Sarah Lamb in Raven Girl © ROH/Johan Persson, 2013
A modern fairytale from Royal Ballet Resident Choreographer Wayne McGregor, in collaboration with award-winning writer Audrey Niffenegger and composer Gabriel Yared. This work is being performed as part of a mixed programme. More information can be found at the Royal Opera House website: roh.org.uk
Connectome / Raven Girl
A mixed programme of ballets inspired by science and fairytale, featuring works from two British choreographers closely associated with The Royal Ballet, Alastair Marriott and Wayne McGregor.
The Story
A Postman finds a young raven, fallen from its nest. They fall in love and in time have the Raven Girl. She longs to fly like her mother but has no wings. At university she meets a Doctor who lectures on chimeras. The Raven Girl approaches him and asks: Can he give her wings?
A Boy who loves the Raven Girl is horrified at her mutilation and pushes the Doctor out the window. Full of remorse, the Raven Girl drifts down to his dead body. Alone, she returns to the place her father found her mother. Here she meets the Raven Prince, who accepts her for who she is.
Background
The elegiac Raven Girl (2013) is Royal Ballet Resident Choreographer Wayne McGregor’s seventh work for the main stage at Covent Garden, and his most story-led yet. McGregor collaborated with visual artist and award-winning writer Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveller’s Wife, to create a fairytale ballet that looked back to classics such as Swan Lake but was told with a distinctly modern sensibility. McGregor explained, ‘I wanted a story that in some way connected with the ballet stories of the past… and that involves something surreal, something that delves into consciousness’. The result is a unique piece of visual theatre. Niffenegger’s accompanying novella with her aquatint illustrations is published by Jonathan Cape.
McGregor approached acclaimed film composer Gabriel Yared (The English Patient, The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Lives of Others) to create the original score. Yared produced a score for orchestra and electronics that McGregor describes as ‘very filmic but [which] gets right inside your body and really helps with the emotional territory of the work’. Ravi Deepres (Quartett) created the immersive video designs.
Dates are listed below, but check the site for ticket availability
Tuesday October 6 2015, 7:30pm
Thursday October 8 2015, 7:30pm
Saturday 10 October 2015, 1:00pm
Monday 12 October 2015, 7:30pm
Tuesday October 20 2015, 7:30pm
Thursday October 22 2015, 7:30pm
Saturday October 24 2015, 12:30pm