Pina Bausch/The Rite of Spring. Review by Julia Pascal. How do you keep Pina Bausch’s work alive 13 years after her death? This is the question behind this amazing production of her Rite of Spring.
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Claude Cahun Exhibition. Review by Julia Pascal. This Hayward Touring exhibition is in collaboration with Jersey Heritage and was first presented at the Women of the World Festival 2015, Southbank Centre.
State Ballet of Georgia – Swan Lake. Review by Julia Pascal. How thrilling to see the state Baller of Georgia in London for the first time. The Company is lucky enough to have mega star Nina Ananiashvili as Artistic Director.
Swan Lake in the Round. Review by Julia Pascal. This is the most famous of classical ballets and it was conceived for the proscenium arch Italianate style theatre of Imperial Russia when it opened with Marius Petipa’s choreography to Peter Tchaikovsky’s composition at Moscow’s Bolshoi Ballet in 1895.
Romeo and Juliet. Review by Julia Pascal. This production has not been seen in London since 2009. Consequently, most Londoners will know revivals of Kenneth MacMillan’s famous 1965 version which has regularly been performed by the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden.
May Be at Sadler’s Wells. Review by Julia Pascal. I walk into a Paris bookshop and ask if they can offer me play texts by contemporary French authors. The assistant directs me to a shelf of plays by Samuel Beckett. To the French, Samuel Beckett is one of theirs. He wrote in French. He lived most of his life in France. But was he Irish? Anglo-Irish? French?
New York City Ballet at Sadlers Wells. Review by Julia Pascal. George Balanchine founded New York City Ballet and gave us classical technique without classical narratives. His work is described as neo-classic or even anti-classic. But since his death in 1983 the Company has been looking at other creatives to provide Company identity.
Our Voices. Review by Julia Pascal. This mixed bill is a curious evening where the separate parts do not form an organic whole. George Balanchine’s 1947 Themes and Variations thrilled the audience who gasped when the curtain rose on tutued dancers.
Last Night of The Proms 2023. Review by Julia Pascal. It was the presence of the hundreds of blue EU flags which made me realise that the Last Night of the Proms is not just a xeno-fest. It is a testimony to the international element of art and music.
Prom 55. Review by Julia Pascal. Nelsons led his orchestra in such a way as to suggest that this was also the premiere for Stravinsky, Gershwin and Ravel.
An Anatomy of Melancholy. Review by Julia Pascal. This is one of the most extraordinary pieces of theatre that I have ever seen. The Pit is transformed into a laboratory with audience sitting in a circle watching the interplay between science, art, music, psychiatry and clinical analysis, in a concept that links the writings of Shakespeare’s contemporary, John Burton, with Freud and 2022 explorations into the mind.
Rigoletto. Review by Julia Pascal. Concept is all. And director Jonathan Miller’s decision to set Verdi’s disturbing melodrama in 1950s New York Little Italy is genius.
By Julia Pascal • music, opera, theatre, year 2024 • Tags: Julia Pascal, music, opera, theatre