Blu-ray

Szymanowski: Król Roger (The Royal Opera)

Szymanowski: Król Roger (The Royal Opera)

Mariusz Kwiecień (Roger II); Saimir Pirgu (Shepherd); Georgia Jarman (Roxana); Kim Begley (Edrisi); Alan Ewing (Archbishop); Agnes Zwierko (Deaconess);

"... directed with flair, clarity and intelligence by Kasper Holten. Steffen Aarfing’s setting of a tiered arena dominated by a massive sculpted head is enormously impressive..." (The Daily Telegraph ★★★★★)

Talbot: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (The Royal Ballet)

Talbot: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (The Royal Ballet)

Lauren Cuthbertson (Alice); Sergei Polunin (Jack / The Knave of Hearts); Edward Watson (Lewis Carroll/ The White Rabbit); Zenaida Yanowsky (Mother / The Queen of Hearts); Steven Macrae (Mad Hatter);

"...an imaginative treatment of a favourite story. There are extraordinary, eccentric sets and special effects; colourful, larger-than-life, argumentative characters and extraordinary costumes." (Musicweb International)

Talbot: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (The Royal Ballet)

Talbot: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (The Royal Ballet)

Lauren Cuthbertson (Alice); Federico Bonelli (Jack/The Knave of Hearts); James Hay (Lewis Carroll/The White Rabbit); Laura Morera (Mother/The Queen of Hearts); Christopher Saunders (Father/The King of Hearts); Steven McRae (Magician/The Mad Hatter); Fernando Montano (Rajah/The Caterpillar); Gary Avis (The Duchess); Paul Kay (Vicar/The March Hare); Romany Pajdak (Verger/The Dormouse); Kristen McNally (The Cook); Tristan Dyer (Footman/Fish);

"The Royal Ballet's new season gets off to a phantasmagorical start - The Royal Ballet could hardly have chosen a more eye-popping or enjoyable production with which to launch its autumn season. And this is all the more gratifying given that the ballet in question is only six years old – a mere five in its current, three-act reincarnation. Cinematic but also unmistakably balletic, Joby Talbot’s complex, theme-driven score – coruscatingly orchestrated with the help of Christopher Austin – is full of magical surprises. Expertly aided and abetted by lighting guru Natasha Katz, designer Bob Crowley has had an absolute field day too, exploiting every means at his disposal – from puppetry to projection – to send us down the rabbit-hole with the heroine. Wheeldon, meanwhile, absolutely matches his collaborator’s contributions. This is a ballet that eloquently and respectfully reflects his Royal Ballet heritage (from its three-act structure, reliance on mime, and alternation of grand waltzes and intimate pas de deux, to its very Ashtonian reliance on largely cross-dressing comedy) while nevertheless feeling entirely 21st-century and absolutely its own thing. Together with dramaturge Nicholas Wright, he brings Alice even more to the fore than she is in the book, getting her involved in the action wherever possible, and delving deep into his choreographic box of tricks to bring each of the characters she encounters distinctively alive. Laura Morera (standing in for a sadly injured Zenaida Yanowksy) absolutely nails her twin roles as Alice’s mother and (supremely) the Queen of Hearts. Also deserving of plaudits are Fernando Montaño’s impossibly slinky Caterpillar, David Yudes’s spring-loaded Frog, and Gary Avis’s operatically OTT Duchess. But top marks go, above all, to Lauren Cuthbertson. As Alice, she avoids all the possible pitfalls of an adult playing a child, bringing pathos, wide-eyed innocence and matter-of-fact resourcefulness to the character, and never forgetting, amid all the elaborate stagecraft, to dance with great delicacy and impeccably classical precision. Wheeldon created the role on her, and it still feels like the part she was born to play." (The Daily Telegraph ★★★★)

Talbot: The Winter's Tale (Royal Opera House)

Talbot: The Winter's Tale (Royal Opera House)

Edward Watson (Leontes ); Sarah Lamb (Perdita ); Zenaida Yanowsky (Paulina); Steven McRae (Florizel ); Federico Bonelli (Polixenes); Lauren Cuthbertson (Hermione );

"Christopher Wheeldon’s new three-act version of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale is a triumph. " (The Telegraph)

Tan Dun: Marco Polo (De Nederlandse Opera)

Tan Dun: Marco Polo (De Nederlandse Opera)

Charles Workman (Polo); Sarah Castle (Marco); Stephen Richardson (Kublai Khan); Nancy Allen Lundy (Water); Zhang Jun (Shadow 1 / Rustichello / Li Po); Tania Kross (Shadow 2 / Sheherazada / Mahler / Queen);

"Tan Dun’s Marco Polo was, for me, a multi-dimensional experience which went beyond my expectations and indeed overwhelmed my senses...Here was an opera of our generation: a fusion of elements across time and space, a true testimony to the way our worlds have become intertwined in the globalisation process." (Bonjournal.com)

Tchaikovsky: Cherevichki (The Tsarina's Slippers) (The Royal Ballet)

Tchaikovsky: Cherevichki (The Tsarina's Slippers) (The Royal Ballet)

Larissa Diadkova (Solokha); Maxim Mikhailov (The Devil); Vladimir Matorin (Chub); John Upperton (Panas); Olga Guryakova (Oxana); Vsevolod Grivnov (Vakula);

"It’s pretty as a picture, no question - an animated pop-up book of naïve and colourful charm." (The Independent)