Here are the first photos from the dress rehearsal of tonight’s opening cast at The Royal Opera House of Natalia Makarova’s La Bayadère.
Solor is danced by Vadim Muntagirov, Gamzatti by Natalia Osipova, and Marianela Nuñez is Nikiya. This is also the cast that will be dancing when the ballet is transmitted live in cinemas on 13 November 2018.
An iconic 19th-century Russian ballet, La Bayadère was originally performed at the Bolshoi Theatre in St Petersburg in 1877, and was regularly performed within the former Soviet Union throughout the 20th century. However, it remained unknown in the West until the Kirov Ballet toured with the Kingdom of the Shades scene in 1961. Natalia Makarova saw La Bayadère as a child in Leningrad and created this production in 1980, which was first performed by The Royal Ballet in 1989.