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Private Notes
Piano devotee Alexander Waugh investigates what it is about this instrument that has the power to turn seemingly sane, rational people into compulsive life-long piano junkies.
Graham Vick's radical production of Verdi's Othello for Birmingham Opera Company. Set in a former industrial plant, the action unfolds in and around the audience. Ronald Samm plays Othello - the first time a black tenor has sung the title role in a professional staging of the opera in the UK. Two hundred and fifty people from Birmingham perform as chorus, dancers and actors alongside the professional principals and orchestra in a production which deals head-on with issues of identity, race and fear.
Shakespeare's most popular and widely studied plays are unlocked by actors and directors at the Royal Shakespeare Company. In this episode key scenes from Macbeth are explored through performance, to unlock the meaning of language and development of character. Act 1 Scene 7: To Kill the King, Act 2 Scene 2: Post Murder, Act 5 Scene 1: Sleepwalking. With Jonathan Slinger as Macbeth and Aislín McGuckin as Lady Macbeth.
Shakespeare's most popular and widely studied plays are unlocked by actors and directors at the Royal Shakespeare Company. In this episode key scenes from A Midsummer Night's Dream are explored through performance, to unlock the meaning of language and development of character. The three worlds of the play, the Mechanicals, the Fairies and the Lovers are explored in Act 1 Scene 2 and Act 2 Scene 1.
Shakespeare's most popular and widely studied plays are unlocked by actors and directors at the Royal Shakespeare Company. Three key scenes from Julius Caesar are explored through performance, to unlock the meaning of the language and development of character. Act 1, Scene 2 - Cassius and Brutus discuss Caesar's growing power. Act 3, Scene 1 - Caesar's assassination. Act 3, Scene 2 - The Orations.
Kirsty Wark chairs a special one-off edition of the lively and provocative debate show. A panel of leading creative people answer questions from the audience about the challenges, opportunities, failings and future of the arts in the UK.
Award-winning Hinterland breathes new life into outstanding modernist ruin - In March, 2016, the decaying ruins of St Peter's Seminary, near Glasgow, were thrown open to the public. NVA, a company dedicated to public art, had intervened to mount Hinterland, a stunning light and sound event designed to reveal the full glory of the neglected modernist building. This was captured in a short film of the same name by cinematographer Julian Schwanitz, which also featured a haunting choral soundscape by composer Rory Boyle. The event was the winner of this year’s Judge’s Choice Award in the Sunday Herald Culture Awards. Some 8,000 people attended the original event, which also launched Scotland’s Festival of Architecture 2016. NVA have ambitious plans to restore the A-listed ruin, designed by Andy MacMillan and Isi Metzstein, and intend to bring it back into use as a national platform for public art.
This award-winning documentary film follows a remarkable group of teenagers from Leeds as they travel to Washington DC to compete in the most prestigious Poetry Slam competition in the world.
Some of the UK’s best spoken word artists present and discuss their work on ‘State of the Nation’ themes. They examine the importance of poetry and spoken word during uncertain times.
New Order's Blue Monday was released on 7 March 1983, and its cutting-edge electronic groove changed pop music forever. But what would it have sounded like if it had been made 50 years earlier? In a special film, using only instruments available in the 1930s - from the theremin and musical saw to the harmonium and prepared piano - the mysterious Orkestra Obsolete present this classic track as you've never heard it before.
Two hundred years after its premiere in Rome in 1816, Rossini's great comic opera The Barber of Seville took to the stage as part of the 2016 Glyndebourne Festival. The opera traces the efforts of clever Figaro to win his master, Count Almaviva, his chosen bride. But he meets his match in the crafty would-be bride Rosina, who is already plotting to escape her guardian Dr Bartolo.
The Winter's Tale: Shakespeare produced by Cheek by Jowl Cheek by Jowl livestreamed its critically acclaimed production of The Winter’s Tale from London's Barbican on Wednesday 19 April 2017, in association with The Space. It was available to watch via YouTube and BBC iPlayer for 30 days. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1zDSTYJg2dcLyPmD3rXpWch/the-winters-tale-shakespeare-produced-by-cheek-by-jowl
A short animation in tribute to Joe Orton to mark the 50th anniversary of his death.
