Latest news with #RoyalBallet
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Thousands of Bradford children take to stage for ballet and opera
More than 2,000 Bradford primary school pupils took to the stage recently to perform a ballet and opera inspired by their own hopes and dreams. The children filled the newly refurbished Bradford Live to perform the new ballet and opera as part of Sing, Dance, Leap - a mass participation project for young people commissioned by Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture. Tom Whitehead, a Bradford-born Royal Ballet dancer who returned to his hometown for the project, said: "It has been a real privilege to be able to help bring Sing, Dance, Leap to my hometown and see the impact it has had on these brilliant young people. "I know how much I would have loved to have been involved in a project like this when I was young, so it makes it extra special to be able to give Bradford's next generation this opportunity. "If Sing, Dance, Leap can be that spark of inspiration for one child to pursue their passion, whatever that is, then this project has been a huge success." The Sing, Dance, Leap project was commissioned by Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture (Image: Elly Welford) Led by the Royal Ballet and Opera, Opera North, and Northern Ballet, the Sing, Dance, Leap project intends to help children to express how they feel about themselves, and their city, through ballet, opera, and the arts. The children's thoughts and feelings helped shape the performance's music, lyrics, and choreography, which were created respectively by Will Todd, Kadijah Ibrahiim, and Carlos Pons Guerra. Jillian Barker, director of learning and participation for the Royal Ballet and Opera, said: "Sing, Dance, Leap is a real celebration of young voices and the power that access to the arts can have. "We want to ensure that projects like this give children more than a momentary experience – we want these young people to take what they have learnt in this project and continue to be creatively inspired in their daily lives. The project was led by the Royal Ballet and Opera, Opera North, and Northern Ballet (Image: Elly Welford) "We have seen firsthand how impactful projects like Sing, Dance, Leap can be on young people, and we will continue to advocate for greater arts access for children across the UK, both in our own work and in the national curriculum." Rhiannon Hannon, director of creative engagement and participation for Bradford 2025, said: "It's so fitting for Bradford's young people to be among the first to use this stage to share this inspiring new work." Sing, Dance, Leap is part of a four-year community partnership, launched in 2023, between the Royal Ballet and Opera and Bradford.
Spectator
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Spectator
The cheering fantasies of Oliver Messel
Through the grey downbeat years of postwar austerity, we nursed cheering fantasies of a life more lavishly colourful and hedonistic. Oliver Messel fed them: born into Edwardian privilege, the epitome of well-connected metropolitan sophistication, he doubled up as interior decorator and stage designer, creating in both roles a unique style of rococo elegance and light-touch whimsy that sweetened and consoled – 'a gossamer world of gilded enchantment' as Roy Strong soupily put it. 'Marie Antoinette would have felt at home in any of his settings.' Posterity has not been kind to Messel. Only a little of his art has survived changes of fashion since his death in 1978: the Dorchester Hotel is currently restoring the VIP suite he dreamed up, and several villas in his beloved Barbados retain the appearance and atmosphere that he suavely devised for them. But aside from the Royal Ballet's unsuccessful attempt to resuscitate the splendours of his 1946 vision of The Sleeping Beauty, the work he prolifically did for the stage, both in Britain and the USA, survives only in coffee-table books and the archives. Perhaps the long lens of history will judge Messel's most substantial theatrical achievement to be embodied in the nine operas by Strauss, Rossini and Mozart that he designed for Glyndebourne between 1950 and 1959. An expertly curated exhibition, running through the current festival's season in the opera house's foyer, pays these legendary productions handsome tribute. Glyndebourne's fête champêtre was Messel's natural element, and his ancillary designs for the programme book and proscenium arch did much to establish what might now be described as its brand. Part of his genius was his understanding the village-hall scale of Glyndebourne's