Northern Ballet R&J at Royal Shakespeare Theatre 19 - 28 September 2024

[Guest oncnp]

E-mail from the Northern Ballet. Tickets on sale 8 Feb from the RSC website

 

Christopher Gable CBE and Massimo Moricone's Romeo & Juliet will be performed at the prestigeous Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon this September.

 

In a Company first, we have joined forces with the Royal Shakespeare Company to bring ballet to their stage for the first time in decades.

 

What: Romeo & Juliet

When: 19 - 28 September 2024

Where: The Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon

Edited January 16 by oncnp

[FionaM]

Super idea!  And a lot closer to me (hooray) 

[LinMM]

Wow great idea! I probably won’t go up there but on the other hand we haven’t been to Stratford for a while…..

Great for those folks up that way though and a sort of middle ground for people to get to. 

[J_New]

And on a thrust stage ....

[Sim]

Typical....the one week I'm away. 

 

[Jan McNulty]

AND NO ORCHESTRA!

 

I bet that will have a huge negative impact on ticket sales!

[Emeralds]

1 hour ago, Jan McNulty said:

AND NO ORCHESTRA!

 

I bet that will have a huge negative impact on ticket sales!

Very sad to hear that no Sinfonia at RST. Doesn't seem right when RST is a flagship RSC theatre. Surely RSC could have rustled up funds to bring NBS over. They aren't even a huge orchestra. Oh well. Hopefully they'll either change that plan or.... I can save myself the cost of train and hotel fares and prices of tickets. Like Jan, I too think that will result in fewer tickets being sold than if NBS was playing live for them. 

[alison]

Does the RST have an orchestra pit?

[Emeralds]

I believe it doesn't, but neither do Royal Festival Hall or Royal Albert Hall, yet that doesn't prevent ENB or BRB from bringing along their (bigger) orchestras to dance at those venues. They can always cordon off some of the stalls area to form an orchestra pit or cordon off some of the back of the stage. 

[RHowarth]

You can also put an orchestra below stage/in a conference facility and use cameras so that the conductor can see the dancers and vice-versa. Venues sometimes do this when they don't want to lose seats (and potential revenue) to accommodate an orchestra. Common for musicals on tour.

[SheilaC]

Last night Northern Ballet held an event on the production of Romeo and Juliet which they are reviving in March. The speaker was Daniel de Andrade, Artistic Associate of Northern Ballet. He is responsible for the restaging; it is about the sixth time he has staged this ballet. He was not in the company when Christopher Gable and Massimo Moricone created it, in 1991, but joined soon after. He first took on the role of Romeo aged 32. Despite already having considerable experience as a dancer, and having performed with several companies (including London City Ballet), he found the rehearsals with Christopher Gable mind-blowing, the relentless focus on the dramatic meaning of each situation and of what emotions the character was experiencing gave him new depth in characterisation and dancing.

 

Apparently the sword-play is very realistic and aggressive, using genuine, and large, swords. The dancers are trained by a swords professional  and have to rehearse the sword play actions before each performance to ensure accuracy - and safety. The whole production is very dynamic and doesn't suffer from the padding that weakens some productions (my comment, not Daniel's).

 

It opens on 8 March in Leeds, then moves on to Sheffield, Nottingham, Norwich and Sadler's Wells, before opening the next season in Stratford. There will be four casts.

 

 

[Emeralds]

Am both anxious and impressed by the use of real swords even though I've already seen the ballet years ago! 

[SheilaC]

Northern Ballet have just announced the works they will be performing next season (no doubt Jan will provide fuller info soon)

It's great that they are going to revive another very popular ballet from Christopher Gable's time: A Christmas Carol. It will take the place of Nutcracker in the late autumn and performed in Leeds 17 December to 4 January.

A further popular revival will be Jane Eyre, to be shown in Leeds and London amongst other places

Another interesting ballet will they be doing is Rudi van Dantzig's lovely Four Last Songs in the 'Three Short Ballets' slot, along with a new ballet by Mthutuzeli November and a ballet soon to be announced. This will be in Leeds in the 2nd week of September.

Other good news is that some performances will benefit from live music.

A very encouraging announcement of  their plans for next season.

 

[Roberta]

18 minutes ago, SheilaC said:

Rudi van Dantzig's lovely Four Last Songs

 

It is lovely. What a wonderful choice. I suspect this will be one of the recorded pieces, singer and orchestra.