Matthew Bourne's Cinderella is a thrilling, evocative and modern love story told in dance. Set in London during World War II, this interpretation of the classic fairy tale has a wartime romance at its heart. A chance meeting results in a magical night for Cinderella and her dashing young RAF pilot, together just long enough to fall in love before being parted by the horrors of the Blitz. It is one of the most popular and beloved shows from the acclaimed choreographer Matthew Bourne and his company New Adventures, which celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2017. Their vivid storytelling has never been more touching or heart-stopping, immersing the audience in the sights and sounds of London at war, all to the accompaniment of Sergei Prokofiev's magnificent score. With sumptuous costumes and sets by Lez Brotherston, who won an Olivier Award for his original designs, and lighting by Olivier Award-winning Neil Austin, Matthew Bourne's Cinderella features sound design by Paul Groothuis and a specially commissioned recording played by a 60-piece orchestra. Matthew Bourne's Cinderella is filmed in front of a live audience at London's Sadler's Wells Theatre.
The Olivier Award-winning Mischief Theatre Company return to the small screen with their take on Dickens's famous festive fable. Blacklisted by the BBC after ruining Peter Pan, the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society do not take their ban lying down and force themselves back on the BBC by hijacking the jewel of the Christmas schedule, a live production of A Christmas Carol, staged by a professional cast. As the Cornley gang try to make the show work on television, they soon realise they are completely out of their depth, with no idea how to direct a live studio or handle the special effects. Worse still, their internal rivalries are revealed on television, while an angry professional cast tries to get back into the studio.
Created by Crystal Pite and Jonathon Young, the award-winning Betroffenheit is a boundary-stretching hybrid of theatre and dance.
In a special project organised by Opera Holland Park, eight South London students go on a journey of discovery as they experience opera for the first time.
The Royal Ballet perform Tchaikovsky’s classic ballet, choreographed by Liam Scarlett and starring Marianela Núñez as Odette/Odile and Vadim Muntagirov as Prince Siegfried.
Janina Ramirez presents a screengrab of inspiring, thoughtful and beautiful stories from emerging and established film-makers and artists with their interpretations of life’s big topics. How do you know you’re in love? What does it mean to be British? Illustrator and performer Jessie Cave and visual artist Sarah Maple are just two of those who give their refreshing take on some of the urgent issues facing us today. Expect drama, comedy, music and some mayhem.
Poet Lemn Sissay presents a selection of short, vibrant films from a new generation of artists who are inspired by poetry and the spoken word. This is an opportunity to feel the rhyme and reason of today’s Britain as artists reflect what is important to them, from gender identity to first dates and from the labyrinth of the internet to early morning wake-up calls. As Sissay notes, ‘When you write a poem, part of the magic is that you never know where it’s going to take you.’ Here is a chance to meet emerging artists who aren’t afraid to say what’s on their minds.
Choreographer Akram Khan reimagines the classic story of love, betrayal and redemption in this award-winning version for English National Ballet.
Artists Daphne Todd and Lachlan Goudie lead the first ever live televised life drawing class, hosted by 2019 Celebrity Painting Challenge winner Josie d’Arby. Watch live and draw along at home as six amateur artists, including some famous faces, aim to capture a series of poses. Artist and teacher Diana Ali will also be providing insightful tips on tackling some tricky aspects of life drawing. A great opportunity for people with artistic skills, as well as those who think they have none, to pick up a pencil and draw.
Based on the true story of the death of Crown Prince Rudolf and his young mistress Mary Vetsera in 1889, Steven McRae and Sarah Lamb take on these challenging roles in a dark and intense ballet. Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria-Hungary is emotionally unstable and haunted by his obsession with death. He is forced to marry Princess Stephanie. Soon afterwards, his former lover, Marie Larisch, introduces him to a new mistress, Mary Vetsera, a young woman who shares his morbid fascination. At his hunting lodge in the village of Mayerling, Rudolf and Mary form a suicide pact. They make love before Rudolf first shoots Mary and then himself. The royal family desperately covers up the tragedy. Since its premiere in 1978, Mayerling has been one of the most technically and emotionally demanding roles for male dancers, with choreography that pushes the boundaries of classical ballet.
