Tchaikovsky was “charmed and captivated” when asked to write the music for The Sleeping Beauty by the director of the Imperial Theatres, Ivan Vsevolozhsky. Audiences have felt the same since the work’s premiere in 1890. The composer and choreographer Marius Petipa worked closely and harmoniously together and created one of the ballet canon’s enduring masterpieces. The Sleeping Beauty has been…
Tag: Marcus Morelli
Carmen, The Australian Ballet: A new perspective. Canberra Theatre Centre, June 21, 2025
You don’t go back to a ballet again and again just to see the ballet. You go to see what different artists make of that ballet (same with opera; same with theatre). An alternative cast brings its own atmosphere to a piece, or at least one hopes it does. The overall framework of the piece…
Carmen. The Australian Ballet, Sydney Opera House, April 10, 2024
Johan Inger sees Carmen as a nightmare, which it is. In his darker-than-dark version of a story that just won’t go away, the Swedish choreographer gets inside the head of the woman’s murderer, Don Jose, and chillingly finds nothing there. Well, there’s a writhing, stuttering collection of destructive impulses but otherwise Inger’s Don Jose is…
The Australian Ballet ends 2023 with Swan Lake and 16 promotions
The Australian Ballet’s 60th anniversary celebrations came to a close in Sydney with Swan Lake and with promotions for 16 dancers – about 20 per cent of the company. TAB ended 2023 with 67 dancers although that number will increase to 77 when three new soloists and seven new corps de ballet members join next year. Swan Lake was…
Swan Lake. The Australian Ballet, State Theatre, Melbourne, September 19-20, 2023
Tradition reigns in The Australian Ballet’s new Swan Lake, based on a fondly remembered 1977 production by former artistic director Anne Woolliams. Nearly 50 years on it’s still recognisable as her work, albeit with lashings of 21st-century glamour. Swan Lake is the main event in artistic director David Hallberg’s celebration of the company’s 60th anniversary and in what…
Four Romeos and four Juliets at The Australian Ballet, October and December 2022
The return of John Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet to The Australian Ballet after nearly 20 years is a reminder of how few narrative ballets surpass it for range and complexity. Cranko’s version of Shakespeare’s tragedy, made in 1962 for Stuttgart Ballet, has been in TAB’s repertoire since 1974 and until 2003 was staged relatively regularly. Not all…
Sylvia, The Australian Ballet
Sydney Opera House, November 8 The dash for bathrooms and bars was substantially less frantic than usual after the close of Act I of Stanton Welch’s Sylvia. Heads everywhere bowed over their synopsis sheets. What in the name of all the gods in Ancient Greece was going on? How does one show via ballet that Artemis…
Giselle, The Australian Ballet
Sydney Opera House, May 1 Graeme Murphy fell ill earlier this year and was unable to complete his new ballet, The Happy Prince, in time for its premiere in Melbourne, which was to have been in March. It was then to be performed in Sydney (it is now likely to be seen in 2020). Alexei…
Murphy: The Australian Ballet
Sydney Opera House, April 6 (evening) and 11 (matinee). It would have been the easiest thing in the world to give Graeme Murphy a conventional gala to celebrate his 50 years of association with The Australian Ballet, the company he joined as a member of the corps de ballet in 1968. The idea for the…
Misty Copeland debuts as Aurora
The Sleeping Beauty. The Australian Ballet, Capitol Theatre, Sydney, November 22. With her unstinting advocacy for greater diversity in ballet, Misty Copeland’s fame extends well beyond the stage. She is a drawcard no matter what the repertoire. Copeland’s appearances in Sydney aren’t her first in Australia. Three years ago she danced in Brisbane with her…
deborah jones: FollowSpot 