Opera, Dance & Ballet

Dvořák’s best-loved opera, Rusalka is inspired by myths and folk-tales about a water-nymph that chooses to become human to win her Prince.

The opera displays Dvořák’s exceptional gift for melody and orchestration and features the beautiful aria ‘Song to the Moon’.

Hairspray is a musical from the USA, inspired by the 1988 smash hit film. The music is by Marc Shaiman, and the lyrics by Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman. It's a magical feast of 1960s-style music and rhythm and blues tunes, and it's guaranteed to get your feet tapping at the magnificent London Coliseum. It's on from April 2020, and the anticipation is mounting fast!

It’s been seven years since Ballet Preljocaj performed their Snow White at Sadler’s Wells. Continuing his exploration of fairytales, the daring contemporary choreographer Angelin Preljocaj turns his attention to a traditional Chinese tale.

She creates a hunger in men.
But will it now consume her?

Carmen is a searing depiction of a woman who craves love, but creates obsession and jealousy. One of the most popular operas ever written, Bizet’s score is bursting with passionate melodies and includes such famous numbers as the ‘Habanera’, ‘Toreador’s Song’ and ‘Flower Song’.

In this radical take on Shakespeare’s fierce and energetic comedy of gender, Baptista Minola is seeking to marry off her two sons, the sweet-tempered Bianco and the rebellious Katherine. Cue an explosive courtship and a keenly witty portrayal of hierarchy and control.

A tender kiss can conceal the hardest of hearts.

Anthony Minghella’s Olivier Award-winning production returns to the London Coliseum. His staging combines cinematic images and traditional Japanese theatre.

Over 100 dancers and musicians bring Nutcracker to life with exquisite dancing, beautiful sets and Tchaikovsky’s popular score played live.

On a sparkling Christmas Eve in a frost-dusted Edwardian London, Clara and her enchanted Nutcracker doll discover a magical world, where she battles with the Mouse King and meets a handsome stranger. As the air grows colder, Clara and her valiant Nutcracker take a hot air balloon ride across London to the glistening Land of Snow where her adventure really begins.

From the sound of the orchestra tuning up, to the final bows and cheers, a trip to see the English National Ballet at the London Coliseum is an unforgettable Christmas treat.

Travel to a faraway land for the adventures of a dashing pirate, Conrad, and his feisty girlfriend Medora. Will they outfox villainous schemers and find happiness on the high seas?

English National Ballet’s Le Corsaire is “hugely enjoyable entertainment” (The Daily Telegraph). Expect a swashbuckling romp, full of thrilling dancing by an extraordinary cast of performers, with gorgeous decors and costumes created by Hollywood’s Bob Ringwood, all set to a romantic score played live by English National Ballet Philharmonic.

English National Ballet is the only UK company to perform this classic story ballet. Their extravagant production, staged by Anna-Marie Holmes, has enthralled audiences and received rave reviews worldwide, including Paris and Tokyo. It returns to the London Coliseum following glorious performances in 2016.

Carmen is the best-known work by French composer Georges Bizet, and one of the most famous operas in the entire art form – numbers such as the Habanera and the Toreador Song have permeated the popular consciousness as little else has. The opera’s heady combination of passion, sensuality and violence initially proved too much for the stage, and it was a critical failure on its 1875 premiere. Bizet died shortly after, and never learned of the spectacular success his Carmen would achieve: the opera has been performed more than five hundred times at Covent Garden alone.

South African choreographer Dada Masilo is not afraid of reinventing a classic.

Her Swan Lake, which opened Sadler’s Wells Sampled in 2014, placed her male Odile in pointe shoes.

For Giselle, Masilo places the definitive Romantic heroine in South Africa.

Deserted by her lover, Giselle, danced by Masilo herself, is guided by a Sangoma, a traditional healer, in a trailblazing feminist take on the classical ballet.

Gilbert & Sullivan’s topsy-turvy story focuses on the unfolding love between Nanki-Poo and Yum-Yum and the absurdity of laws and law-makers.
Nanki-Poo loves Yum-Yum but she’s betrothed to Ko-Ko, the new Lord High Executioner. When the Mikado orders a beheading, Nanki-Poo and Ko-Ko try to come to an arrangement that doesn’t involve anyone losing their head!

Sadler’s Wells Associate Artist and two-time Olivier Award-winner Russell Maliphant has long been fascinated by the human body.

Having just celebrated their 60th anniversary, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater bring with them a flood of new and exciting works alongside modern classics in three mixed programmes that demonstrate the unparalleled artistry that defined them.

Alvin Ailey’s masterpiece, and the company’s signature piece, signs off each one of their shows. Performed as a closing prayer, Revelations veers from grief to elation as it explores African-American cultural heritage and spirituality alongside an emotional score of gospel music and blues.

