The curtain has just come down on opening night of Christopher Wheeldon’s new work for The Royal Ballet. Below is a gallery of photos from yesterday’s dress rehearsal (1 June 2022).
A modern Mexican classic of magic realism provides the basis for The Royal Ballet’s new full-length work, Like Water For Chocolate, reuniting Artistic Associate Christopher Wheeldon with the creative team who transformed Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Winter’s Tale into dance: composer Joby Talbot and designer Bob Crowley.
Laura Esquivel’s captivating family saga has the central character’s emotions spill out through cooking to influence everyone around her in startling and dramatic ways. In this co-production with American Ballet Theatre, Mexican conductor Alondra de la Parra acts as musical consultant for Talbot’s newly commissioned score, with Wheeldon working closely with Esquivel to reshape her richly layered story as an entertaining and engrossing new ballet.
The opening cast features Francesca Hayward as Tita, Marcelino Sambé as Pedro, Laura Morera as Mama Elena, and Matthew Ball as Dr John Brown. Also in the photos below are Anna Rose O’Sullivan and Mayara Magri.
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.
