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Empty Stage – Birmingham Royal Ballet Click here to watch We haven’t had much ballet recently. There hasn’t been much to show you. But here are two perspectives of ballet on film. The first is an innovative short film from Birmingham Royal Ballet, made by young filmmakers Joshua Ben-Tovim and Roseanna Anderson, to remind us of what we’re missing. Its tone is elegiac, suited to this moment when the stage is empty, set to a poignant song by Benjamin Scheuer and featuring many BRB dancers and backstage staff including its Artistic Director Carlos Acosta. This is an intelligent way for BRB to remind its audience of its existence in a time when they can’t dance for us. It’s dedicated to all those working in live performance on and off stage, their industry, in both senses of the word, and, despite its sadness, it's about the hope that soon they will be back, live, and dancing better than ever. New York City Ballet - New Works Festival: Thank You, New York Click here to watch Another view of the ballet dancer’s current life in another short film, this one from the NY City Ballet. Directed by Resident Choreographer Justin Peck, and shot by expert cinematographer Jody Lee Lipes, it’s an original ballet danced separately around the streets of New York by four of NYCB’s soloists, Christopher Grant, Sara Mearns, Georgina Pazcoguin, and Taylor Stanley, and is set to a specially recorded version of Chris Thile's eponymous song. Even in street clothes, the expertise and artistry of these dancers is dazzling. Whether you like the new work or not, these are artists at the top of their game, currently unable to do what they do supremely well. One can almost touch their frustration. The Prodigal Son - New York City Ballet Click here to watch OR Click here to watch The New York City Ballet belongs to George Balanchine. It always did, from the very first night in October,1948, and it still does, 35 years after his death. This season, along with all other companies, live ballet has been cancelled and, instead, NYCB is launching its first virtual season starting with one of Balanchine’s masterpieces, a full-length stream on Feb 25 of his breathtaking Prodigal Son. The ultimate story of sin and redemption, Prodigal Son's powerful message, expressive score, and dramatic movement, which was truly radical in 1929 and not much less so today, make it eternally significant. It is a keystone of modern ballet. The Prodigal Son predates the New York City Ballet. Balanchine created it in 1929 for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes to music by Sergei Prokofiev and it was the centrepiece of Diaghilev’s final season in Paris. Balanchine’s first American company danced Prodigal Son at its first public performance in 1934. The current production of The Prodigal Son features NYCB soloists Daniel Ulbricht and Teresa Reichlen. Prokofiev was a hard man to please. He hated Balanchine’s choreography so much that he refused to pay him any royalties but went on to reuse the music as the basis for the two versions of his Fourth Symphony. Waste not, want not. Feb 25th at 8pm ET but then available to view at a time convenient to us in Europe through March 4. Metropolitan Opera stream Week 50 - Hvorostovsky week Click here to watch Never, never miss an opportunity to hear again the golden voice of the silver-haired baritone who roared out of Siberia and made the world of opera his playground. The next week of free Nightly Met Opera Streams pays tribute to Dmitri Hvorostovsky, the beloved Russian singer who died, much too young in 2017 of a brain tumour. He was only 55. I remember seeing him win the Cardiff Singer of the World First Prize in 1989. To give you some idea of the impact of this young singer’s performance, Second Prize went to Bryn Terfel. This Met week doesn’t include my favourite Hvorostovsky role, that of Don Giovanni, but there is much to savour in that it does celebrate some of his signature roles - Yeletsky in The Queen of Spades (which was the role of his Met debut), the title character of Eugene Onegin and Count di Luna in Il Trovatore. A feast. As a reminder, check the schedule on the website. Scroll down to find the opera you want and check the date. On that date, from 7.30pm ET until 6.30 ET the following day, the opera is free, which mean we in Europe can watch it at any time on the day following the first free showing. Myths and Hymns Part 2 – Work Click here to watch We took a look at Flight, the first set of short films in Myths and Hymns in January, and loved it for its beauty and innovation. This is a digital adaptation of Adam Guettel's theatrical song cycle, scattered with wonderful contributions from a variety of singers, musicians, visual artists, and many stars. Myths and Hymns is divided into four chapters. Flight was the first. Now the second instalment, Work, is ready. John Lithgow, Shoshana Bean, and Daniel Breaker are among the artists featured in the second part. This