Royal Opera House: new ballet and opera streams

Wayne McGregor's The Dante Project is available from the Royal Opera House's streaming service from Monday 20 December at 19.30 GMT (20.30 CET).

The Guardian said:

For his new ballet, Wayne McGregor has enlisted some big hitters. Dante Alighieri for one, Italy's greatest poet, author of The Divine Comedy, which McGregor reimagines here, but living artists, too: composer Thomas Adès, writing his first score for dance, and artist Tacita Dean, creating her first designs for the stage. It's also the final principal role to be danced by Edward Watson, as Dante, after an extraordinary career.

Here's The Times:

It's a huge cast — more than 50 dancers — with some wonderful dancing. Sarah Lamb is beguiling and beautiful as the elusive Beatrice, while as Virgil, Dante's guide in the afterlife, the veteran Gary Avis gets to do some proper dancing. For Watson, compelling as always, these are his final performances after a remarkable 25-year career with the Royal Ballet.

The Dante Project will be available for one month and joins Phyllida Lloyd's production of Macbeth (available until 28 December) and Giselle (until 2 January) with Yasmine Naghdi in the title role, Principal Matthew Ball as Albrecht and Principal Marianela Nuñez as Myrtha.

Today, the Royal Opera House announced that a further five productions will be released on select dates from New Year's Eve, offering audiences across the globe a rich range of ballet and opera this New Year.

From Friday 31 December 2021, 14.00 GMT, audiences will be able to stream The Royal Ballet's The Sleeping Beauty, here performed by principals Marianela Nuñez and Vadim Muntagirov. Long considered the company's signature piece, the ballet was first presented at Covent Garden in 1946 after the post-war reopening of the Royal Opera House starring Margot Fonteyn and Robert Helpmann.

In the new year, from The Royal Opera, David McVicar's production of Gounod's Faust with Michael Fabiano as Faust, Erwin Schrott as the devil Méphistophélès and Irina Lungu as Marguerite, will be available from Friday 14 January 2022, 18.00 GMT.

On Thursday 20 January 2022, Verdi's Nabucco will be live-streamed direct from the ROH. The production sees Amartuvshin Enkhbat as Nabucco, Anna Netrebko as Abigaille, and Alexander Vinogradov as Zaccaria. The broadcast starts at 19.30 GMT.

Christopher Wheeldon's The Winter's Tale with Edward Watson, Lauren Cuthbertson, Sarah Lamb, Steven McRae, Federico Bonelli, and Zenaida Yanowsky will be available from 18.00 GMT on Friday 28 January 2022.

And finally, Marguerite and Armand – the ballet created in 1963 for Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn by The Royal Ballet's founding choreographer Frederick Ashton – will be available online from Friday 4 February 2022, 18.00 GMT with Zenaida Yanowsky and Roberto Bolle. 

This adds to further free content on BBC Channels: Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel on BBC Radio 3, Christmas Day, and Richard Jones's recent production of Puccini's La bohème on BBC Four, Sunday 26 December 2021.

All productions will be available to watch for 30 days. Each new title, barring Nabucco (at £16), costs £10.

Gramilano( Editor )

Graham Spicer is a 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”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.

His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.