Press Release: Birmingham Royal Ballet returns to Sadler's Wells Theatre this autumn with triple bill Into the Music

[Jan McNulty]

 

PRESS RELEASE

Images are available here. 

Wednesday 28 September 2022
 

• BIRMINGHAM ROYAL BALLET RETURNS TO SADLER’S WELLS THEATRE THIS AUTUMN WITH CONTEMPORARY TRIPLE BILL, INTO THE MUSIC

 

• THE TRIPLE BILL’S LONDON PREMIERE INCLUDES JIRI KYLIAN’S FORGOTTEN LAND, THE UK PREMIERE OF UWE SCHOLZ’S BEETHOVEN’S THE SEVENTH SYMPHONY, AND NEW COMMISSION CHOREOGRAPHED BY MORANN RUNACRE-TEMPLE WITH NEW MUSIC BY MIKAEL KARLSSON, HOTEL

• TICKETS ARE ON SALE NOW FROM £10

Following Birmingham Royal Ballet’s best ever selling show with Carlos Acosta’s new production of Don Quixote at the beginning of July, the Company returns to Sadler’s Wells Theatre from 2-5 November to delight audiences with the London premiere of the triple bill, Into The Music. Celebrating the marriage of music and movement, it has been an ambition of BRB’s Director Carlos Acosta to stage Into The Music since he announced his first season just before the pandemic hit. The programme showcases neo-classical and contemporary ballets, celebrated international choreographers rarely seen in the UK, BRB’s orchestra the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, and the fresh direction Carlos Acosta is setting for Birmingham Royal Ballet.

 

The programme brings together international artists from across the world and features UK and world premieres and rarely seen work and showcases The Royal Ballet Sinfonia, Birmingham Royal Ballet’s permanent orchestra, which is also Britain’s busiest ballet orchestra. The Sinfonia frequently also plays for The Royal Ballet and other leading ballet companies, including with Paris Opera Ballet, the Kirov, New York City Ballet, Australian Ballet and more. 

 

The triple bill opens with Jiří Kylián’s magnificent Forgotten Land which illustrates why Kylián is one of the most revered choreographers of the 20th century, with a gripping journey into memory and loss set to Benjamin Britten’s magnificent Sinfonia da Requiem. A work in which all of the choreography derives directly from the music, Britten, who grew up in East Anglia surrounded by the sea, dedicated the composition to his parents. Kylián has therefore used the idea of the everlasting presence of the ocean as a life-giving and life-taking force, as a main theme for his choreography. He also took inspiration from Edward Munch’s painting Dance of Life, in which the woman in three stages of her life is clearly present, echoing the three sections of the music.
 

Next, choreographer Morgann Runacre-Temple and composer Mikael Karlsson team up for the world premiere of a Ballet Now commission Hotel, a surreal journey into the secrets and lies that live behind closed doors. Morgann will work with her collaborative partner Jessica Wright to bring their experience in film to create a playfully interactive, multimedia live performance using pre-recorded and live camera work projected onto the scenery. The performers will interact with the on-stage cameras which themselves drive the narrative; they are characters in themselves, allowing audiences behind the doors of the Hotel and into the secret lives of the occupants. Hotel features Stage Design by rising star Sami Fendall, for which she won the Linbury Prize, and brand new composition from Mikael Karlsson, whose music has been performed in concert halls, opera halls and at festivals across the globe and has released over twenty albums with works for orchestra, chamber works and soundtracks ranging from pop and film music to sound collages, dance scores and avant-garde concert music.
 

And to close, a work by the late and prolific German choreographer Uwe Scholz. Scholz choreographed more than 100 choreographic works for major companies and venues before his untimely death in 2004. He worked regularly with classical repertoire – and never more dramatically than in his setting of Beethoven’s vibrant The Seventh Symphony, famously described by Wagner as ‘the apotheosis of the dance’.
 

Carlos Acosta said: ‘We were delighted to bring our Don Quixote to packed houses at Sadler’s Wells and cannot wait to return later this year with our ambitious triple bill Into The Music. It’s been my ambition to programme this triple bill ever since I joined the company and it will showcase some of the most important contemporary and classic choreographers as well as UK and world premieres, so I’m very excited to share it with London audiences.’