Having just celebrated their 60th anniversary, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre bring with them a flood of new and exciting works alongside modern classics in three mixed programmes that demonstrate the unparalleled artistry that has defined them.

Alvin Ailey’s masterpiece, and the company’s signature piece, signs off each one of their shows. Performed as a closing prayer, Revelations veers from grief to elation as it explores African-American cultural heritage and spirituality alongside an emotional score of gospel music and blues.

Having just celebrated their 60th anniversary, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater bring with them a flood of new and exciting works alongside modern classics in three mixed programmes that demonstrate the unparalleled artistry that has defined them.

Mozart’s comedy is a whirlwind of mistaken identities and twists and turns, taking place on a single crazy day – the wedding day of Figaro and Susanna.

When their philandering master, Count Almaviva, is determined to bed Susanna before she is wed, Figaro and Susanna conspire with the rejected Countess to outwit him. General mayhem ensues, ending with the Count receiving a lesson in marital fidelity he’ll never forget. 

From the first notes of the bustling Overture, Mozart’s psychologically complex story portrays the women as wiser, shrewder and more civilised than the men.

Matthew Bourne’s Romeo & Juliet is a passionate and contemporary re-imagining of Shakespeare’s classic love story.

Don’t hide within yourself. Let love save you.

Following Satyagraha and the Olivier Award-winning Akhnaten, ENO’s association with Philip Glass continues with a new production of Orphée.

Shattering childhood dreams can break a life.

Verdi’s Luisa Miller is a complex web of love, intrigue and oppressive familial relationships, centred on the doomed love between Luisa and Rodolfo.

Orpheus in the Underworld transports us to a hedonistic, party-filled Underworld.

Eurydice is fooled into taking Pluto, ruler of the Underworld, as her lover after her new marriage to Orpheus is broken through tragedy.

Orpheus must try to win his wife back to him. To achieve the impossible he needs the help of the glamorous, conceited but rather bored gods…

Harrison Birtwistle’s iconic masterpiece retells the Orpheus myth in a non-linear narrative, as the opera’s leading characters appear in three distinct guises.

The Mask of Orpheus is scored for massive orchestral forces, which builds into a three dimensional picture that leads us from inconsolable grief to acceptance and transformation.
 

Willing to go to any lengths to be reunited with his one true love, the gods agree to let the grief-stricken Orpheus rescue his wife Eurydice from the underworld. But there’s a catch. To be together again, Orpheus can’t look back at Eurydice, or she will be lost to him forever.

Gluck’s score is filled with sublime melody and richly colourful orchestral writing from Orpheus’s anguished outbursts at Eurydice’s death, through to the exquisite classical beauty of the ‘Dance of the Blessed Spirits’.

After a critically acclaimed national and international tour, Carlos Acosta’s eclectic Cuban company bring a second programme of ballet and contemporary works to Sadler’s Wells.

In a thrilling collaboration, dancers of Birmingham Royal Ballet and Ballet Black appear on stage together in a mixed bill featuring Cathy Marston’s National Dance Award-winning The Suit, Twyla Tharp’s sizzling tribute to Old Blue Eyes, Nina Sinatra Songs and a new work from Jack Lister, commissioned as part of Ballet Now.

True to its 19th century origins and the original steps of Marius Petipa, David Bintley and Galina Samsova’s production of Giselle is the perfect opportunity to see one of the most exquisite examples of this classical ballet in its traditional form. 

Started in 2010 by French choreographer Boris Charmatz, theatre director Emmanuel Demarcy Mota and Fondation d’entreprise Hermès, Danse Élargie takes place over a gruelling two-day marathon at the acclaimed Théâtre de la Ville.

Open to all disciplines, and with just two restrictions, the bi-annual contest is a competition like no other. To enter, the work must include at least three performers and come in at under ten minutes.

Game-changer in the world of tap, Michelle Dorrance had dedicated herself to exploring the capabilities of America’s original dance form. In an exhilarating diverse triple bill, her company proves just what tap can do.

Gisèle Vienne’s background covers music, philosophy and puppeteering, while her dance work has seen her explore the crimes of a serial killer, place athletes in a forest and ghosts on an ice rink.

Scouring the globe each year for the next generation of contemporary dance talent, Rambert2 selects its dancers for both their technical virtuosity and their raw energy.

Born in Israel and now based in France, the double Bessie Award-winning choreographer Emanuel Gat initially trained as a conductor before shifting his attention to dance.

Merce Cunningham, master of improvisation, devised his revolutionary Event format to combine dance, music and design in a way that was unique to each location and performance.