Royal Ballet and Royal Opera unveil 2007/8 programmes

Published Wednesday 4 April 2007 at 15:45 by Nuala Calvi

The Royal Ballet will dance La Bayadere, Romeo and Juliet, The Nutcracker, Sylvia, The Sleeping Beauty and a new production of George Balanchine’s Jewels in the 2007/8 season at Covent Garden, it has been announced.

New works by Wayne McGregor, Christopher Wheeldon and Kim Brandstrup and a revival of the multi award-winning Chroma are also on the bill at the Royal Opera House.

McGregor is to produce a short ballet for the November gala, while Wheeldon will create his fourth one act piece for the Royal Ballet in February 2008, as part of a mixed bill that includes Jerome Robbins’ Afternoon of a Faun and Frederick Ashton’s A Month in the Country.

Brandstrup will produce his first one-act piece for the company in April 2008, as part of a triple bill with Balanchine’s Serenade and Ashton’s Homage to the Queen.

Ashton’s Les Patineurs and Tales of Beatrix Potter will also be revived in a double-bill for Christmas and Kenneth MacMillan’s Different Drummer will be revived in the new year.

Meanwhile in opera, the Royal Opera’s music director Antonio Pappano conducts Der Ring des Nibelungen, the world premiere of The Minotaur by Harrison Birtwistle, a new production of Don Carlo directed by Nicholas Hytner, and the second revival of Johnathan Kent’s production of Tosca.

Der Ring will be directed by Keith Warner and marks the first time since the reopening of the opera house that a complete Ring cycle will be performed at Covent Garden.

The season opens with a new production of Gluck’s Iphigenie en Tauride, a co-production with Lyric Opera of Chicago and San Francisco Opera, while the team behind La Fille du Regiment returns with another Donizetti opera, L’Elisir D’Amore.

Other new productions include Salome, directed by David McVicar, and The Rake’s Progress, directed by Robert Lepage, while first revivals include the complete 1881 version of Simon Boccanegra, Steven Pimlott’s production of Eugene Onegin and Francesca Zambello’s production of Carmen.

La Cenerentola and La Traviata open either side of Christmas in popular productions by directors Moshe Leiser/Patrice Caurier and Richard Eyre, respectively.