The summer technical has started for the remount of Lohengrin for the San Francisco Opera. Directed by David Alden, Designs by Paul Steinberg and Lighting by Adam Silverman. The piece was premiered at Covent Garden for the Royal Opera in 2018 and then revived in Belgium in Ghent and Antwerp. The San Francisco revival will see the complete Act 3 performed without any musical cuts for the first time. It will be in rehearsal from October 3rd with the premiere on October 15th.
Lighting designs recreated for the gala special event Carlos at 50 a specially curated birthday celebration for the former Royal Ballet principal Carlos Acosta. Of the ten works Carlos himself danced in half of them, notably Balanchine’s Apollo which formed the first part of the evening. Many thanks to Carlos and his team for being invited to be part of such a wonderful event. Photograph by Tristram Kenton.
Roksanda Ilincic’s fabulous costume designs have been featured in an article for British Vogue. Many thanks to Roksanda and her team for what was a wonderful collaboration while making the new piece for the Royal Ballet. The ballet was made on principal dancers Mayara Magri, Fumi Kaneko, Frankie Hayward and Yasmine Naghdi and choreographed by Valentino Zucchetti. Photographs by Andre Uspenski.
Delighted to announce two pieces from the Royal Ballet Diamond Celebration evening were included in the repertoire for the recent tour to Japan. Prima by Valentino Zucchetti and For Four by Christopher Wheeldon, which formed the centre section of the Mixed Bill Programme. Many thanks to the Royal Ballet and all involved making the tour such a success.
The English National Ballet School under the leadership of Viviana Durante had their summer performance at the Peacock Theatre in London with revivals of La Sylphide, Who Cares and new works from Morgann Runacre-Temple, Monique Jonas and Andrew McNicol. Peter Schaufuss also attended the anniversary event, himself being the original creator of the school when Director of the London Festival Ballet.
Congratulations to Lighting Designer David Finn, Director Jonathan Butterell and the whole team for the successful opening of the West End premiere of a new stage version of the Annie Proulx short story Brokeback Mountain. The piece is part of the opening season at the new London theatre @ Soho Place, seeing the flexible venue configured for In-the-Round performance. It is a play with music consisting of thirty two cleverly spliced scenes interwoven with original songs performed by Eddi Reader.
Last night saw the staging of Scriabin’s Poem of Fire for the Philharmonia Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall at the South Bank in London. The piece when performed with light is rare and always an event, this revival included the additional handwritten notes made on the Paris score, annotations from Scriabin after the original performances in Moscow and New York. Many thanks to Tristan Tereszczuk, Vera Ugarova and Sam Ohlsson for their help in all the detail of the production. Thanks also to Stephen Buck, Kenneth Chong and all the team at the Philharmonia. And lastly to the invaluable support of Trent Kim and research of Anna Gawboy.
Here is a small interview from the Philharmonia website for yesterday’s performance.
Prometheus Poem of Fire - The Royal Festival HallThe Philharmonia Orchestra - Stanislav KochanovskyComposer - Alexander ScriabinLighting - Simon BennisonPhotography - Mark Allan (Philharmonia Orchestra)
Prometheus Poem of Fire - The Royal Festival HallThe Philharmonia Orchestra - Stanislav KochanovskyComposer - Alexander ScriabinLighting - Simon BennisonPhotography - Mark Allan (Philharmonia Orchestra)
Prometheus Poem of Fire - The Royal Festival HallThe Philharmonia Orchestra - Stanislav KochanovskyComposer - Alexander ScriabinLighting - Simon BennisonPhotography - Mark Allan (Philharmonia Orchestra)
Prometheus Poem of Fire - The Royal Festival HallThe Philharmonia Orchestra - Stanislav KochanovskyComposer - Alexander ScriabinLighting - Simon BennisonPhotography - Mark Allan (Philharmonia Orchestra)
Prometheus Poem of Fire - The Royal Festival HallThe Philharmonia Orchestra - Stanislav KochanovskyComposer - Alexander ScriabinLighting - Simon BennisonPhotography - Mark Allan (Philharmonia Orchestra)
Prometheus Poem of Fire - The Royal Festival HallThe Philharmonia Orchestra - Stanislav KochanovskyComposer - Alexander ScriabinLighting - Simon BennisonPhotography - Mark Allan (Philharmonia Orchestra)
Photographs copyright Mark Allan for the Philharmonia Orchestra, with thanks to Katie Vickers.
The Dante Project has been remounted on the Paris Opera Ballet, at the Garnier Theatre, the piece was originally created for the Royal Ballet and is a co-production. It premiered on May 3rd for a run of eighteen sold out performances. Great thanks to Benoit and all the team in Paris.
Congratulations to the cast and team on The Realistic Joneses for a wonderful opening at the Laguna Playhouse, California last night. The piece debuted at the Dublin Theatre Festival in October, travelled to Ventura in California and now to Laguna Beach at the wonderful Playhouse. Many thanks to all the technical teams and help across the three venues.