Wartime memories and experiences as seen through the cinematic eye of Harry Birrell. In 1928 and at the age of eleven, Harry Birrell was given his first cine camera. ‘The greatest toy a child could ever receive,’ he would say. His obsession with making movies would span the rest of his life, despite the onset of blindness. Narrated by Richard Madden.
Gripping documentary that goes on a nerve-tingling ride with one of the greatest film stars of all time. In 1970, Steve McQueen set out to make ‘the ultimate racing movie’. It would be called Le Mans. He would lose his marriage, close friendships and control of his film, and risk lives in the process. This is a story of obsession, betrayal and vindication, as a superstar risked everything in the pursuit of his dream.
Titian: Behind Closed Doors tells the story behind the artists' commission for Philip II of Spain, known as the poesie paintings, which had not been seen together for over 450 years and had been the subject of an exhibition at London's National Gallery before it was closed due to the Covid-19 outbreak. Cameras were recently granted access to bring this groundbreaking exhibition to the screens across Britain and beyond.
Celebrating the next generation of female filmmakers, these short films from BBC Introducing Arts are all made by women. Presented by Janina Ramirez, these talented, emerging artists use comedy, drama and dance to tell stories from a contemporary female perspective.
Plunge into exciting, strange and beautiful animated worlds with Radio 1 film critic Ali Plumb as he celebrates the new breed of animators whose short films include malicious toasters, cheeky Glaswegian pigeons, job-haunting ghosts and incredibly smelly fungi. Stylistically, the films include a beautiful pen and ink evocation of Manchester architecture, a super-real, digital recreation of the human body and all points between.
A performance capture of Revisor, the critically acclaimed dance-theatre production created by award-winning choreographer Crystal Pite and playwright Jonathon Young, based on Nikolai Gogol’s play The Government Inspector. Young and Pite revise an archetypal comic plot to serve as the basis for a production that blends contemporary theatre and dance. Revisor explores conflict, comedy and corruption in the potent relationship between language and the body. Revisor reunites the creators of the international theatre hit Betroffenheit (winner of the Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production 2017 and named Best Dance Show of the 21st century by The Guardian) with director Jeff Tudor, who won the Rose d’Or (Arts), Golden Prague Czech Crystal, and the Dance Screen and San Francisco Dance Film Festival awards for his capture of Betroffenheit for the BBC. Revisor was recorded during its run at Sadler’s Wells, London, in March 2020, just days before the production’s world tour was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Acclaimed dancer Carlos Acosta introduces a new generation of film makers who use b-boying, ballet and contemporary dance to tell their stories. Subjects range from dancing in a bingo hall, acid attacks, body image and wellbeing and the mystical world of baby eels. Each is a remarkable fusion of dance and film.
The legendary vampire's insatiable thirst for blood knows no bounds. Until he encounters Mina. Bram Stoker’s gothic romance is brought to life on stage in this gripping ballet, performed by the exceptional dancers of Northern Ballet to music by Schnittke, Rachmaninov, Pärt and Daugherty. Choreographed by David Nixon OBE and recorded at Leeds Playhouse on Halloween, 2019.
Anita Rani, Katie Derham and Antonio Pappano introduce highlights of the Royal Opera House’s first emotional performances after lockdown. The programme features a world premiere from choreographer Wayne MacGregor, classic opera arias and songs performed by Gerald Finley, Louise Alder, Toby Spence, David Butt Philip, Sarah Connolly and the Royal Opera House’s Jette Parker Young Artists as well as excerpts from ballets by Ashton, MacMillan and Wheeldon. Antonio Pappano is joined by musicians from the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House and the performances are filmed in line with social distancing rules against the backdrop of the beautiful Royal Opera House auditorium.
The Edinburgh Festivals may not be taking place as usual this August, but this programme of specially commissioned performances celebrates Edinburgh’s enduring festival spirit. Kirsty Wark and Su-a Lee present new work from the National Theatre of Scotland and Scottish Ballet; recordings with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Scottish Opera; and performances from writers, comics and musicians including Val McDermid, Daniel Sloss and Honeyblood. Alan Cumming, Fiona Shaw, Anna Meredith and Akram Khan also look back on some of their legendary performances.
