• Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • DANCE
  • MUSIC & OPERA
  • PHOTOGRAPHY
  • Q&A DANCERS
  • Q&A SINGERS
  • GRAMILANO.PHOTOS
    • Dance
    • Italians
    • Italy
  • CONTACT

Gramilano

- dance, opera, photography...

Home › dance › Photo Album: Beauty and the Beast – Birmingham Royal Ballet 2019

Photo Album: Beauty and the Beast – Birmingham Royal Ballet 2019

4 February 2019 by gramilano 1 Comment

Share35
Tweet11
Pin7
Share
53 Shares
Beauty and the Beast by David Bintley, photo by Dasa Wharton, BRB 2019 25
Beauty and the Beast by David Bintley, photo by Dasa Wharton, BRB 2019

Beauty and the Beast – Birmingham Royal Ballet

A cruel Prince, cursed to spend the rest of his life living in a fantastical castle with the animals he callously hunted, finds salvation in the heart of a beautiful girl.

Caught stealing a single rose, Belle’s desperate father exchanges his youngest daughter’s freedom for his own life. In his distant castle the Beast, stripped of his handsome features and his very humanity, must win her heart, or spend the rest of his life in bitter solitude…

Witness transformations, wild waltzes, soaring birds and a relationship between Belle and the Beast that is at first terrifying, but ultimately serene and beautiful.

Beauty and the Beast by David Bintley, photo by Dasa Wharton, BRB 2019 01
Beauty and the Beast by David Bintley, photo by Dasa Wharton, BRB 2019 01
Beauty and the Beast by David Bintley, photo by Dasa Wharton, BRB 2019 02
Beauty and the Beast by David Bintley, photo by Dasa Wharton, BRB 2019 02
Beauty and the Beast by David Bintley, photo by Dasa Wharton, BRB 2019 05
Beauty and the Beast by David Bintley, photo by Dasa Wharton, BRB 2019 05
Beauty and the Beast by David Bintley, photo by Dasa Wharton, BRB 2019 06
Beauty and the Beast by David Bintley, photo by Dasa Wharton, BRB 2019 06
Beauty and the Beast by David Bintley, photo by Dasa Wharton, BRB 2019 08
Beauty and the Beast by David Bintley, photo by Dasa Wharton, BRB 2019 08

January 2019

Beauty and the Beast

Choreography: David Bintley

Music: Glenn Buhr

Designs: Philip Prowse

Lighting: Mark Jonathan

Beauty and the Beast by David Bintley, photo by Dasa Wharton, BRB 2019 07
Beauty and the Beast by David Bintley, photo by Dasa Wharton, BRB 2019

Belle: Delia Mathews

The Beast: Tyrone Singleton

The Merchant, Belle’s father: Rory Mackay

Fière: Laura Purkiss

Vanité: Samara Downs

Belle’s sisters

Beauty and the Beast by David Bintley, photo by Dasa Wharton, BRB 2019 09
Beauty and the Beast by David Bintley, photo by Dasa Wharton, BRB 2019 09
Beauty and the Beast by David Bintley, photo by Dasa Wharton, BRB 2019 10
Beauty and the Beast by David Bintley, photo by Dasa Wharton, BRB 2019 10
Beauty and the Beast by David Bintley, photo by Dasa Wharton, BRB 2019 12
Beauty and the Beast by David Bintley, photo by Dasa Wharton, BRB 2019 12
Beauty and the Beast by David Bintley, photo by Dasa Wharton, BRB 2019 13
Beauty and the Beast by David Bintley, photo by Dasa Wharton, BRB 2019 13
Beauty and the Beast by David Bintley, photo by Dasa Wharton, BRB 2019 14
Beauty and the Beast by David Bintley, photo by Dasa Wharton, BRB 2019 14

Monsieur Cochon: James Barton

Wild Girl: Yaoqian Shang

Vixen: Beatrice Parma

Raven: Tzu-Chao Chou

Woodsman: Jonathan Payn

Bailiff: Lachlan Monaghan

Grandmère: Marion Tait

Hunters, Birds of the Air, Birds of the Forest, Court Beasts, Wedding Guests: Artists of Birmingham Royal Ballet

Beauty and the Beast by David Bintley, photo by Dasa Wharton, BRB 2019 15
Beauty and the Beast by David Bintley, photo by Dasa Wharton, BRB 2019

In 2011, Laura Thompson’s excellent review for The Telegraph started with a well-put point:

I recently watched a BBC interview with Peter Martins, director of New York City Ballet, in which it was suggested to him that ballet was elitist and dead. The charges were elegantly rebutted, but it was clear that this is now the default modern view. Ballet is “elitist” because it is about people excelling at extremely difficult things. It is “dead”, because its best stuff was produced years ago (not like novels and paintings, then).

I thought of this as I watched Beauty and the Beast, with an audience diverse enough to satisfy any BBC criteria, and united in delight at the shining complexities on stage. True, when ballet becomes a tired technical procession of Swan Lakes then it is a played-out form. But when – as with a company like Birmingham Royal Ballet – it is constantly reinfused with meaning and vitality, it can move and astound to a degree worthy of that other dead elitist, William Shakespeare.

