The full length Wayne McGregor ballet Woolf Works, (based on the life and writings of Virginia Woolf), has had its North American premiere performed by American Ballet Theatre at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, Orange County, California. The creative team were invited to recreate the work originally made for the Royal Ballet in London. After the west coast run, the piece will freight across to New York to be debuted at the Metropolitan Opera House. The Lighting Design is by Lucy Carter, who won a Knight of the Illuminations award. The the ballet won the Olivier Award, both in 2016.
In March 2024 we made a new version of Die Zauberflöte / The Magic Flute for Sofia Opera & Ballet, Bulgaria. The Director was Vera Petrova and the Designer was Molly O’Cathain. Some images of the piece can be found in the Work gallery. The Costumes were designed by Marta Mironska and Choreography from Riolina Topalova. The Conductor was Alexandra Lubchansky.
Photographs by Mary McCartney are featured in an article for Another Magazine on The Dante Project. They were taken during the making of the first mounting of the full length work at Covent Garden London and issued in time for the revival in November this year. The images chart moments onstage, backstage and front of house during the creation of the ballets.
The Royal Ballet have revived the Dante Project at Covent Garden. The original team came together to remount the piece with William Bracewell replacing Edward Watson in the principal Dante role.
The Frederick Ashton pieces Marguerite & Armand and The Dream have been recreated for Australian Ballet at the Sydney Opera House. It was the the first staging by new Artistic Director David Hallberg.
The Dante Project has been staged by the Danish Royal Ballet in Copenhagen. It is a remaking of the original production specifically for their stage including a reprint of the Paradise film. This follows the successful sold out remounting in Paris in April this year.
The Valentino Zucchetti one act ballet Anemoi has been revived in a double bill presented by the Royal Ballet. Paired with The Cellist by Cathy Marston, both works have won awards and recognition for recent choreographic developments and merit. The lighting design features a specially developed tracking mechanism to slowly transport a fixed point of light across the panorama at the back of the stage. Thank you to the Royal Opera House Lighting Department for the excellent revival of my original design.
Lohengrin has opened at the San Francisco Opera. Great thanks to the entire technical team, in particular Justin Partier and the Lighting Department. Sensitive to recent world developments, General Director Matthew Shilvock contextualised some visual themes of the opera in the face of impacts felt from some present and past world conflicts. Performances at the war Memorial Theater until November 1st 2023.
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.