stage. The palatial scenes of Idomeneo and Der Rosenkavalier had intimacy as well as spaciousness, while the servants' quarters in Le nozze di Figaro and La Cenerentola were cutely cosy rather than dingy – Glyndebourne audiences in the 1950s weren't in the mood for gritty realism, and Messel seduced them with a sumptuous yet subtle palette of pink, green, plum, turquoise, ultramarine and canary yellow. Even if his initial sketches, dashed off in one session, were so impressionistic that seamstresses were hard put to interpret his intentions, he lavished as much imagination on costumes as he did on the scenery, relishing the textures of taffeta, chiffon and silk. Sadly few of these have been preserved, but a centrepiece of the exhibition is the Marschallin's gorgeous midnight blue and salmon pink gown from Rosenkavalier, worn by two great sopranos, Régine Crespin and Montserrat Caballé. Props also engaged him: Messel may have drawn vaguely, but he was meticulous and resourceful in the atelier, hands on and dirty, making do and mending with the detritus of pipe cleaner, cellophane, sticky tape, papier-mâché, sequins, and staples to conjure up the silver rose for Rosenkavalier or the Countess's mirror in Figaro. A furiously hard all-night worker who paid fanatic attention to detail, he was not an easy-going collaborator and he found the director Glyndebourne assigned him, Carl Ebert, 'rather hell' – a view that was probably reciprocated. Designs would be presented as a fait accompli: he had the whiphand, and any criticism or request for alteration would send him into a sulk. 'He thought he was perfect,' recalled his long-suffering assistant Carl Toms. But he wasn't perfect, and time caught up with him. Come the Swinging Sixties, his camp caprices began to look over-contrived and fey, and his productions would inexorably be replaced by more visually robust statements. In the West End young lion designers such as Sean Kenny abandoned painted backcloths for a grittier aesthetic based on solid materials and revolving machinery, while Glyndebourne turned to Emanuele Luzzati, an Italian who dealt in vibrant primary colours that Messel would have considered vulgar. He was, in other words, not a classic for the ages. But like his rival Cecil Beaton, he sums up an era. One tantalising glimpse of what his art looked like in performance remains: On Such a Night, a 40-minute promotional colour movie directed by Anthony Asquith, shows live scenes from the 1955 production of Figaro. The DVD is no longer on sale in the Glyndebourne shop, but copies can be snapped up on Amazon.
BBC News
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
The new show that lit a spark for Bradford's children
I wasn't expecting to shed a tear while watching hundreds of Bradford schoolchildren performing on stage, with professionals from some of the country's most prestigious arts as they sang and danced about "Five hundred and thirty thousand hearts / Our brilliant city of many parts", I admit, I welled something very moving about the hopes and dreams of the youngest generation being on show, in one of the youngest cities in the UK. Nearly 30% of Bradford's inhabitants are under 20 years old. Ten-year-old Aiza told me she has never done anything like this before. "Does it make you want to do it again?" I asked. "Yes!" she nodded, Zuriel said that singing with the Royal Opera was "exhilarating and exciting". More than 2,000 Bradford children are involved in Sing Dance Leap, the first ever collaboration between Royal Ballet and Opera, Opera North and Northern Ballet, who've been working together in schools to create this one-off performance at the newly refurbished Bradford Live the biggest moment of mass participation created by and for young people commissioned by Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture. The show is inspired by the children's own thoughts about their city. Nine-year-old Toby told me it was exciting "because some people don't even get to perform on stage in their life and we've got the opportunity to do it".He loves Bradford's landscapes - "it's just nice to walk around in the sun every day".Hidaya,10, says "it's a really diverse place, there's so many cultures and traditions around here."Nine-year-old Willow likes "the different kind of foods we have and the different places you can take walks and have fun". For many of the children, this is their first introduction to ballet and North's vocal coach Marry Claire Breen has been working with some of them for says that it became apparent very early in the workshops that opera didn't have much meaning to young people, so the