As well as the annual choreographic showcase Draft Works in which Royal Ballet dancers are encouraged to explore and create new work themselves, there will be an increasing number of original dance projects involving the Company.

ROYAL OPERA HOUSE LIVE CINEMA SEASON

Three ballets are part of the Royal Opera House Live Cinema Season presented in association with  Bank of America Merrill Lynch:

• Tuesday 23 October 2012: SWAN LAKE (live)
• December 2012: THE NUTCRACKER (live)
• Wednesday 28 March 2013: ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND (live)
   

The Royal Ballet Draft Works 2012.
Bennet Gartside and Lauren Cuthbertson in Feathers in your Head by Ludovic Ondiviela.
Photo by Andrej Uspenski

 

2012/13 Season The Royal Ballet – Covent Garden, London
Ballet and Dance

* = world premiere

Three & Four Quarters ROH2/Linbury Studio Theatre*
Choreo: Mats Ek, Javier de Frutos, Luca Silvestrini and Didy Veldman.
7 – 8 – 10 – 11 Sept

Crossing Points Phoenix Dance Theatre/Linbury Studio Theatre
Choreo: Ana Luján Sánchez, Henri Oguike, Sharon Watson and Kwesi Johnson.
25 – 26 – 27 Oct

Viscera/Infra/Fool’s Paradise
Choreo: Liam Scarlett, Wayne McGregor and Christopher Wheeldon.
3 – 5 – 7 – 8 – 12 – 14 Nov
 

 The Nutcracker. Photo ROH, Johan Persson

Far and 3 new works* Wayne McGregor | Random Dance/Linbury Studio Theatre
Choreo: Wayne McGregor, Robert Binet, Alex Whitley and Paolo Mangiola.
15 – 16 – 17 Nov (FAR)
21 – 22 – 23 – 24 Nov (Triple bill)

Concerto/Las Hermanas/Requiem
Choreo: Kenneth MacMillan.
17 – 21 – 27 – 29 – 30 Nov
5 Dec

Be Like Water ROH2/Linbury Studio Theatre*
27 – 28 Nov

The Nutcracker
Choreo: Peter Wright after Lev Ivanov.
8 – 10 – 11 – 13 – 14 – 23 mat – 27 mat and eve – 28 – 31 Dec
1 – 2 mat and eve – 5 mat – 8 – 12 mat and eve – 15 – 16 Jan

The Wind in the Willows ROH2/Linbury Studio Theatre
Choreo: Will Tuckett.
12 – 13 – 14 – 15 mat and eve – 17 – 18 – 19 – 20 – 21 – 22 mat and eve – 27 mat and eve – 28 mat and eve – 29 mat and eve – 30 mat and eve – 31 mat and eve Dec
2 mat and eve – 3 mat and eve – 4 mat and eve – 5 mat and eve Jan

The Firebird/In the Night/Raymonda Act III
Choreo: Mikhail Fokine, Jerome Robbins and Rudolf Nureyev after Marius Petipa.
22 mat -29 mat and eve Dec
4 – 9 – 11 Jan

Onegin
Choreo: John Cranko.
19 – 22 – 23 – 25 – 26 mat – 30 – 31 Jan
1 – 2 mat and eve – 5 – 7 – 8 Feb

La Valse/Thaïs and Voices of Spring pas de deux/Monotones I and II/ Marguerite and Armand
Choreo: Frederick Ashton.
12 – 13 – 15 – 21 – 23 Feb

Apollo/New Wheeldon*/New Ratmansky*
Choreo: George Balanchine, Christopher Wheeldon, Alexei Ratmansky.
22 – 23 mat February
7 – 9 mat – 14 Mar

Ballet Black. ROH2/Linbury Studio Theatre
February and March
 

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Photo ROH, Johan Persson

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Choreo: Christopher Wheeldon.
15 -19 – 21 – 23 mat – 25 – 27 – 28 Mar
2 – 6 mat – 11 – 13 Apr

The Metamorphosis ROH2/Linbury Studio Theatre
Choreo: Arthur Pita.
16 – 17 – 18 – 20 – 21 – 22 – 23 mat and eve Mar

Danish Dance Theatre Linbury Studio Theatre
Choreo: Tim Rushton.
March

La Bayadère
Choreo: Natalia Makarova after Marius Petipa.
5 – 9 – 12 – 20 mat – 27 mat Apr
1 – 2 – 6 mat and eve – 13 – 14 – 22 May

Mayerling
Choreo: Kenneth MacMillan.
19 – 25 – 30 Apr
3 mat – 30 May
1 mat and eve – 5 – 6 – 10 – 12 – 13 – 15 Jun

Raven Girl*/Symphony in C
Choreo: Wayne McGregor and George Balanchine.
24 – 28 – 29 mat and eve May
3 – 8 mat and eve Jun

New Scarlett Linbury Studio Theatre(World premiere)
Choreo: Liam Scarlett. May

Bern:Ballet Linbury Studio Theatre (London premiere)
Choreo: Cathy Marston. May

The Royal Ballet School Summer Performances Linbury Studio Theatre
3 – 4 – 5 – 6 mat and eve Jul
Main stage – 14 Jul
 

Sarah Lamb in Swan Lake. Photo: Bill Cooper

  © 2012 Danza Ballet

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