Royal Ballet and Opera Will Host Three International Companies in a Showcase of the Best of Contemporary Dance
Performances run 28 March – 8 April.
This spring, The Royal Ballet presents a mixed programme of works by one of the most influential American choreographers of all time, George Balanchine. In Balanchine: Three Signature Works, the Company will show the breadth and artistry of his choreographic output across Serenade, Prodigal Son and Symphony in C.
Serenade, Balanchine's first original ballet created in America in 1935, was first performed by The Royal Ballet in 1964. Set to Pyotr Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings in C the ballet was created on the students at the School of American Ballet which he had newly founded. The real-life mistakes made by the students ended up in his finished ballet. It was last performed by The Royal Ballet in 2014.
Prodigal Son premiered at the beginning of the last Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in 1929. The librettist Boris Kochno took his inspiration from the biblical parable of the Prodigal Son, emphasising the tale's themes of sin and redemption. With Balanchine's modernist style of movement, a commissioned score from Sergei Prokofiev and Expressionist designs by Georges Roualt, the resulting narrative was strikingly avant-garde. Originated by Serge Lifar, the role of the Prodigal Son was taken by Rudolf Nureyev when the work made its Royal Ballet premiere in 1973.
This will be the fourth revival of Prodigal Son by the Company; it was last performed by the Company in 2004. The roles of the Prodigal Son and the Siren will be performed by Cesar Corrales and Natalia Osipova on opening night, with Steven McRae and Fumi Kaneko, and Marcelino Sambé and Mayara Magri performing the roles together on subsequent nights.
Originally created for the Paris Opera Ballet in 1947 as Le Palais de Cristal, Balanchine's dazzling Symphony in C received its Royal Ballet premiere in 1991 with set and costume designs by Anthony Dowell. A fantastic showcase of Balanchine's signature neoclassical choreography, the work is set to music by George Bizet and divided into four movements, each featuring different ballerina and corps de ballet qualities and leading to a bravura finale. It was last performed by The Royal Ballet in 2019.
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