team started to have discussions what opera rejecting the claim that the art form is elitist, Marie Claire told me that the children were made aware that "opera doesn't have to just be about the stereotypical big, huge voices on big, big, stages, but that we're telling a story with their words, with their emotions, with experience". One of the professional Royal Ballet dancers working with them, Tom Whitehead, was born and raised in Bradford. He told me he began dance classes when he was ten, "a long time ago, pre-Billy Elliot... so quite a lot of stigma still attached to it".For him, it's been a calling for many years now, but he insists "a project like this is not about discovering the next Darcey Bussell or [opera singer] Jonas Kauffman". From my perspective, watching on, it was impossible to look at the sea of enthused, focused and increasingly confident young faces as the rehearsal progressed, without wondering what kind of spark might be lit as a consequence of taking can't know for certain, but the Royal Ballet and Opera's director of learning and participation, Jillian Barker, who was also born in Bradford, told me her hopes for its legacy."I would love to be sitting in the Royal Ballet and Opera in maybe 10 years' time next to somebody who did this project when they were younger... and then maybe to look up on the stage and there may be one young person for whom this lit a fire and now they are on the stage." The point, of course, is about widening access to the arts and inspiring creativity in every child involved. Outreach work, particularly in areas of social deprivation, is an important part of the contract between these institutions and Arts Council England which awards them public funding (in steadily decreasing amounts in recent years when it comes to Royal Ballet and Opera). But the composer of Sing Dance Leap, Will Todd, puts it even more strongly. For him, these kinds of programmes are "the jewel in the crown" of the work of these arts bodies."In a sense, we could expect them to do great performances of Puccini or of The Nutcracker," he says. "But can they go out and inspire ordinary people to participate, to be energised, to sing and dance? To me actually that's the apex of what they can do, so it thrills me that they're here doing this." Being on stage and participating in something of this scale is confidence-boosting. I could see the children walking just that little bit taller, after a day of rehearsing in a theatre so embedded in Bradford's rich cultural history - and they will take that confidence into other aspects of their Tom Whitehead had a message for them: "Have your ideas, dream big and don't be afraid to go for it."
New Statesman
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New Statesman
Kemi Badenoch sinks further into the mire
Illustration by André Carrilho 'Here for the funeral?' asked the man in the seat next to me. Short, stout, bearded, behatted, pot-bellied: he looked just like a garden gnome. We were in the Duchess Theatre, Covent Garden, home of the pre-theatre set menu, luvvie-land. What the gnome called 'the funeral' – and what we might call the 'oooooffft, not again' or the 'should she really have that job?' or the 'why does she keep doing this to herself?' – belonged to Kemi Badenoch, for now the leader of His Majesty's opposition. The gnome, a retired civil servant, had come in search of Schadenfreude. He was here all the way from Eastbourne, gleeful and triumphant, to watch Badenoch on stage in conversation with the comedian Matt Forde. The live talk would be recorded for Forde's popular podcast The Political Party. 'It's a slow-motion car crash,' said Gnome, widely smiling, before Badenoch had even appeared. Car crash, funeral, whatever. If you want to understand British politics, know that there are men out there who not only look like a Renaissance woodcut of a mythical mountain-dwelling creature but who will travel one hour and 35 minutes on Southern Rail to watch a politician they hate exchange sensible on stage banter out of pure spite. In Britain, complicated forms of bitterness and political despair play out through evening attendance as light entertainment. I suppose it's better than the way these things resolve themselves in Myanmar. The tickets for Forde-Badenoch cost £26.50: a price Gnome was happy to pay. A flannel-and-cardigan audience settled into their seats around us. What was Badenoch doing with Forde? It was a deep mystery, much like the continued existence of Emmerdale. Was she doing outreach a few doors down from the Royal Ballet? Are there many votes left for Conservative leaders in the bullseye