In BAC Beatbox Academy’s hit show, six talented performers interpret Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein from their own perspective as young people growing up in 21st-century Britain. Two hundred years after the 18-year-old Mary Shelley wrote the text, these young artists explore how modern monsters are created in today’s society. This musical film is part performance, part documentary, with the cast’s voices as the only instruments. Bringing their own interpretation of the Frankenstein story to life with a dazzling array of vocal talents including rap, beatboxing and song, the cast create a breathtaking musical soundscape filled with memorable original tracks. Originally devised for the stage, the live show Frankenstein: How to Make a Monster was a huge hit at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Danielle de Niese presents Mozart's choral masterpiece, performed specially for a lockdown television audience by the chorus and orchestra of the English National Opera and a stellar line-up of soloists - Elizabeth Llewellyn, Dame Sarah Connolly, Ed Lyon and Gerald Finley. On stage at the Coliseum in London, Mark Wigglesworth conducts the emotionally charged Requiem - unfinished at the time of the composer's death - in what promises to be a poignant moment of remembrance, reflection and ultimately hope at a time of national crisis.
The worlds of theatre, film, comedy, and music collide as Comic Relief presents a brand-new 'stay-at-home' adaptation of the pantomime Cinderella. The timeless classic, rewritten by the award-winning Dawson Brothers and produced by Richard Curtis, sees a host of A-list stars take on some of the most iconic roles in panto. The stellar cast includes Olivia Colman as the Fairy Godmother, Guz Khan as Buttons, Helena Bonham Carter as Devilia, Tom Hollander as Baron Hardup, and real-life sister and brother Daisy May and Charlie Cooper as the Evil Stepsisters. This virtual script-read guarantees big laughs whilst also raising money to fight loneliness, hunger, and cold at home and abroad, both during Christmas and beyond.
At the famous Royal Opera House stage, Antonio Pappano conducts a stellar cast of singers in favourite arias, duets and choruses from operas by Rossini, Donizetti and Puccini, along with the thrilling finale of Bizet's Carmen. Italian baritone Vito Priante offers haircuts as the Barber of Seville. Lisette Oropesa dazzles with her flawless soprano coloratura before being joined by American tenor Charles Castronovo for some heartwarming comedy in Donizetti's The Elixir of Love. Mezzo Aigul Akhmetshina starts as Cinderella celebrating her good fortune and then magically transforms into femme fatale Carmen for the tragic finale of Bizet's great opera. The drama increases with Kristine Opolais singing the role of doomed diva Tosca, with Canadian baritone Gerald Finley joining her for the searing Te Deum from Puccini's masterpiece. The chorus and orchestra of the Royal Opera House are arrayed throughout the stalls to maintain social distancing. The concert, recorded in September, is introduced by Katie Derham.
Paul McCartney's barnstorming 2018 performance at Liverpool's Cavern Club — around 250 people crammed into the sweaty venue to hear the 28-song set featuring classics he performed when the Beatles started in the early 1960s, plus songs from his then-new solo album, Egypt Station.
Matthew Bourne's triumphant adaptation of the legendary film has won two Olivier Awards and dazzled audiences across the UK and the USA. This production is a recording of the stage performance made at Sadler's Wells. Ashley Shaw, Adam Cooper and Dominic North head the cast, while the score incorporates the music of golden-age Hollywood composer Bernard Herrmann, played by the New Adventures Orchestra.
Recording of the acclaimed 2020 production of Chekhov's play at London's Harold Pinter Theatre. It was filmed for streaming under lockdown conditions after being cancelled due to Covid-19. Toby Jones plays the title role of the manager of a remote rural estate where the simple, ordered existence is disrupted by the arrival of an aged academic and his younger wife. As he becomes desperately infatuated with her, she, in turn, is drawn to a local doctor consumed by his demons — with Richard Armitage and Roger Allam.
The stars of the Royal Ballet perform a feast of ballet favourites, including Francesca Hayward in Romeo and Juliet and Natalia Osipova as The Dying Swan.