 

Into The Music will play at Sadler’s Wells Theatre from 2-5 November. Tickets are on sale now from https://www.sadlerswells.com.

ENDS

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LISTINGS INFORMATION

INTO THE MUSIC - AUTUMN TRIPLE BILL
Sadler’s Wells: 2 - 5 Nov 7.30pm; Thur 3 and Sat 5 Nov matinees 2.30pm

 

Forgotten Land 

Dance production / choreography: Jiří Kylián

Assistants  to the choreographer: Cora Bos Kroese, Shirley Esseboom

Music: Benjamin Britten: Sinfonia da requiem, Opus 20
Conductor: Thomas Jung 

Set and costume design: John F. Macfarlane

Light design: Kees Tjebbes

Technical supervision (set/decor): Kees Tjebbes     

World premiere: 12 April 1981, Stuttgart Ballet, Stuttgart, Germany

 

Hotel 
Choreography: Morgann Runacre-Temple
Music: Mikael Karlsson
Conductor: Koen Kessels
Set and Costume Design: Sami Fendall
Creative Associate: Jessica Wright
Orchestration: Michael P. Atkinson and Mikael Karlsson

 

The Seventh Symphony 

Choreography: Uwe Scholz

Music: Ludwig van Beethoven
Conductor: Thomas Jung 

Set and Costume Design: Uwe Scholz, inspired by Morris Louis

Staging: Roser Muñoz Massanas

Notes:

Birmingham Royal Ballet

Based at Birmingham Hippodrome, Birmingham Royal Ballet is the United Kingdom’s leading touring ballet company performing a range of traditional, classical and heritage ballets as well as ground-breaking new works with the aim of encouraging choreographers of the future.
 

The Company’s Director since January 2020 is the internationally renowned Carlos Acosta.
 

Birmingham Royal Ballet standardly performs at Birmingham Hippodrome for approximately ten weeks of the year and the remainder of the year tours throughout the United Kingdom and overseas. On average, the Company performs 175 shows a year nationally and internationally.
 

The Royal Ballet Sinfonia is Birmingham Royal Ballet’s permanent orchestra, it is also Britain's busiest ballet orchestra. The Sinfonia also plays frequently for The Royal Ballet and other leading ballet companies, including performances with Paris Opéra Ballet, New York City Ballet, Australian Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, the Kirov, Norwegian Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, San Francisco Ballet and La Scala Ballet.

[alison]

Ironic: the weekend they're here, I'm supposed to be in Birmingham!

[Jan McNulty]

1 minute ago, alison said:

Ironic: the weekend they're here, I'm supposed to be in Birmingham!

 

Oh dear!

[Fonty]

At the risk of sounding like a broken record....if I want to see contemporary dance, I will go and see a contemporary dance company. 

 

Having said that,  I've never seen any Kylian, so maybe I might have been pleasantly surprised, but I am not in the country.   

[MAX]

Fonty,

Forgotten Land is not contemporary dance, it's full of arabesques, temps levés, grand jetés...  And it's very musical which is not surprising when you think it was made 40 years ago for the Stuttgarter Ballett by Jiri Kyliàn.  Very vintage.

[akh]

Kylian has made some beautiful work. Symphony of Psalms for one of many. 

 

[Angela]

17 hours ago, Fonty said:

if I want to see contemporary dance

 

IT'S NOT. It's pure neoclassical dance.

 

 

"Forgotten Land" is very early Kylián, it's modern ballet, not contemporary dance. This will be an evening of exceptionally beautiful music, the Britten and the Beethoven symphonies are so wonderful.

 

 

[Fonty]

I was actually referring to Acosta's statement in which he refers to "the most important contemporary and classical choreographers".  Am I misunderstanding the use of the word "contemporary"? 

[Scheherezade]

An ambiguous statement at best, although I read ‘contemporary’ as meaning a choreographer active currently or in the recent past rather than a choreographer of contemporary dance. 

[Fonty]

Just now, Scheherezade said:

An ambiguous statement at best, although I read ‘contemporary’ as meaning a choreographer active currently or in the recent past rather than a choreographer of contemporary dance. 

 

Ah, possibly my mistake, not knowing anything about the choreographers. 

[Scheherezade]

Which isn’t to say that BRB will not tread the path of contemporary dance. This is a path well trodden of late and, in my view, seldom for the best.