centre of liberal London, or did one of her aides book her in for the sweet comic grilling months ago, when the Tories weren't finishing fourth in Scottish by-elections on an apocalyptic 6 per cent of the vote? The move showed ambition, which Badenoch can never be accused of lacking. For every two voters the Conservatives are at risk of losing to Labour or the Liberal Democrats, one exhausted Tory flack told me this week, they haemorrhage five or six to Reform. Badenoch could turn the tide against Nigel Farage right here in the Duchess by talking about herself for 45 minutes in front of an audience of Lib Dems. Before anything happened, Gnome began a rambling and dirty joke about Nicholas Soames, who I am required by law to tell you is Winston Churchill's grandson. I think Gnome may just have hated Conservative politicians. He said the joke was Forde's, although I have in the past heard it attributed to Sarah Sands, the former editor of the Today programme. Forde appeared in a shiny blue suit buttoned at the waist, set off by box-fresh white Air Jordans. He was amusing, although his gags appeared to have been printed out on A4 paper and stuck to a box at the front of the stage. Alan Lockey, the Prime Minister's speechwriter, took an indirect pasting. 'Keir Starmer has a weird way with words,' Forde began, before entering a passably nasal Starmer impression: 'I know what it's like to work in a factory… because my dad did it.' Not quite the same thing, is it, as Forde quickly pointed out – you can try this yourself. Pick your most benighted dead relative. 'I know what it's like to get blown up at the Somme… because my great-grandfather did it.' Convincing? Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe I was growing impatient for Badenoch. Understatement induces me to say that her leadership has not gone very well so far. Consider a recent defence of Ukraine that she made on one of the Sunday shows: within hours it was clipped, trussed up, lipsticked and used by the Russian embassy for their own propaganda purposes. As a parable, it's pure Badenoch. She wants to do one thing. The opposite happens. The disintegration has since accelerated. A few days previously Badenoch had given a big speech on the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Imagine you are a right-wing politician fighting off an even more right-wing insurgency that draws all of its energy from promising mass asylum deportations, strong borders, the full Children of Men barbed-wire-and-police-dogs scenario. Would you then promise to leave the ECHR, which effectively stops the government from doing any of that? You might think Badenoch would have made this promise by now. But in that speech Badenoch effectively said she was going to send a consumer complaint email to the court in Strasbourg with her intention to announce a recommendation she had been advised to consider by someone else about the possibility of maybe, after taking some time to come up with a plan, perhaps or perhaps not leaving the ECHR. Strong stuff. Cask-strength. The speech may keep One Nation Tories happy in the parliamentary Conservative Party while opening a vast steppe for Nigel Farage to graze on. After the speech, Badenoch told the BBC she was going to improve: 'You don't want people to be the very best they're going to be on day one. You want people who are going to get better.' Picture Tony Blair saying that. Or Margaret Thatcher. To the extent that anything can get better when you are facing the possibility of being leapfrogged in the polls by the Green Party, Badenoch did improve once she settled, in a gold sleeveless blouse and long black skirt, into a low chair opposite Forde. For one thing, Gnome immediately fell asleep once she began talking. His head drooped first, then his chin settled on his belly. He breathed gently through his round, red nose. Badenoch has been known to induce a similar effect when she posts short-form video content on X, or speaks at Prime Minister's Questions. What's it like being leader of the opposition, Forde asked. Fascinating, Badenoch said, in a posh, slightly hoarse voice. She compared leading the Tories to Game of Thrones, a show in which most characters she might be compared to are murdered by nasty and treacherous methods. She said she'd received advice from past Tory leaders but not Liz Truss, whom she claimed might have lost Badenoch's phone number. 'But she's so good with numbers,' quipped Forde. To laughter, Badenoch poked Forde: 'Do an impression of me.' He mouthed the air before refusing. We were here to see the nice man who wrote Politically Homeless, not Jim Davidson. Badenoch condemned nationalisation, a Fabian idea Nigel Farage has taken a spooky interest in recently. 