Cameras follow acclaimed composer and musician Max Richter and his creative partner, artist and film-maker Yulia Mahr, as they navigate an ambitious performance of his eight-hour opus Sleep at an open-air concert in Los Angeles
Recorded at the London Palladium and hosted by Sheridan Smith, this joyous celebration of musical theatre is packed with showstoppers from the West End’s biggest productions, performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra and guests including Elaine Paige, Michael Ball, Amanda Holden, Nicole Scherzinger, Josh Groban and Lea Salonga. Idina Menzel and Elaine Paige reveal the Top 10 songs from musicals, as voted for by BBC Radio 2 listeners, and there’s even a special performance from Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s next big show, Cinderella.
Coventry's streets are transformed into a giant stage as it finally gets to celebrate the start of a Covid-delayed year as UK City of Culture 2021.
Benjamin Britten’s opera The Turn of the Screw, a chilling tale of a young governess at a country house, where ghostly encounters find her in a battle to save her wards from evil.
Joe Lycett invites you to take part in the biggest ever live art class with celebrity artists and nude models recreating poses from famous works of art. Grab a pencil and paper, and join in.
Performance artist Selina Thompson recreates her award-winning dramatic monologue about a journey she made by cargo ship to retrace the triangular route of the transatlantic slave trade. Poetic and deeply personal, Salt is part testimony, part performance and part excavation of collective memory through archive and music. Throughout the film, Thompson explores her painfully difficult but ultimately redemptive exploration of the Atlantic triangle, and in doing so, takes us on a cathartic pilgrimage through grief, race and identity. Darkly comic in places but also intensely sad, Salt is Thompson’s deeply human response to being both British and a descendant of a people enslaved by the British. Central to Salt is Thompson’s physical performance of her monologue. She plays a character, known simply as The Woman, who pounds great rocks of salt, tells profound stories and makes wry observations. The Woman allows Thompson’s particular journey and personal experience to hold a greater resonance, representing the afterlife of slavery and colonialism. The salt the Woman breaks down into manageable pieces embodies that shared experience – the labour of negotiating racism, the tears, the sweat, the healing. The salt is also of the sea, itself a character in the piece that plays witness to the atrocities of the Middle Passage. Complementing Thompson’s performance is a revealing, unflinchingly honest and at times humorous interview conducted by Afua Hirsch. Thompson describes her journey, reflecting on the feelings and thoughts that defined her experience at the time, as well as her meditations now, five years after the original journey. She is an exceptional storyteller and her candidness, vivid powers of description and facility with language give Salt a raw and powerful intimacy. Recalled in distinct chapters, Thompson’s journey takes her by sea from Belgium to Ghana, on to Jamaica and finally back across the Atlantic to Europe. She set out on this extraordinary journey
Poverty and passion collide in Puccini’s operatic masterpiece, La bohème, performed at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
Filmed live at the Barbican in London, this major new production of the classic musical comedy features an all-star cast led by renowned Broadway actress Sutton Foster.
Petroc Trelawny presents highlights from the finals of the 2021 Leeds International Piano Competition. Five outstanding young pianists, from around the globe, must each perform a concerto to win 'The Leeds' gold medal, one of the world’s most coveted music prizes.
Antony Sher stars as Falstaff in the RSC's 2014 production of Shakespeare’s history play, directed by the company’s artistic director, Gregory Doran.
Journey through the afterlife in Wayne McGregor’s ballet The Dante Project from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
A new Royal Shakespeare Company production for 2022 of one of Shakespeare's best-loved romantic comedies, filmed in Stratford-upon-Avon. In a colourful world where anything feels possible, two very different couples fall in love. With dastardly plots, hilarious slapstick and some of Shakespeare’s wittiest dialogue, Roy Alexander Weise directs this classic tale of matchmaking and manipulation.
A searing psychological film of Poulenc’s one-act opera, based on the iconic play by Cocteau. Starring Danielle de Niese, directed by James Kent with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House.
