Blu-ray
Adams: Doctor Atomic (De Nederlandse Opera)
Gerald Finley (J. Robert Oppenheimer); Jessica Rivera (Kitty Oppenheimer); Eric Owens (General Leslie Groves); Richard Paul Fink (Edward Teller); James Maddalena (Jack Hubbard); Thomas Glenn (Robert Wilson);
"The cast is flawless...Adams has created a beautiful provocative work that refreshes the repertoire." (The Times)
Akram Khan's Giselle (English National Ballet)
Tamara Rojo CBE (Giselle); James Streeter (Albrecht); James Streeter (Hilarion); Stina Quagebeur (Myrhta, Queen of the Wilis); Begoña Cao (Bathilde); Fabian Reimair (Landlord); Jung Ah Choi; Adela Ramírez; Maria José Sadles (Giselle's Friends); Artists of the Company (Outcasts, Wilis);
"Giselle has been transformed for the ENB by Akram Khan into the ballet event of the year. Staggeringly beautiful and utterly devastating, it is an electrifying triumph which any dance or theatre fan must not miss." (The Daily Express ★★★★★)
Amelia
Alexandre Castongua (Cello); Simon Claude (Violin); Njo Kong Kie (Piano & Musical Direction); Nadine Medawar (Vocalist);
"Amelia is nothing but dance, brilliantly shot, relentlesslyin your face, astonishingly fast. The lesson of Amelia...is to dance this hard, this fast, this gloriously while youstill can." (Los Angeles Times)
Anastasia (Royal Ballet)
Natalia Osipova (Anastasia/Anna Anderson); Marianela Nuñez (Mathilde Kschessinska); Federico Bonelli (Kshchessinska’s Partner); Edward Watson (The Husband); Thiago Soares (Rasputin); Christina Arestis (Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna); Christopher Saunders (Tsar Nicholas II);
"A commanding performance from Natalia Osipova - The present revival of Kenneth MacMillan’s Anastasia brings back to the stage an adventurous, fascinating creation, its final act made in 1967 during MacMillan’s time as director of the Deutsche Oper ballet. Its subject is the derelict woman, known as Anna Anderson, discovered 40 years earlier in Berlin and unwisely supposed to be Anastasia, daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, somehow escaped from the cellar where the imperial family had been murdered by Bolshevik soldiery. Fascinated by this event, MacMillan produced an expressionist drama of haunting imagery and resonating force in which Anna journeys through a labyrinth of memories and suffering in quest of an identity.... Natalia Osipova’s Anna was truth itself in her sympathy and understanding, commanding in emotion as in execution... I salute Osipova, the entire company performance, Crowley’s magnificent designs, and Simon Hewett’s notable account of the Tchaikovsky/Martinů scores." (The Financial Times ★★★★★)
Ashton Celebration (The Royal Ballet)
Leanne Benjamin (Méditation from Thaïs); Valeri Hristov (Méditation from Thaïs); Yuhui Choe (Voices of Spring); Alexander Campbell (Voices of Spring); Edward Watson (Monotones I and II); Marianela Nuñez (Monotones I and II); Sergei Polunin (Marguerite and Armand); Marianela Nuñez (Marguerite and Armand); Hikaru Kobayashi (La Valse); Ryoichi Hirano (La Valse); Samantha Raine (La Valse); Vasko Vassilev (Solo Violin (Méditation from Thaïs));
"... performances of heart-wrenching intensity ... Polunin stalks the stage like a panther, his every breath and gesture a cry of longing for Rojo's ailing, consumptive Marguerite ... and while his dancing is faultless, it's the other things that you remember. His burning gaze. The ferocious tenderness of his touch. The terrible desperation with which he buries his face in her neck ... Rojo has never been more incandescently beautiful, nor more vulnerable. Voices of Spring [is] deftly performed by Yuhui Choe and Alexander Campbell. They're a well-matched pair, his Tiggerish bounce nicely complemented by her understated technique and knowing smile. Monotones I and II see Ashton in minimalist mood. In this plotless two-part work we see his fundamental beliefs about ballet laid out with limpid simplicity to piano music by Erik Satie. It's exquisitely performed, Emma Maguire's quietly perfect line compelling the eye in the first section, and Marianela Nuñez lunar and inexorable in the second." (The Guardian)
Ashton: Ballets (The Royal Ballet)
Akane Takada (Titania (The Dream)); Steven McRae (Oberon (The Dream)); Valentino Zucchetti (Puck (The Dream)); Bennet Gartside (Bottom (The Dream)); Marianela Nuñez (Symphonic Variations); Vadim Muntagirov (Symphonic Variations); Yasmine Naghdi (Symphonic Variations); James Hay (Symphonic Variations); Yuhui Choe (Symphonic Variations); Tristan Dyer (Symphonic Variations); Zenaida Yanowsky (Marguerite (Marguerite and Armand)); Roberto Bolle (Armand (Marguerite and Armand));
"First-rate dancing in an Ashton triple bill that offers comedy, serenity and demi-monde ardour" (The Stage ★★★★)