Sunday, June 5

[dirac]

A review of the Royal Ballet by Graham Watts for Bachtrack.

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This is Wheeldon’s third full-evening work for The Royal Ballet, following Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (2011) and The Winter’s Tale (2014) – only one shy of Sir Frederick Ashton’s total full-length output for the company – and he has retained the same core creative team from those earlier works. There have been a slew of excellent new ballet scores recently and Joby Talbot’s melodious composition easily fits into that top drawer. It is unmistakably accented with Mexican flavours, especially in the fiesta scenes marking Rosaura’s wedding and Gertrudis’ return, both of which successfully bring Broadway to ballet. The authenticity of integral Mexican musical genres, including the solo guitar playing of Tomás Barreiro, was helped by conductor Alondra de la Parra acting as Talbot’s musical consultant.