Jean-Georges Noverre (1727-1810) was a French dancer and balletmaster and is considered the creator of the modern ballet. Since 1982, the dancing community have come together on his birthday, 29 April, to mark International Dance Day, to celebrate dance, revel in the universality of the artform, cross all political, cultural and ethnic barriers. Though opera may be better known for its vocals than its moves, there are still some spectacular dance numbers in our artform. From the flamenco of Carmen to the sprites of Rusalka, dance plays a supporting role in countless operas, and now, we explore some of the best.
In 2016, Welsh National Opera took Cole Porter’s Kiss Me, Kate out on tour. Set in 1940s Baltimore, on the opening night of a musical version of The Taming of the Shrew, we follow stories of ex-lovers, potential lovers and mistaken identities, all comically intertwined in Cole Porter’s classic musical and beautiful dance numbers. Relive the mesmerizing tap-dancing scene from Alan Burkitt as the gambling Bill Calhoun.
When Strauss’ Salome premiered in 1905, it scandalised audiences, mostly due to the Dance of the Seven Veils. Hoping to claim John the Baptist’s head on a platter, Salome dances for her stepfather, Herod II, removing her veils one by one until she is naked. Strauss described the dance as ‘the heart of the plot’, and wrote slow, seductive orchestral music for it. Over the years, the Company have performed the piece a handful of times - in the late 1980s and early 1990s, including a tour to the Bunkamura Theatre in Tokyo, in 2002 and most recently in 2009. As part of our Rearrange Series, director Gareth Chambers applied a mysterious and gothic setting to this work.
Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus is somewhat of a staple at WNO, having been performed in every (full) decade since the 1950s. Our most recent production of the comic operetta came in 2017, with Judith Howarth and Paul Charles Clarke leading the cast. Die Fledermaus is centred around an extravagant ball, which the four main characters all plan to attend without the others finding out. The hilarious story of mistaken identity is full of splendour, posh frocks, masks and features one of the most beautiful dances to the piece A Waltz, Let's Have a Waltz
We are thrilled to present Deborah Colker’s much-anticipated operatic debut as she takes the director’s seat for Golijov’s Ainadamar this Autumn. You can expect to see dazzling dances throughout this spine-tingling spectacle as Colker is an Olivier-winning choreographer, who has worked on Cirque du Soleil and the Olympics Ceremony (Rio 2016). Blending music, dance, and theatre and marrying flamenco, traditional Spanish singing and sumptuous operatic numbers, Ainadamar presents opera like never before.
Join us as we take this evocative Spanish spectacle on tour to Cardiff, Llandudno, Bristol, Plymouth, Birmingham, Milton Keynes and Southampton this Autumn.