One of the finest of Gilbert and Sullivan’s operas in a sumptuous production by Scottish Opera. Sunny, funny and with more 'tra-la-las' per square inch than any other opera in the canon, The Gondoliers is a joy from start to finish. This witty satire is jam-packed with unforgettable star roles, musical highlights and dancing, including numbers such as Take a Pair of Sparkling Eyes, Regular Royal Queen and the Cachucha. The Gondoliers is a charming poke at the appeals and pitfalls of rulership, privilege and cronyism. Two happy-go-lucky Venetian gondoliers, Marco and Giuseppe, discover that one of them is, in fact, heir to the throne of a distant kingdom. True to their (adopted) republican roots, they set off together to rule in idealistic if somewhat chaotic style. Marco and Giuseppe have just chosen their brides, Gianetta and Tessa, when their lives are thrown into turmoil by the arrival of the grand inquisitor, Don Alhambra, who informs them that one of them has acquired the throne
Oscar Wilde is confined in Reading Gaol. His younger self appears, and the two men wrestle with the humiliation of Wilde's fall from celebrity to convict because he loved a man.
Created to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the consecration of Coventry Cathedral, Ghosts in the Ruin is a performance work that features original choral music, projections of archive imagery and poetry by local writers. The piece takes audiences on a physical journey between the new cathedral and the ruins of the original site, retelling the history of the space and exploring themes of reconciliation and sanctuary that characterise the city. This is the film of the site-specific performance, commissioned by Coventry Cathedral and the Coventry City of Culture Trust, and created by Ivor Novello Lifetime Achievement recipient Nitin Sawhney CBE with the people of Coventry. Ghosts in the Ruins received its world premiere on 27 January 2022 in Coventry Cathedral.
TS Eliot Into 'The Waste Land' marks the centenary of one of the defining poems of the 20th century, The Waste Land. TS Eliot's groundbreaking work first exploded into the world on 15 October 1922 and has continued to resonate with successive generations. For decades, Eliot actively discouraged biographical interpretations of his work, developing an ‘impersonal theory’ of poetry in which the private life of a poet was deemed irrelevant. Instead, numerous scholars have been guided by Eliot's own seven pages of footnotes to the poem. But in 2020, there were dramatic new revelations that demonstrated how, behind Eliot's mask, there was a much more personal story to be found within The Waste Land – which can now at last be explored.
The Halle and Sir Mark Elder's vibrant and bold new take on Stravinsky’s dark masterpiece of music theatre about a soldier who trades his soul to the devil.
Ralph Fiennes’s exquisite performance of TS Eliot's poetic masterpiece Four Quartets is translated from stage to screen by director Sophie Fiennes.
Mark Gatiss stars as Jacob Marley in his own theatrical retelling of Dickens’s classic winter ghost story, with Nicholas Farrell as Scrooge. Directed for the stage by Adam Penford, this powerful tale of life, love, loss and redemption is as relevant today as when it was first published in 1843. Filled with Dickensian, spine-tingling special effects, prepare to be frightened and delighted in equal measure as you enter the supernatural Victorian world of A Christmas Carol. It’s a cold Christmas Eve and mean-spirited miser Ebenezer Scrooge has an unexpected visit from the spirit of his former business partner Jacob Marley. Bound in chains as punishment for a lifetime of greed, the unearthly figure explains it isn’t too late for Scrooge to change his miserly ways in order to escape the same fate, but first he’ll have to face three more eerie encounters…
A modern fairy tale mixing enchanting animation and live-action dance in a modern take on the much-loved ballet.
With family-sized helpings of Matthew Bourne’s trademark wit, pathos and magical fantasy, Nutcracker! follows Clara’s bittersweet journey from a darkly comic Christmas Eve at Dr Dross’s Orphanage through a shimmering, ice-skating winter wonderland to the scrumptious candy kingdom of Sweetieland, influenced by the lavish Hollywood musicals of the 1930s. Tchaikovsky’s glorious score and Anthony Ward’s newly refreshed delectable sets and costumes combine with Bourne’s dazzling choreography to create a fresh and charmingly irreverent interpretation of the classic.
Recorded in front of a full house at Sheffield’s City Hall, this one-hour special sees Jason share his rollercoaster journey of recent times with his pin-sharp observational humour. Together with absurd moments from lockdown, his early days on the comedy circuit, why men aren’t as clever as women think they are, and how we can all seemingly remember every word to those holy school assembly ‘bangers’, Jason’s hugely entertaining show brings the house down.
