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Christmas at the Royal Opera House:   A   Preview of Seasonal Opera and Ballet at Covent Garden (BK)

Rossini – La Cenerentola
Tchaikovsy - The Nutcracker
Meyerbeer / Lanchbery - Les Patineurs/ Tales Of Beatrix Potter
Martin Ward - Pinocchio

 

 

Magdalena Kožená as Angelina / Cenerentola

(Photo: Johan Persson)

With a particularly attractive web site (Here) devoted to Christmas this year, London's Royal Opera House presents its programme of opera and ballet for the festive season. The programme runs between December 8th right through until January 19th 2008 and colourful trailers and podcasts are available to encourage opera and ballet lovers of all ages away from the television set - at least now and again.

For opera fans there's Rossini's Cenerentola (See Preview) with  a different and festive take on the familiar ‘Cinderella’ story. The Royal Opera's ever-popular and elegant production is decked out in 1950s chic, complete with a limousine for that special journey to the ball. Angelina beats her unpleasant sisters Clorinda and Tisbe to the heart of the handsome prince Don Ramiro, despite his disguise. Rossini’s music is at its most diverting, with lyrical tunes, characterful ensembles and, of course, impressive coloratura flourishes. The Royal Opera has assembled a wonderful cast of lyric singers to bring out all the charm of the music, and Magdalena Kožená's debut with The Royal Opera in the  title role  adds an extra note or two of glamour.

 

Alina Cojocaru as The Sugar Plum Fairy
(Photo: Bill Cooper)
 

The Nutcracker (Preview) is a perennial Christmas favourite, packed with magical moments of one of the greatest of classical ballets, all to the sounds of one of Tchaikovsky’s most famously tuneful scores. When young Clara’s favourite Christmas presents – a nutcracker doll – comes to life, she is drawn into magical adventures that lead from a battle with the Mouse King to the Kingdom of Sweets. The fantasy is brought to vivid life through Peter Wright’s reinterpretation of Lev Ivanov’s choreography, and Julia Trevelyan Oman’s wonderfully indulgent designs of late 19th-century grandeur, delicate in detail and rich in colour.

 

 

Cathy Marston as the Blue Fairy

and Matthew Hart as Pinocchio (2005)

Picture courtesy of Royal Opera

The story of Pinocchio – the little wooden figure who wanted to be a real boy – is a children’s classic.  (Preview) The return of Will Tuckett’s inventive telling of the story is becoming something of a classic too, a success to parallel his seasonal Linbury Studio Theatre sell-out, The Wind in the Willows. The colourful designs of the Quay Brothers and Nicky Gillibrand make this a colourful treat; music by Martin Ward is shot through with the rhythms and melodies of gypsy music and traditional folk song to accompany the journey of the magical puppet who can sing and dance and turn somersaults.

 

 

Picture by Bill Cooper
 

Two ballets by Frederick Ashton make for a sparkling double treat from The Royal Ballet for any family to start the New Year. Ashton got his idea for Les Patineurs from the graceful movements and virtuoso skills of skaters and set them to music by Meyerbeer, itself originally written to accompany skating scenes on stage. Ashton’s choreography suggests the effortless actions of skaters as they sway, glide, turn – and even fall over!

Tales of Beatrix Potter was created in 1971 for a film, bringing alive with astonishing accuracy the famous images and stories of Beatrix Potter: to a score specially created from popular Victorian and Edwardian melodies, such colourful figures as Jemima Puddleduck, Jeremy Fisher, Mrs Tiggywinkle and the irrepressible Peter Rabbit come to vibrant life on stage. A Windows Media Player video of the production is  Here


Bill Kenny

More details and tickets are available from the Royal Opera House Christmas Pages.

 

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