★★★★✰ The production is in good hands and in good shape, as audiences will see when it is screened in cinemas worldwide.
Tag - Gary Avis
★★★★✰ Tchaikovsky’s music for The Nutcracker may be played ad nauseam in shops and public spaces over Christmas, but the ballet for which he wrote it is the real deal – especially in this production.
The Frederick Ashton Foundation marked its tenth anniversary with an evening of rarely performed Ashton pieces and a specially commissioned film, Frederick Ashton: Links in the Chain, by Lynn Wake.
★★★✰✰ The latest Royal Ballet premiere is a full evening ballet from Wayne McGregor, using a cracking custom score from Thomas Adès...
★★★★✰ Francesca Hayward is entirely believable as a very young Juliet, overwhelmed by her first experience of falling in love.
★★★★✰ There's no reason to feel short-changed by the Royal Ballet's Covid-compliant Nutcracker. The magic of Tchaikovsky's music and the beauty of the dancing still enchant spectators of all ages.
★★★✰✰ Wayne McGregor’s first full-length creation for the Royal Ballet, Woolf Works, inspired by Virginia Woolf, remains one of his best works to date.
"If you missed 'Men at the Barre - Inside the Royal Ballet': a look behind the scenes at the male ballet dancers in the company, then do take the time to catch up on BBC iPlayer."
★★★✰✰ In The Cellist, Cathy Marston has taken on a challenging subject for her first commission for the Royal Opera House stage: the real-life story of a much-loved musician Jacqueline Du Pré...
Gallery by Foteini Christofilopoulou...
★★★★✰ The ballet works as a conflicted love story centred on the heroine, Tatiana. When Natalia Osipova dances the role, she brings home how Russian the character is.
Gallery by Foteini Christofilopoulou...
★★★★✰ The dancing is so enjoyable, the comedy so appealing, that any flaws in the story telling are easily overlooked.
Gallery by Foteini Christofilopoulou...
★★★★✰ Sarah Lamb and Vadim Muntagirov, as Des Grieux, are not new to the roles and their understanding of the characters and the choreography has deepened with experience.
★★★★✰ The Royal Ballet did themselves a lot of good with the last new bill of the season - a one-off celebration of Margot Fonteyn. There was much to be reminded of and be proud of.
★★★★✰ Three short but densely packed ballets infused with a strong Russian flavour were at the heart of the Royal Ballet’s last bill of the season.
★★★✰✰ Somehow, still at the start of the run, the production seems sanitised, nicely 'English' in spite of Nicholas Georgiadis's imposing Italian Renaissance sets and costumes. Different casts yet to come might bring fresh discoveries...
This programme celebrated Annette Page's career with the Royal Ballet and supported the Motor Neurone Disease Association. She died at the age of 84 of MND, a cruel disease for a former dancer and an articulate, witty woman...
★★★★✰ Now that we are all one more Nutcracker nearer death, as weary critic Richard Buckle used to bemoan, the Royal Ballet has given us a wintry bonne bouche of ballets to savour.