'Who would want a politician running a business?' Badenoch asked the now-silent audience, raising the uncomfortable question: who would want this Conservative Party running anything? They're not a party right now. They're a bag of snakes. Badenoch was right about Game of Thrones. Some of the material being shopped around to undermine her in Westminster is truly Targaryen in its uncompromising brutality. Leaks that make you shudder at the possibilities of human betrayal, even when the stakes are low: taking over the leadership of Britain's third most- popular political party. 'I've chosen a very, very difficult path,' said Kemi Badenoch as the funeral ended. Gnome slept on soundly. Forde grinned. She wasn't being funny. [See also: Laughing at the populist right is not a political strategy] Related
Korea Herald
08-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Korea Herald
The Royal Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet head to Seoul for July galas
Two of Europe's most storied ballet companies — The Royal Ballet and the Paris Opera Ballet — are set to take to the stage in Seoul next month, offering local audiences a rare opportunity to witness their grandeur, tradition and artistic evolution through back-to-back galas. From July 4 to 6, The Royal Ballet returns to Korea for the first time in two decades, performing "The First Gala in Seoul" at the LG Arts Center in Magok-dong, western Seoul. The company's much-anticipated visit features eight principal dancers, including Benois de la Danse-winning ballerina Natalia Osipova as well as Korean first soloists Choe Yu-hui and Jun Joon-hyuk. From July 30 to Aug. 1, the Paris Opera Ballet will present "Ballet Gala of Etoiles in Paris" at the Seoul Arts Center. Leading the Parisian company is Park Sae-eun, the company's first Asian etoile and Benois de la Danse-winning ballerina, returning to her home country alongside a cast of stars. This marks the POB's second gala appearance in Korea in collaboration with the Seoul Arts Center, following performances in 2024. Notably, Park herself was directly involved in curating the program. Both companies will showcase a dynamic range of works — from signature pas de deux, or duets, from the classical canon to modern masterpieces — highlighting their artistic versatility. The Royal Ballet's program includes excerpts from "Don Quixote," "Giselle," Frederick Ashton's "Swan Lake" and Kenneth MacMillan's drama ballets "Romeo and Juliet" and "Manon." The Paris Opera Ballet will divide its repertoire into two alternating programs over the three-day run. Classical highlights include scenes from "The Sleeping Beauty," "Sylvia" and "Paquita." Both companies also lean into contemporary works to express their modern identities. The Royal Ballet will bring Christopher Wheeldon's poetic "After the Rain." The Paris Opera Ballet counters with George Balanchine's "Sonatine" set to the music of Maurice Ravel, Jerome Robbins' "In the Night" and Maurice Bejart's evocative "Songs of a Wayfarer." In an overlap, both galas include McGregor's kinetic "Chroma," originally choreographed for the Royal Ballet in 2006. Seoul audiences will be treated to a pas de trois, or trio, by The Royal Ballet on July 5 and 6 and a pas de deux by the Paris Opera Ballet on Aug. 1. Lausanne winner Park Youn-jae in Seongnam Adding to Seoul's ballet-filled summer, the Seongnam Arts Center will present 2025 Ballet Stars on July 26 and 27 at its Opera House in Gyeonggi Province — a gala performance that brings together internationally acclaimed ballet stars and rising next-generation dancers. This year's program, spread over two days with different lineups, offers a rich blend of classical and contemporary works. Highlights include beloved scenes from "Le Corsaire," "Giselle," "Swan Lake" and "Don Quixote" — perennial favorites among Korean audiences — as well as contemporary pieces rarely staged in Korea such as "Ballet 102," "Closer" and "To Fly Again." The 2025 edition features principal dancer Chae Ji-young and second soloist Lee Sun-woo of Boston Ballet, Kim Soo-min of Dresden Semperoper Ballet's corps de ballet and first soloist James Kirby Rogers, as well as Park Sang-won and Leo Hepler of the Dutch National Ballet. Also joining the stage are some of Korea's brightest rising stars. Park Youn-jae, who won first prize at this year's Prix de Lausanne, and Kang Gyeong-ho, who gained national attention by finishing second on Mnet dance competition show "Stage Fighter," will bring a fresh dynamic to the gala.
