Wayne McGregor, resident choreographer at the Royal Ballet, Covent Garden, London, makes the first of this season’s new works with music by Kaija Saariaho. This marks Saariaho’s Royal Opera House debut and the UK premiere of Notes on Light , written for cellist Anssi Karttunen, who is the soloist with the Royal Opera House Orchestra for all six performances. Designs are by the Japanese visual artist Tatsuo Miyajima, who creates beautiful, intricate installations featuring LED digital counters and darkness. Performances run from November 4-18. Book now at the Royal Opera House website.
Notes on Light also receives its world premiere in a new version for ensemble and strings in June 2010 with Musikfabrik in Cologne.
Genus , Joby Talbot and Deru’s electronic score commissioned by Wayne McGregor return to the Palais Garnier on November 7. Genus, a ballet for 24 dancers, was inspired by Charles Darwin's book On the Origin of Species which was published in 1859. McGregor went to visit Darwin's vast collection on display at London's Natural History Museum, and much of what he saw is shown on a film by Ravi Deepres projected on stage. Amongst a horde of objects that flash past one can recognise an eagle flying, a lion, and, pell-mell, an elderly naked man, someone running, a snake in a jar, and pages of writing with a drawing of ‘the tree of life’ taken from Darwin’s notebooks. McGregor's work is precise and fast-moving, containing an underlying gentleness and tenderness.
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