is a free production, conceived and supervised by MasterVoices’ artistic director Ted Sperling. He describes it as “an episodic film concert” and I can’t think of a better description than that. Dip into it, and also look at Flight, if you haven’t already. Or even if you have. It’s worth your time. Starts at 6:30 PM ET on Feb 24, then available until June. Piaf, No Regrets – Christine Andreas Click here for tickets Twice a Tony Award nominee Christine Andreas, one of my favourite cabaret singers, brings her dynamic voice and passionate interpretations to celebrate the music and life of one of the greatest musical artists of all time - Edith Piaf. Through Piaf’s famous songs and stories of the celebrated songstress’s career, Andreas weaves a journey filled with love, loss and ultimately hope. Feb 27 $25 The Sorcerer's Apprentice - Southwark Playhouse Click here for tickets This is a new fantasy musical, suitable for children, based on the famous Goethe poem. It explores the world of a sorcerer and his rebellious daughter, as she discovers the possibilities of her newfound magical powers. To rescue their small town from certain destruction, father and daughter must heal their relationship and work together. It stars Dawn Hope and David Thaxton as the warring father and daughter. Music and lyrics by Richard Hough and Ben Morales Frost. 26 Feb - 14 Mar £15 + £3 transaction fee The Habit of Art – Original Theatre Click here for tickets I was going to tell you that The Habit of Art in 2009 was Alan Bennett’s most recent full-length play and then I remembered Allelujah! (2018), a dreadful little play about the NHS which I should have forgotten, and nearly did. In between, of course, Bennett has completed memoirs, monologues, short plays, film scripts and all manner of good and well-received writings so he’s hardly been idle. The Habit of Art is about an imaginary meeting between two old enemies, the poet W.H. Auden and the composer Benjamin Britten. They were, in fact, old enemies, having fallen out over their opera Paul Bunyan 25 years earlier. The Habit of Art is unnecessarily complicated, the actual meeting taking place in the middle of a rehearsal for a play very like The Habit of Art and including a number of funny, but improbable, side trips where they are at crosspurposes, as when Auden imagines that Britten wants him to write the libretto for an opera based on the play being rehearsed and Britten wants to discuss the paedophilia in Death in Venice. And then a rent boy arrives. Don’t ask. You’ll pick it up when you see the play online. The original cast at the National Theatre included Alex Jennings and the late great Richard Griffiths, directed by Nicholas Hytner, then still the Director of the National Theatre. It is not Bennett’s best play, that’s still The Madness of George 111, but it’s very funny and erudite. This is the touring cast, Matthew Kelly and David Yelland, but they do fine. I’m afraid this is one of those few occasions when I recommend an event that is UK/EU only. Sorry about that, but I didn’t want those of you who can access it to miss the chance of seeing a Bennett play that is rarely performed and that you may have missed at the National. Between now and Feb 28 Brits and Europeans can watch anytime, as many times as you like. Until 28 Feb. £10. Andre de Shields – Frederick Douglass: Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory Click here to watch And, to even things out, here’s one just for Americans. Frederick Douglass was a Black American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman in the 19th century. He was a Republican when it was still respectable to be a Republican. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became a national leader of the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts and New York, becoming famous for his oratory and incisive antislavery writings. Tony, Grammy, Emmy Award winner and Broadway star André De Shields has a wonderful one-man show about Douglass, his writings and his humour, which has received rave reviews. He infuses his performance with dance, song and rousing words as he transforms from embittered and illiterate slave to America’s incomparable orator and abolitionist right before the eyes of his audience. You can see him, for one night only, on February 26, when the show will be performed live, onstage, at Flushing Town Hall, free, for a virtual audience. Feb 26 at 7ET. US only. An excerpt from the show can be seen by all on YouTube now at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwJKD20ZRxI Ethel Merman v. The Muppets Click here to watch. To end with, just for fun, here is the late great star of the musical theatre, Ethel Merman, with her greatest hits, trying to compete with a whole bunch of Muppets, and losing. You be the judge.
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AuthorRuth Leon is a writer and critic specialising in music and theatre. Archives
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