Shakespeare’s comedy of mistaken identity and the madness of love finds new life in this production from London’s Globe Theatre. Illyria is a society in limbo, held captive by loss until a sea-drenched stranger arrives and unexpectedly unleashes the chaotic and transformative power of love. Wild, surprising, fierce and funny, this 2021 production of Shakespeare’s comedy is directed by Globe associate artistic director Sean Holmes and is infused with mesmeric nostalgia and soulful music from the world of Americana.
Birmingham Royal Ballet perform Don Quixote in a production by Carlos Acosta. Based on Spain’s most famous novel, the classic ballet follows Don Quixote’s extraordinary adventures as he helps young lovers Kitri and Basilio find happiness. Filmed at the Birmingham Hippodrome, Don Quixote features some of ballet’s most iconic and virtuosic dance moments. Starring Momoko Hirata as Kitri, Mathias Dingman as Basilio and Tom Rogers as Don Quixote.
Molière’s classic Tartuffe is updated to the West Midlands in this comedy about a conman, filmed at Birmingham Rep. A wickedly funny Brummie story about faith, family and faking it.
The exotic musical sound-world of 17th-century London is brought vividly to life by one of the world's most dynamic and virtuosic performing groups - Bjarte Eike and Barokksolistene - plus a cameo appearance by celebrated soprano Mary Bevan. Beauty, improvisation, melancholy, bawdiness - Purcell, Playford and their European contemporaries bang heads with ballads, ditties, elegies, sea-shanties and folk song. Along with a variety of classical stringed instruments, their own arrangements delight us in a joyful mix of vocals, percussion, harmonium, guitar, charango and storytelling. Filmed on location in one of London's oldest taverns, The George Inn, Southwark.
Yaël Farber directs James McArdle as Macbeth and Saoirse Ronan as Lady Macbeth in the Almeida’s Olivier Award-nominated production about a couple’s spine-chilling quest for power.
English National Opera’s sparkling new production of the much-loved Gilbert and Sullivan classic, set in the Tower of London.
As part of the BBC’s Bernstein night, acclaimed conductor Marin Alsop shares her own experiences of the legendary West Side Story composer. It was as a nine-year-old girl that Marin first saw Bernstein, and from that moment, she knew she wanted to be a conductor. Here, she talks about eventually becoming a student of Bernstein’s, why he is such a significant figure in the world of music and how he ultimately helped inspire her to achieve her dreams.
Welsh superstar and mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins OBE returns home to Wales to celebrate Christmas in a special one-off concert recorded at the Swansea Arena. She is joined on stage by special guest artists: singer-songwriter Jack Savoretti, American pianist Chloe Flower, who combines classical music with hip-hop and pop styles, and MasterChef operatic tenor Wynne Evans.
Live (almost) from London’s iconic Palladium theatre, the nation’s favourite comedy star, Dawn French is about to reveal (almost) all the most excruciating gaffes and howlers she’s made across her forty-year career as a comedian and actress. Dawn likes a laugh, and she likes it best of all when the laugh is on her.
Experience sci-fi film The Matrix as a mind-expanding live show with a team of top creatives behind the controls. This is a journey into the classic movie through dance and immersive design, presented across Aviva Studios' ultra-flexible spaces. Tapping into the collective energy of the moment, Free Your Mind depicts a world where humans are enslaved by algorithms, asking if we can break free and if we even want to.
Rambert’s thrilling stage adaptation The Redemption of Thomas Shelby, written by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, with direction and choreography by Rambert’s artistic director Benoit Swan Pouffer.
Visually rich dance from an award-winning director and choreographer inspired by the works and process of artist Jackson Pollock and the abstract expressionists. Filmed live at Sadler's Wells in London, Russell Maliphant paints his own interpretation with movement, light and shadow to create a poetic journey, with the exceptional dancers of Russell Maliphant Dance Company. Creative collaborators include Ryan Stafford (lighting design), Katya Richardson (music) and Stevie Stewart (costume design). Filmed by producer and director Martin Collins.
Filmed live at London's Harold Pinter Theatre by the National Theatre during its sell-out run at the West End, GOOD reimagines CP Taylor's exploration of a 'good' man's descent into Nazism, with intimate staging and a small cast led by Tennant as German professor John Halder.
