Opulent and intimate, this enchanting chamber piece combines dance, text and music in a fascinating exploration of the life and loves of Queen Elizabeth I. Choreographer Will Tuckett and playwright and librettist Alasdair Middleton co-direct this special performance, which brings together Royal Ballet Principals Zenaida Yanowsky and Carlos Acosta with actors Laura Caldow, Sonya Cullingford and Julia Righton in an atmospheric and nuanced tribute to the remarkable nature of this extraordinary woman. Martin Yates's original score recalls the structures and harmonies of Elizabethan music, in a modern reimagining of a typical Tudor period ensemble, deftly performed by world-renowned cellist Raphael Wallfisch and acclaimed baritone David Kempster.
Press Reviews"Yanowsky is perfectly cast as Elizabeth, her height and innate regality allowing her a natural authority on stage, and her long-limbed technique brings Tuckett's sensitive choreography to vivid life. Acosta has enormous fun switching doublets and facial hair for each of her admirers, while animating the steps with everything from grand passion to knockabout comedy as an Errol Flynn-like Robert Dudley, the puppyish Duc d Anjou and a terrific Walter Raleigh. Tuckett's ballet is a potent distillation of the monarch's life, bookended by her death in which Yanowsky's Elizabeth seems to reflect agonisingly on her romantic failures as much as the successes of her reign. A beautifully realised work in every respect and a fitting farewell for Acosta." (The Stage )
"Tuckett's choreography plays to the Cuban star's strengths with lots of swizzling pirouettes and big lifts and the multiple roles allow him to reprise his greatest hits: his frisky Basilio, his desperate Rudolf, his gormless Franz and even a dark hint of his Messenger in MacMillan's Song of the Earth when he duets with the dying monarch. He is well matched by Yanowsky, whose pale beauty conjures the iconic portraits and whose intelligent playing makes perfect sense of Elizabeth's apparent contradictions: lover, scholar, dancer, imperatrix." (The Financial Times )
CastCarlos Acosta (Dancer)
Zenaida Yanowsky (Dancer)
David Kempster (Baritone)
Raphael Wallfisch (Cello)
ProductionCompany: The Royal Ballet
Stage Director: Alasdair Middleton; Will Tuckett
Television Director: Ross MacGibbon
Choreographer: Will Tuckett
Disc InformationCatalogue Number: OA1214D
Date of Performance: 2015
Running Time: 93 minutes
Sound: LPCM & DTS 5.1
Aspect Ratio: 16:9 Anamorphic
Label: Opus Arte
Format : Classique, NTSC
Audio : Inconnu (PCM Surround), Anglais, Aucun
Sous-titres : Aucun
Région : Toutes les régions
Nombre de disques : 1
Studio : Opus Arte
Date de sortie du DVD : 2 octobre 2016
Durée : 93 minutes
