Conductor(s):
David Briskin

Orchestra(s):
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House

Artist(s):
Edward Watson; Lauren Cuthbertson; Sarah Lamb; Zenaida Yanowsky; Steven McRae; Federico Bonelli; Bennet Gartside; Joe Parker; Thomas Whitehead; Gary Avis; Valentino Zucchetti; Beatriz Stix-Brunell; Orchestra of the Royal Opera House; David Briskin

"Christopher Wheeldon’s new three-act version of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale is a triumph. It is contemporary and classical, traditional and modern, narrative and abstract. It feels like something entirely new.
It is this profound emotional trajectory that Wheeldon catches so brilliantly. He deals with the complexities of the story with great confidence – each moment is absolutely clear. But the reason that The Winter’s Tale makes such a superb ballet is that you can mainline the feeling; the great arc from abject despair to reconciliation is traced in movement that attains its own poetry.
In charting this poignant story, Wheeldon is much assisted by designs by Bob Crowley which bring wonderful, dense colour and fluid, powerful settings to every scene; the action switches from the dark Sicilian court to the wonder of Bohemia, with a great green tree hung with glitter, with fluent beauty.
But the most impressive quality of this Winter’s Tale is its freshness. It looks and feels different. It opens with almost expressionistic fervour, dives into tragedy, with Watson’s frightening Leontes towering over his wife and child like a contorted monster, and then swings back to joy, as the corps de ballet let their hair down in a great second act of celebration and dance." (The Daily Telegraph ★★★★★)

"It is to the credit of Christopher Wheeldon that his realisation of The Winter’s Tale as a three-act spectacle for the Royal Ballet is as well managed as it is. And in everything he is sustained by Joby Talbot’s vividly responsive score. The linchpin of the staging is Edward Watson’s portrayal of Leontes and his descent into a nightmare of jealousy and manic suspicions, which must give the narrative its momentum. Of course, Watson is superb, his body contorted by shapes entirely revelatory, his anger and his anguish in Wheeldon’s imagery profoundly disquieting, and ever inviting of understanding. It is a wholly real, masterly portrayal, and the austere embodiment of his lost conscience is admirably well taken by Zenaida Yanowsky’s grand, commanding Paulina.
Absolutely splendid are Bob Crowley’s designs throughout, giving Leontes’ realm a monumental grandeur (not unlike one of Gordon Craig’s massively austere settings), and producing the ultimate summertime fantasy, centred round a glorious tree, for Sicilia. His references to Caspar David Friedrich, his dazzling evocations of sea-storms and a shipwreck, are everywhere admirable, dramatically resonant, brilliantly done. The staging is a visual triumph, potent, evocative, eye-delighting." (The Financial Times ★★★★)

"Christopher Wheeldon's striking new version of this Shakespeare piece crams everything you could want from a ballet into a single evening — comedy, tragedy, romance, drama and some lovely dancing. What’s striking is the synthesis of dance, music and designs. Reuniting the team from his Alice in Wonderland, Wheeldon's eloquent storytelling is propelled by Joby Talbot's driving score, its rhythmic accents, perky tunes and underlying ominousness pointing us in all the right directions, while Bob Crowley's striking designs conjure up storms of the mind and the sea.

Steven McRae and Sarah Lamb lead the company in flurries of joyful movement in a buoyant Act II, as the plot turns into a hugely enjoyable caper. By the time they’re in a chase across the high seas, you’ll be hooked." (Evening Standard ★★★★)

"'A game-changer for Wheeldon' - Christopher Wheeldon rises to the challenge of translating Shakespeare into dance, creating one of most fully achieved story ballets to be staged at Covent Garden in years
Yet Christopher Wheeldon has turned these challenges into inspiration. Together with composer Joby Talbot and designer Bob Crowley (whose mix of video, light and set design vividly illuminates the story), Wheeldon has used this play to develop the most expressive and inventive dance language we've yet seen from him.
It's clear how much attention he has paid to Shakespeare's language. In the short prologue that mimes the backstory of Leontes and Polixenes's friendship, the image of the sea – constantly present as a metaphor for division and redemption – is beautifully evoked in the wave formations that sweep through the framing dance.
After the chill white marble of the Sicilian court and the angry claustrophobia of its music, the transition to the light- and colour-filled world of Bohemia is exhilarating. On a stage dominated by one magically illuminated, decorated tree, this act is pure dance, a seamless fusion of the folksy and the poetic, in which Sarah Lamb and Steven McRae are adorable pastoral lovers, and Valentino Zucchetti is the wittiest of shepherds." (The Guardian ★★★★)