Invited by Artistic Director Viviana Durante, to collaborate with Mauro de Candia, Katarzyna Kozielska and Kristina Paulin at Sadlers Wells theatre in London. Three new works were created Carnaval des Animaux, Arise, and Reminiscence. Special thanks to the students for their skills and performances, to the Lilian Baylis team and the Choreographers making three wonderful new pieces.
Delighted to be able to say congratulations to Judy Hegarty Lovett, who won the Dest Director Award at the Irish Times Theatre Awards 2023. Additional thanks to all the team, artists and collaborators on the show.
Will Eno’s, The Realistic Joneses has gained two nominations for the Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards after the Dublin Festival run and European premiere. They are for Best Director and Best Ensemble Acting. Due congratulations to Judy Hegarty Lovett and the cast Faline England, Sorcha Fox, Conor Lovett and Joe Spano.
The Realistic Joneses is just finishing a successful run at the Rubicon Theater in Ventura, California. Special thanks to the Theater Director Karyl Lynn Burns and the team. The piece for the revival was slightly redesigned by Set Designer, Molly O’Cathain.
Five new pieces made for the Royal Ballet in A Diamond Celebration premiered on November 16th 2022. Works by Christopher Wheeldon, Valentino Zucchetti, Pam Tanowitz, Joseph Toonga and Benoit Swan Pouffer. The evening is a special event to celebrate the Friends of Covent Garden and will be broadcast live and later in cinemas. The new works are set in between pas de deux by Ashton, MacMillan and McGregor and Diamonds restaged from Balanchine’s Jewels.
A remaking of the piece Take 5 Blues by choreographer Stina Quagebeur for English National Ballet. The piece was originally created as a film project and has been developed further for a stage premiere at Sadlers Wells Theatre in London. The triple bill programme also has works by William Forsyth and a new Rite of Spring from Mats Ek. It is the last evening curated by Tamara Rojo prior to her new post at San Francisco Ballet.
A new version of Dido & Aeneas, England’s earliest know opera has been made for Deborah Warner’s inaugural opera season at the Ustinov Theatre at Bath Theatre Royal, UK. It was Directed by Isabelle Kettle and Designed by Hyemi Shin. Madison Nonoa performed the role of Dido and Michael Papadopoulos conducted.
The Realistic Joneses by Will Eno opened in Dublin as part of the Theatre Festival programme. The cast was Faline England, Sorcha Fox, Conor Lovett and Joe Spano. It was directed by Judy Hegarty Lovett and designed by Molly O’Cathain.
Many thanks to the teams at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, The Setting Line, HEED! and Marquee Broadcasting for making the Nureyev Legend & Legacy event a success. Broadcast premiere is tonight.
An extraordinary gala presented at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane to honour the dancing and legacy of Rudolf Nureyev. Curated and produced by former Royal Ballet Principal Nehemiah Kish and with an evening of performances from stars of the Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, Oslo Ballet, Berlin State Ballet, Hamburg Ballet, Kiev Ballet and Dutch National Ballet. The evening was presented by Ralph Fiennes and Monica Mason and has been filmed for later broadcast.
A revival of the play, ’The Realistic Joneses’, by Will Eno is scheduled for later this year for the Dublin Theatre Festival. Directed by Judy Hegarty Lovett, Designed by Molly O’Cathain and Sound Design from Mel Mercier. DTF image from Louis Hegarty Lovett.
How it Is Part 2 was staged earlier this year at the Coronet in Notting Hill. Delayed like many pieces due to the C-19 pandemic, the work finally made its London debut. Directed by Judy Hegarty Lovett, cast, Stephen Dillane and Conor Lovett and score by Mel Mercier. Gamelan Orchestral instruments kindly donated by the Indonesian Embassy. Some images contained in the portfolio section.
Anemoi was awarded the Best Classical Choreography award from Dancing Times Magazine, June 2021. Congratulations to Valentino Zucchetti and also Costume Designer Jean-Marc Puissant.
Images added from Agnus Dei a lockdown project with the Ballet Boyz and Arthur Pita. A new solo created on Royal Ballet dancer Leo Dixon with music by Rufus Wainwright. Sections were recorded with a slow motion camera to create the stunning ascension effect at the end of the work. Many thanks to Mike, Billy and Arthur for a wonderful collaboration and a great dance film.
Scherzo was selected by the Royal Ballet as their piece to be performed at the British Charity Gala. The gala was staged at the Royal Albert Hall and hosted by Darcey Bussell. Organised and filmed by the Ballet Boyz, Michael Nunn and William Trevitt, the evening broadcast in a special event on YouTube. Personal thanks to Lighting Designer Andrew Ellis who recreated the work for the event.
Scherzo won the award for nest new dance piece at the Sky Arts South Bank Awards 2021. Congratulations to Choreographer Valentino Zucchetti and to the Royal Ballet.