Beauty and the Beast by David Bintley, photo by Dasa Wharton, BRB 2019 16
Beauty and the Beast by David Bintley, photo by Dasa Wharton, BRB 2019 16
Beauty and the Beast by David Bintley, photo by Dasa Wharton, BRB 2019 17
Beauty and the Beast by David Bintley, photo by Dasa Wharton, BRB 2019 17
Beauty and the Beast by David Bintley, photo by Dasa Wharton, BRB 2019 18
Beauty and the Beast by David Bintley, photo by Dasa Wharton, BRB 2019 18
Beauty and the Beast by David Bintley, photo by Dasa Wharton, BRB 2019 19
Beauty and the Beast by David Bintley, photo by Dasa Wharton, BRB 2019 19
Beauty and the Beast by David Bintley, photo by Dasa Wharton, BRB 2019 20
Beauty and the Beast by David Bintley, photo by Dasa Wharton, BRB 2019 20
Beauty and the Beast by David Bintley, photo by Dasa Wharton, BRB 2019 22
Beauty and the Beast by David Bintley, photo by Dasa Wharton, BRB 2019 22

David Bintley, who will soon hand over the reins of the company to Carlos Acosta, has choreographed ten full-length ballets since he became Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Director in 1995. Beauty and the Beast was created for the company in 2003.

Neil Norman for The Express wrote,

David Bintley’s ballet version, which first appeared in 2003, is a thing of monumental glory. Like his later Cinderella this is not afraid of the dark. There are no guarantees that it will end happily. From the opening prologue, which explains how the Beast came into being, the stage is bathed in dark coppery tones, vein-blood red and black. Philip Prowse’s sets tower over the performers, from burnished mirrors to golden doors, from forbidding forest to castle walls.

Beauty and the Beast by David Bintley, photo by Dasa Wharton, BRB 2019 21
Beauty and the Beast by David Bintley, photo by Dasa Wharton, BRB 2019

Graham Watts writing in 2014 said,

Mark Jonathan’s lighting contributed impressively to the shadowy gothic feel, with considerable use of pinpointed candlelight effects. Many people feel that current trends are for stage lighting that is just too dark but this is one of those rare occasions when it is called for and Jonathan maintained a good balance between lighting the things that had to be seen and keeping his overall gothic-inspired theme at a consistent level.

Beauty and the Beast by David Bintley, photo by Dasa Wharton, BRB 2019 26
Beauty and the Beast by David Bintley, photo by Dasa Wharton, BRB 2019 26
Beauty and the Beast by David Bintley, photo by Dasa Wharton, BRB 2019 27
Beauty and the Beast by David Bintley, photo by Dasa Wharton, BRB 2019 27

The score was especially composed for the piece, back in 2003, by Canadian composer Glenn Buhr. One can tell that there must have been a very close interaction between choreographer and composer, since the music is always cleverly descriptive of the action, in a linear – almost literal – sense. I could close my eyes and more or less know what action the music is describing on the stage, at any point during the piece; but, in the interval, I couldn’t close my eyes and remember the music from the glorious pas de deux I had just seen, and – for me, at least – that is the downside to the score. There are no memorable, or hummable melodies: it washes over you and then it’s gone.

The production is on tour until 30 March 2019.

Beauty and the Beast by David Bintley, photo by Dasa Wharton, BRB 2019 28
Beauty and the Beast by David Bintley, photo by Dasa Wharton, BRB 2019

Related

Filed Under: dance Tagged With: Birmingham Royal Ballet, Carlos Acosta, Dasa Wharton, David Bintley, New York City Ballet, Peter Martins

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Noellle Greenaway says

    4 February 2019 at 21:28

    well worth a trip to Birmingham (it only takes an hour from London).

    Reply

Post a comment... Cancel reply

Primary Sidebar

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy

Follow us

  • 16,863 Fans
  • 277k Followers
  • 17,330 Subscribers
  • 28,177 Followers
  • 2,085 Followers
  • 592 Subscribers
  • 878 Subscribers

SEARCH

Sign up to our newsletter

Gramilano news 2019

Categories

Referred-to-by

News

  • English National Ballet’s Emerging Dancer finalists 2019
  • Karen Kain’s 50th Anniversary at National Ballet of Canada
  • 8 Prix de Lausanne 2019 Prize Winners announced - Finale Photo Album
  • Prix de Lausanne 2019 - Finalists
  • Viviana Durante, Meow Meow and Laura Morera recreate MacMillan’s Seven Deadly Sins
  • Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake to be screened in cinemas 21 May
  • Jiří Bubeníček’s Carmen to debut at Rome Opera Ballet with Amar Ramasar as guest
  • Dancing Times, February edition - including Gramilano's Danza in Italia column with La Scala's new Nutcracker
  • Roberto Fascilla, former étoile at La Scala, dies at 82
  • Birmingham Royal Ballet announces its 2019/20 Season

Popular Dance Posts

  • Nikolay Tsiskaridze's first two years at the helm of the Vaganova
  • The Royal Ballet’s Steven McRae on injury: turning weakness into strength
  • Carla Fracci 79 (today) to Roberto Bolle 40
  • Tamara Karsavina compares Rudolf Nureyev and Vaslav Nijinsky
  • Francesca Hayward answers the Gramilano Questionnaire… Dancers’ Edition
  • Tamara Rojo and Isaac Hernández: “a possible conflict of interest”?
  • Thoughts on Marianela Núñez's life-affirming performance in Romeo and Juliet
  • Julio Bocca and his plans for the National Ballet of Uruguay
  • Vladimir Shklyarov answers the Gramilano Questionnaire… Dancers’ Edition
  • Marianela Nuñez celebrates 20 years with The Royal Ballet

Graham Spicer

Writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name 'Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like.

I was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. My scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times. I write the 'Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times.

You can find me on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Google+, or follow my Facebook page.



Copyright © 2019 · Gramilano · All rights reserved

about me · contact me · privacy and cookies